I just finished watching a sneak peek demo from the creators of Photoshop for their upcoming CS5 version where they introduced a new tool called "content-aware fill." This tool shortcuts the slow process of deleting information from a photo, be it a tree awkwardly positioned, a person who doesn't look right, or a piece of garbage on the ground. By just clicking on the offending item and then the "content-aware fill" tool they disappear completely.
Why it's just like what they used to do in the old Soviet Union when people were erased from the images of their own history!
Now we all know you've been able to do similar things with Photoshop since it came out, but you at least had to have some level of skill to really work it. This new tool makes it possible for anyone and everyone to remake the world in their own perfect image.
As for me, I don't know how anyone is going to be able to trust any photograph at all anymore. I know I won't be able to tell that this has been done to a photograph. So what's going to stop our history from being completely rewritten, with photos to prove it!
Maybe I'm kidding myself to think there has every really been reality to begin with. But when I saw this demo, all I could think about was what was going to be taken out of the world, and how we'll all be the poorer for it.
I'd love to know what you think. Write and tell me.
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This strikes me as a very bizarre objection. On the one hand you acknowledge that photographic "fakery" have been around for the entire history of photography, and yet you object to it being made easier. I'm curious where you draw the line between adding/removing something to suit your artistic vision of a photograph and where you can't utilize technology (obviously, we're not talking about photojournalism here, which has it's own strict guidelines about editing which will not be loosened with this new technology).
ReplyDeleteThe "reality" of an image is compromised the moment you select a lens. If you crop out someone in a photo in-camera, how is that significantly different that cloning them out in Photoshop? How about using a long-exposure to make the person disappear? Is that also cheating?
The leap to Soviet propaganda (which smacks of Godwin's Law) seems a bit ludicrous in this context. After all, your objection (as my reading of the next paragraph goes) isn't that it SHOULDN'T be done at all, but rather than you should only be able to do it when you "have some level of skill to really work it". Why is it okay for a professional photographer to doctor their images but it's not okay for Suzie Homemaker?