- My apology to Mr. Shakespeare...
To clone, or not to clone: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The dust and scratches of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Photoshop against a sea of troubles,
And by cloning end them? To edit: to crop;
No more; and by a mouse-click might we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That traditional photography is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
[IMG]<a href=[/IMG]http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3133273</a>”>
Or is it not to be wished??? I have lately been scanning a collection of 5x7 inch glass plate
negatives from the 1910-1913 era. The cloning tool in my photo-editing program does a
great job of spotting and retouching the damaged portions of the plates, but how much is
too much??? When does it cease to be "cleaning up a print", and become "digitally
enhanced" ?
With the cloning tool I can clean someone's shirt, paint a house, polish shoes, clean horse
manure off the streets, comb a stray curl of hair, or remove a wedding band. I can use the
cropping tool for what I feel is the best compositions, but shouldn't I scan full-plate as the
original photographer intended?
Not earth shattering questions and I don"t really need an answer, just thoughts that have
crossed my mind while spending hours working with the scans.
Bookmarks