Children without hearing (deaf) work on their art projects at The National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, Laos.

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved - Follow Me On Twitter

Remember when you were a kid and your teacher came to your desk to ask you what colors you wanted to use for your finger painting? When you became a bit older, you might have tried your hand at watercolor or used color crayons or pencils. Whatever the case, when it came to your own creativity, the sky was the limit.

TODAY’S WONDERFUL WORLD Of PHOTOGRAPHY

Flash forward to today’s world. Digital photography has become part of pop culture and many photographers use editing gear. In fact, point #10 in a Photoshelter blog post regarding stock photography states flatly, “The image that came straight out of your camera is probably not good enough to be sold.”

The photography tutorial goes on to say, “Today, it means Photoshop. That doesn’t mean you need to manipulate the image beyond the point of recognition….but if the image is perceived as being professional, the price will be received as being reasonable.”

The great stock photographers are mindful of this sage advice and sell tons of stock but news photographers and documentary photojournalists also have to do “what works.”

RESPONSIBILITIES OF PHOTOJOURNALISM

That brings us to a subject that has been the focus of much discussion and Dan Heller has written 2675 words on the issue of digital photo manipulation on his website in an article titled Digital Manipulation: Responsibilities of Photojournalism.

By now some people are probably aware of the Klavs Bo Christensen incident. In January 2009 Mr. Christensen was asked to deliver his RAW files from imagery he captured in Haiti for closer inspection by three judges who were assembled to select the winners of the “Picture of The Year” contest in Denmark.

Did Klavs Bo Christensen manipulate his RAW files “beyond the point of recognition?” Apparently people judging a photography competition in Europe thought so, for he was disqualified.

CONFUSED?

This debate is probably a bit confusing to photographers, especially when viewing other award winning photos. For instance, photographer Alice Smeets, a 21-year-old from Belgium, took the top prize with her photo of a young Haitian girl in the 2008 UNICEF “Photo of the Year” contest.

While I like the winning photo, its gradation somehow echoes Klavs Bo Christensen’s Haitian palette. Smeets wins an international photo contest and Klavs Bo Christensen “sits and feels sorry for himself” after being labeled by some as what amounts to being a “cheater”.

Did I manipulate the photograph of the boy above beyond the point of recognition? Of course not. He sees a red sun and clouds of blue and who am I to tell him otherwise? I’m just happy I’m not a photo contest judge.