Assignment Four: Real or Fake.
The task I gave myself was to produce an attractive picture for an article promoting Deal as a tourist destination.
Middle Street is the centre of the conservation area and much loved by residence and tourists alike, so that seemed like a good start.
The first image is as taken. I took it at 1/3 stop under so as to save some sky colour and prevent clipping on the lighter buildings. It was, as you can see, rubbish collection day and the street is full of purple bin bags and one door has a wheelie bin parked in front of it. Another problem was my reflection which appears in the window on the right.
Had this been a real photo assignment I would have called a day and returned when the street was tidier but I wanted to see how far I could take this image.
This image is quite clearly unacceptable. The first change was to increase the exposure and check the white balance. The next was to increase black, brightness and saturation. I also cropped it slightly to take away some the dark mass of the building on the right.
The first alterations to the truth of the image were to remove my reflection, the bin bags and wheelie bin and air brush away the yellow no waiting lines. I can easily justify the removal of the bin and bags as they are not permanent features of the street. My reflection is also a temporary aberration that can removed with changing the honesty of the image. The yellow lines however are part of modern life and their exclusion is a lie. The street looks better without them but is it telling a lie to remove them. Were I to be using such a picture in a tourist guide I would remove the yellow lines.
Having gone this far what else can be done to give Middle Street an air of an earlier period? What I did was to remove all the obvious signs of change. Away went the one tv aerial, off went the modern chimney pots, and down came any outside wiring. Now this is becoming a lie as these are real features in this street. This I would say is reaching the unacceptable edge of what is true.
My next move puts a bit of truth back into the altered image as it clearly does not show Middle Street as it is today but attempts to show it as it may have looked at an earlier time. I did this by adding a sepia tone and a little grain, giving it the feel of an Edwardian photograph. This last alteration gives the other changes a purpose and the final image some authenticity. It does not claim to be an early picture but does give a reasonable impression of what Middle Street may have looked like.
