This picture I took of a barn in Bavaria taken this summer prompted me to think about perspective, type of lens used, and the general effect of cropping. I edit every picture I take, some more, some less. I have long moved beyond the question of the ethics concerning the extent of the modification of a photograph. To me, it is -at least for the scope of my photographs- a non-issue. The picture I am posting is one that was generated in my head, and the camera is simply a tool that I use for translation. There is street photography that captures a story in a split second, and it might require no post processing, but in general everything else needs post processing, and Photoshop has simply replaced the tedious dodging and burning in the darkroom. I feel that the ethics of magazine cover photography, my profession of painting conservation, and the field of plastic surgery are closely related, and merit a separate post.
Anyway, take the following photograph of the same barn: Of course it is the exact same photograph, I simply cropped a couple of inches off the sky. Doesn't the barn feel flattened, compressed at first? I think that our brain is possibly playing a trick on us, as we are conditioned to read the 'cinematic' format as compressed. Just like our brain reads a bright, full moon close to the horizon as particularly large at times, even though it never is is any larger than when it is higher up in the sky.