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Source: http://www.doksinet Raghunath Thota rt14j@my.fsuedu Digital Photography Digital photography is a form of art which is more accessible to a majority when compared to other forms of art like music, dancing etc. Though photographers are considered as artists by many and are admired, there is some negativity to it as well. Some people consider analog photography as fine art and digital photography as just a hobby. Even the analog photography had negativity when it was introduced initially and the common argument against it was "Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.” In my view, the main reason to why the digital photography is not being considered as form of fine art, or more accurately, not given equal importance with respect to other form of fine arts is because of its availability. Since there is an abundance of the resources available online regarding the digital photography, and spectacular photographs can be produced just by following

these procedures, the value of photography as an art form is reduced. With the majority of smartphones today, the number of images produced are much more when compared to the days of analog photography. In some instances the average smartphone user happen to click a really good picture by chance and the question now is “Is this a form of art too?”. The answer though depends on what you consider and a form of art and creative process that is used to produce that form of art. And since there is an abundance of works produced daily, it is difficult to measure the amount of creative thought and hard work put into a digital photograph. Another reason of the confusion on accepting digital photography as a fine art is the availability of image processing softwares like Photoshop. Some people who consider themselves as photographers do not put much thought into the process of taking a photograph and are under the impression that they can make the photograph look better by altering it

digitally. But this is major reason behind the lack of value for digital photography. Some people tend to follow the same process in making a photograph look better and this is just similar to a program following an algorithm and does not include any creative process in it. But some people tend to create excellent digital art from scratch using these tools and in creating such art from the scratch, the creative process is much similar to painting a masterpiece. But again, the availability of such works of art reduces its value. In my opinion this resonates with the saying “If everyone is special then no one is!”. I think that Computer creativity is inevitably dependent on the creativity of the person creating it. So the merit of art forms created using the Photoshop are not necessarily the merit of the software itself Source: http://www.doksinet but it actually goes to the creator. This is similar to the fact that the merit of piano composition goes to the composer and not to

the piano. One of the common features I find in digital photography which are comparable to the art forms like dance and music is the availability of immediate feedback. Since the output of the work is immediately available and the number of attempts at achieving perfection is one contribution towards inclusion of digital photography as a form of fine art. If a performer makes a mistake, it cannot be retracted and the performance can be made better only by improving the rest of the performance. This leaves a mark on the otherwise excellent performance. But this is not the case in digital photography. Analog photography gains advantage over its digital counterpart in this aspect. This being said, the art of digital photography can still be considered as form of fine art given there is creative process involved behind producing a specific artwork. The relevance of the artwork generated is one of the major factors that decides its value. Some digital photographs, or photography in common,

tend to deliver a valuable message to the viewer where as some are just beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. Repeatability is another factor which affects the value of a digital photograph. If a photographer produces photographs which are consistently beautiful, there is some creative process going on behind it. Even though there is a difficulty in the evaluation process of digital photography, I think that a majority of digital artworks are on par with other art forms like painting and dancing. Photography skill can be learnt from various sources but when it comes to the part where the photographers actually perform an artwork, only a few succeed in producing photographs that can be accepted as a work of art. Overall, I believe that “Digital photography is a form of fine art” which is still in the process of being recognized. References: • Digital Photography is Not Fine Art: https://www.epsoncom/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/ Pro/CompanyBlogs/Story/PhotoNotFineArt.do?UseCookie=yes •

Photoshop Illustrations: https://www.smashingmagazinecom/2009/11/100photoshop-illustrations-by-artists-around-the-world/ • Greenfield, Gary R. "Art by computer program== programmer creativity” Digital Creativity 1701 (2006): 25-35. • Fine Art Photography: http://www.keptlightcom/fine-art-photography/