I've been Experimenting!

And I would like to start off by saying that I have no use for AI or CGI images. I dont consider them photography. I dont even care for tools in the digital process that produce a particular "filter effect". I understand that digital, even from a scanned frame of silver based film means manipulating pixels, not how light falls on a photo sensitive medium, as in the "old days". I am 73 and started my "real" photography journey sometime in my early teens. By the age of 15 I had my own darkroom, developed my own film, and printed it. There were all kinds of ways I learned to "manipulate" both film and the final print. I didnt even condider digital until 2001or 2.

I feel the "manipulations" I make to digital images, at least the ones I have been presenting as photographs here, in prints, and on my Flickr page are only those that I could accomplish in a traditional silver darkroom. Without a doubt they are MUCH easier! I'm not sure if its as rewarding but I know digital has improved the quality of my photographs.  There is one Big Exception, dust spots! which I clone out, those of you familar with silver based remember the time consuming process of spotting! They are not happy memories for me.

What I have discovered and am persuing in addition to my photography is something I have seen referred to as Painterly Digital. I dont use, as the basis of my efforts tools like watercolor, sketch, etc. And definitely dont use AI with typed or spoken commands to ADD a setting sun or accomplish anything else.

I do take tools like sharpen, noise, blur, color hue etc and use them in combinations, orders, and strengths they are not really intended for. I even sometimes even "paint" digitally on an image, using different brush sizes, intensitys, and colors. That gives me the results you see here. I am learning how to produce these consistently and have found that different digital captures translate to better? images!

It ALL still starts with Seeing and the Light!

 

Left Click to enlarge!