CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Photo Manipulation Photographer Reveals Images Before and After Editing

mymodernmet.com: Photographer Lilia Alvarado captures the whimsical and carefree moments of childhood. Her passion for photography began after the birth of her twin daughters, Annabella and Juliette, who are often the subjects of her stunning fine art portraits. However, when Alvarado recently posted a photo she was proud of on Instagram, she was surprised to receive comments that questioned if it was over-edited.

3 comments:

Joe Borsch said...

Personally I find these accusations against Alvarado quite troubling. As someone who has been interested in photography from a young age, and has been interested in the art of conveying a story through imagery, I believe that post processing is a necessary part of telling that story. In fact, it molds and shapes the story that photographer is trying to convey. In one of the examples in this article, the photographer has two little girls standing under a tree with an umbrella without it raining. After using Photoshop, she was able to create rain and make it seem as if the girls were standing in a rainstorm. I do not really understand why people are causing commotion over this; clients expect post production from photo sessions and Alvarado did an excellent job bringing out definition and contrast in these works. Yes, they are Photoshoped. But why not explore one's artistic side and tell a story using modern technology? And why not be proud of someones ability to use a piece of software to transform an image in a way that can enhance beauty and redefine a story?

KBallay said...

I have always loved photography and have actually done some darkroom photography. And even in the darkroom photos are edit and changed. Alvarado’s original and edited photos are beautiful and captivating. I think that especially today people should understand that almost every photo they see has been edited in some way. But this is not new the fact is that photographers have been editing since photographs were invented. I think that sometimes photoshopping can go too far, but that's mostly with models being photoshopped to be unrealistic, but these photos are about story and composition. Photography is evolving with technology, and I will not deny that the original and final photos are different, but that does not mean that they should be labeled computer graphics. And if people took the time to read what Alvarado says about her photos, it's clear that she edits her photos to create a story about real life. I hope that she continues to show original and edit photos and challenging peoples conceptions about photoshoped and edit photos.

Maggie V Helfst said...

I defend Alvarado. Having previously worked in a dark room I can vouch for the fact that there is even editing in some of the oldest ways of photography. These images are absolutely stunning and just by enhancing the qualities that are already in her shots does not make this photographers images unworthy. The one thing in her photography that does not get overly edited is the faces of these children. If anything I can see the controversy of the backgrounds in some of these images completely changing but as for the children themselves the only changes made is a color correction. Color correction is not bad thing, depending on when and where you are doing a photo shoot you may not get the shots you want in terms of lighting and in order to fix that a photographer might be in RAW and know that they will make the images look more closely to what the human eye sees rather than what the camera is registering on that day. Alvarado’s images are captivating and I hope she continues to edit these images how she would like. You can see her talent not only in the finished edit but the original images as well.