Moving Mountains - my images aren't photos - call them Digital Art?

Moving Mountains

I post images to a couple of Facebook groups - a comment was made in one of them that got me thinking - I don't think I'm a photographer?..

A poster said: I'm fed-up looking at Photoshopped photos, only post unedited images here

There are a couple of schools of thought about this sort of thing..
- Some people believe that a photograph captures a moment in time
- Others see photography as a means to create art and those that create images this way are digital artists who's work has as much merit as that created by traditional artists who my use paint and brushes

Therefore I must call myself a photographer / digital artist - sounds a bit pretentious, but as many of my images bear only a passing resemblance to the original photos they are based on.

Consider the two photographs below:


Drumcliffe Church - which stands in front of the mountain called Benbulben


Benbulben - photographed from the churchyard at Drumcliffe

The original photos are pretty ordinary and dull.
At the very least they need some editing to sharpen brighten and straighten the walls of the church - but why stop there?
(some notes are provided at the end of this blog outlining the steps taken to make the finished image)



This finished image of the church at Drumcliffe with Benbulben looming behind it looks a lot better than the originals from which it was created - and though not an accurate representation of what can be seen from the viewpoint directly in front of the church, it does reflect what can be seen when visiting the church if you care to look around a bit.
It is stretching the truth rather than telling an outright lie..

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John Carver

Carver Photography
www.carverphotography.com - my shop gallery - take a look!
facebook.com/carverphoto - Lots of images here - my main social media platform..
twitter.com/carverpho - I don't use Twitter properly - I just post images..
Instagram: @carverphoto - I post images here and that's it..


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Notes
To create the montage above:
(This is not a tutorial - just a rough howto guide)
1. Open the unedited image of the church in Adobe Photoshop (The Gimp will do just as well - and is free!)
2. Create a duplicate layer of the church.
3. With the duplicate layer highlighted, select a colour range and use the eyedropper tool to select the sky visible between the trees - adjust the sensitivity so the sky is completely selected, but the church is not.
4. Select cut to remove the sky - then hide to original layer to see the result.
5. Import the image of Benbulben as a new layer and drag it below the church in the layers control pad.
6. If it looks OK - use the lasso tool to highlight the parts of the trees around the church that aren't required and cut them away.
7. Adjust the brightness, exposure and contrast on both working layers until it all looks good.
8. Use the perspective tool to straighten the church walls.
9. Tidy up the trees and any other bits that annoy - use the clone tools or copy and paste elements and drag them around to suit.
10. Flatten and save the image with a new name.