Tuesday 18 October 2011

Why do photos look better than real life?

Our memories can never truly recreate the moment our eyes send images to our brain. We can't accurately remember colours, smells, cold/heat and all the other sensory inputs that create our experiences that ultimately become our memories. So we rely on our pictures. However our pictures in themselves are pale imitations of what we actually saw unless we have the ability to tweak them closer to the reality that our eyes captured.
Great pictures are to a certain extent accurate pictures in that they've been manipulated to match what our eyes really saw but what our brains do not have the ability to recreate. I admit that I manipulate 99% of my published work, as do all professional photographers - IMO there's nothing wrong with that since we're merely trying to replicate the true image in terms of colours, saturation, detail and vibrance that we saw.

6 comments:

  1. How true. My memories are sometimes almost grey.

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  2. Thanks akh. Memories can't be relied on.

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  3. Photography can often be a lie. But what a good lie it is. The scene we are often capturing does not have to accurately represent the subject matter. Surely our aim is to create art and to do so means putting something of ourselves into the image. My memories of a location/subject matter are not represented through my imagery. I'm represented, regardless of the subject matter - whether that be a rock or a spastic squirrel!

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  4. Thankyou for your comment Neil. I fully understand what you say and I agree with you. Do we really put something of ourselves into our photographs or do our photographs put something of themselves into us?.

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  5. Interesting point there Snipps. I'd say the former. However we learn from photographs, no doubt and that then shapes the next shoot.

    I guess we're in a place separate from those who merely record events (birthdays, xmas etc.) How often was a child screaming on their Birthday just before the parent said 'smile' and clicked the shutter. The child wasn't particularly happy at that precise moment but the record of the event shows that they were indeed smiling. In future years the memory of that particular Birthday may be false. Was the child happy? The photograph documents a 'smile' therefore they must have been?

    Nice post, it maker-me-think.

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  6. Thanks once again Neil but your post was better than mine.

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