Photoshop
Photoshop Has Ruined My Generation
04/29/09 10:48 AM Filed in: Technology
I feel bad for
photographers that truly capture something beautiful
and unique these days. I feel bad for stunt men who
can really jump from a third story building and
barrel roll themselves to safety. Those sidewalk
chalk artists. That guy who got his truck stuck in a
tree. The creators of the sweet architecture over in
Europe. I feel bad for everyone involved in those
happenings and creations.
Whenever something spectacular is captured on camera, or a particularly dangerous feat is done by a stuntman, the inclination of everyone in our culture is to shout out, “That’s Photoshop!” or “That’s CG!” Granted, when you’re watching Lord of the Rings and Gandalf is having his Battle of the Wits with the fiery creature, chances are that’s probably not real ... In fact, I believe he was talking to a tennis ball when they shot that. Regardless, for situations where the actor actually does his own stunts sans strings, harnesses, or special effects of any kind, I feel bad, like in any Tony Jaw movie. Nobody will believe that they are actually capable of something so amazing. And, come on, for some people that’s the talents that God has gifted them with, and we refuse to even recognize them!
Here’s another thing I’ve found interesting. Photoshop has become a verb, much like Google. Many people neglect to realize that Photoshop is an actual program made by Adobe, not a style of graphic design. I continually hear people saying, “That’s okay, we’ll just Photoshop it out later,” meaning they’ll trim the picture, or adjust the lighting, or maybe use some other photo editing application (i.e. Fireworks, Gimp) to edit something in or out of a picture. “Photoshopping” is just a catch-all term for editing a picture these days.
Here’s another thing people don’t quite realize. Almost every picture you’ve ever seen has been Photoshopped. Sorry to burst your bubble. They’re all airbrushed, manipulated, corrected in some way. Anything in a magazine, anything on a menu, anything on a website, anything on a billboard, any desktop background you have. The issue is, when you see something truly beautiful and you try to capture it digitally, you almost never can. The artist will then go back and manipulate the image using Photoshop or a program like Photoshop to make all the prettiest colors and shadows stand out just the way they wanted them to or remembered them doing when they saw the scene with their eyes.
So when somebody looks at the chalk art on the sidewalks and exclaims, “That’s Photoshopped!” they’re probably right. But not in the way they think. The content of the picture is 100%, but the vivacity had to be added in digitally.
It’s gotten a lot worse as of late now. It seems that even natural phenomenon, fractured light, and optical illusions that truly exist but are hard for your mind to concentrate on are all written off as Photoshopped. There’s no way anything like that could ever really exist in the world, right? It’s a shame, because situations like that where we’re skeptical even begin to diminish the genuine uniqueness of God’s creation and the masterpieces he’s designed for us that are supposed to baffle us.
Still not convinced? Just go to YouTube and watch any video of something spectacular. Scroll down and read the comments. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The guys that did pull ups off a crane without a harness. An fighter jet breaking the sound barrier (not to mention the dispute over what kind of fighter jet that is). This kid doing an awesome job of playing the Hotel California solo. Or this kid’s completely amazing guitar solo that I think he wrote! My generation is just so horribly skeptical, it’s ridiculous.
Now, when I’m watching a movie, I’ll analyze it to death and determine something must be CG just as much as the next guy. I’m not saying it isn’t, because especially in todays digital movies, it probably is. I just think it’s disappointing the extent at which we write off almost everything we see these days as fake. There are truly amazing sculptures and scenes in this world, and even things that don’t relate to art and the visuals, and it seems that Photoshop has ruined my generation by making us skeptical of almost everything we see. It disappoints me. I prefer to give everything the benefit of the doubt.
Whenever something spectacular is captured on camera, or a particularly dangerous feat is done by a stuntman, the inclination of everyone in our culture is to shout out, “That’s Photoshop!” or “That’s CG!” Granted, when you’re watching Lord of the Rings and Gandalf is having his Battle of the Wits with the fiery creature, chances are that’s probably not real ... In fact, I believe he was talking to a tennis ball when they shot that. Regardless, for situations where the actor actually does his own stunts sans strings, harnesses, or special effects of any kind, I feel bad, like in any Tony Jaw movie. Nobody will believe that they are actually capable of something so amazing. And, come on, for some people that’s the talents that God has gifted them with, and we refuse to even recognize them!
Here’s another thing I’ve found interesting. Photoshop has become a verb, much like Google. Many people neglect to realize that Photoshop is an actual program made by Adobe, not a style of graphic design. I continually hear people saying, “That’s okay, we’ll just Photoshop it out later,” meaning they’ll trim the picture, or adjust the lighting, or maybe use some other photo editing application (i.e. Fireworks, Gimp) to edit something in or out of a picture. “Photoshopping” is just a catch-all term for editing a picture these days.
Here’s another thing people don’t quite realize. Almost every picture you’ve ever seen has been Photoshopped. Sorry to burst your bubble. They’re all airbrushed, manipulated, corrected in some way. Anything in a magazine, anything on a menu, anything on a website, anything on a billboard, any desktop background you have. The issue is, when you see something truly beautiful and you try to capture it digitally, you almost never can. The artist will then go back and manipulate the image using Photoshop or a program like Photoshop to make all the prettiest colors and shadows stand out just the way they wanted them to or remembered them doing when they saw the scene with their eyes.
So when somebody looks at the chalk art on the sidewalks and exclaims, “That’s Photoshopped!” they’re probably right. But not in the way they think. The content of the picture is 100%, but the vivacity had to be added in digitally.
It’s gotten a lot worse as of late now. It seems that even natural phenomenon, fractured light, and optical illusions that truly exist but are hard for your mind to concentrate on are all written off as Photoshopped. There’s no way anything like that could ever really exist in the world, right? It’s a shame, because situations like that where we’re skeptical even begin to diminish the genuine uniqueness of God’s creation and the masterpieces he’s designed for us that are supposed to baffle us.
Still not convinced? Just go to YouTube and watch any video of something spectacular. Scroll down and read the comments. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The guys that did pull ups off a crane without a harness. An fighter jet breaking the sound barrier (not to mention the dispute over what kind of fighter jet that is). This kid doing an awesome job of playing the Hotel California solo. Or this kid’s completely amazing guitar solo that I think he wrote! My generation is just so horribly skeptical, it’s ridiculous.
Now, when I’m watching a movie, I’ll analyze it to death and determine something must be CG just as much as the next guy. I’m not saying it isn’t, because especially in todays digital movies, it probably is. I just think it’s disappointing the extent at which we write off almost everything we see these days as fake. There are truly amazing sculptures and scenes in this world, and even things that don’t relate to art and the visuals, and it seems that Photoshop has ruined my generation by making us skeptical of almost everything we see. It disappoints me. I prefer to give everything the benefit of the doubt.
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