“The integrity of the subject should be maintained.”

THE GOLDEN RULE

“This is our Golden Rule which you should always refer back to if you are unsure on any particular process. Another way to look at this would be to say that: A viewer familiar with the landscape and photographic process should not feel deceived if they were shown the original scene and raw file.”

[Author’s Note:  A raw file is digital negative, somewhat equivalent to an exposed frame on a strip of analog film. The raw file often seems flat and uninteresting, and in some cases needs extensive revision.]

Our heading comes from an invitation to join a contest entitled “Natural Landscape Photography Awards.” Its organizers want to keep submissions free from deceptive techniques common today in landscape photos, things like juxtaposing a stormy sky with a calm foreground, each scene captured on a different day or in separate locations entirely. Nowadays one can stretch masses in a natural scene, enlarging a mountain range for instance to make it appear close to the viewer of the photograph, when in reality it lay in the far distance. Some alterations to raw files seem unusually popular. For example we routinely see rays of sunlight, mists, rainbows present where none actually existed at the moment of the camera’s shutter release.

Most of my photos fit the natural requirements of the awards contest. I do not indulge in misleading composites, erroneous skies or fake vapors, however on occasion I will dissolve out-of-focus elements in botanical scenes (warping and smoothing the background to taste), and in this fashion make liquid transitions to a sharply focused main subject. I sometimes alter the distribution of tones in an image as in the example above, changing light zones to dark and vice versa for emphasis and drama. This photograph might fit into one slot among the several categories of the competition — Intimate and Abstract — the description of which reads: “This may show a subject in a new way, illustrate an unusual relationship between subjects, create mystery or transform the original subject into something unexpected.” I believe I have captured a secret world with strange relationships including an element of surprise.

This again brings up the question of what constitutes the subject of a photograph or other work of art. Sometimes the answer comes easily, other times not. Have I violated the Golden Rule in producing my Stylized Agave Form? Have I defiled the integrity of the subject? Below you may view the original scene, my starting point — a file straight out of an infrared camera — and judge for yourself.

I made the following moves to create the final image: monochrome conversion, cropping, sharpening, various contrast enhancements, tonal inversion, dodging and burning, bokeh-smoothing and warping, framing and captioning. The central exciting form of the agave plant enlivened by side-lighting, adorned with mystical patterns of light and dark, make the motif. The surface scars and peripheral elements are just that: superficial, not the most relevant parts of the composition. I believe these can be changed without compromising the integrity of the subject, leaving the contest’s Golden Rule unbroken and the viewer not deceived.