manipulation
Photographic manipulation is any change or adjustment made to the photographic image through altering the exposure, development, printing processes, or final image. Manipulation in the camera is achieved through multiple exposures, using specific types of lenses that distort perception, filters attached to the lens, and special films. Multiple exposures are images taken on the same piece of photographic film, and can be of two completely different photographic scenes or of the same subject captured in more than one way. Wide angle, tele-photo, and photomicrography (extreme image magnifications) alter the perception of the image from what the human eye is capable of viewing without such optical tools. Filters can alter how light is projected onto the film in the camera. Manipulation through the use of films sensitive to other energies outside of the visible spectrum, such as infrared film, create images based on heat and can be combined with filters for further effects. High-contrast film produces images that have extreme texture and graininess, which further manipulates the photographic image.
The photographer, through framing, cropping, and the use of specific vantage points to define the photographic image, also controls manipulation in the camera. Cropping, which defines the edges of a photographic print, can alter how an image is perceived by changing basic spatial clues within the pictorial space. Framing alters how an image is perceived as well. Using a low or high viewpoint will flatten an image and change how depth is shown in the pictorial space. The same manipulations that occur in a camera and with lenses can also be created in the darkroom. Changing the lens and the lens housing in the enlarger creates effects such as vignetting and distortions in perspective.
Darkroom manipulations occur through deliberate changes in the film developing process to controls such as time and temperature and with the introduction of specific types of chemicals. Reticulation is achieved through extreme temperature fluctuations during film development. This can range from small cracks in the film emulsion to warping of the entire image surface of the film. Intensification and reduction, techniques used on previously processed negatives, allow for areas of the negative to be re-altered chemically. Intensification increases the density of shadow areas on a negative, and reducing agents can be applied to specific parts of the emulsion to remove silver from the image. The Sabattier effect, often incorrectly called solarization, exposes the film or the photographic print to light midway through the development process and creates a reversal of tones in the image and a Mackie line (a thin black line) between the dark and light areas in the image. Cross-processing of color films (processing negative film in E-6 chemistry and positive film in C-41 chemistry) will skew the color, tonal, and contrast range of the film. Retouching with chemicals such as Red Cocaine or spotting dye can further alter film, and the emulsion can be scratched or etched from the film's surface with a variety of tools.
The darkroom process allows manipulations to occur during printing such as burning (adding time or intensity to a specific area to increase density), dodging (removing time or intensity from a specific area to decrease density), flashing (applying an intense burst of light to the image), diffusing the light projected through the enlarger with filters or other materials, and masking areas of the print with various types of filters or acetate. Contrast filters, placed in the enlarger and used with variable contrast black-and-white printing paper, can manipulate the contrast range. High-contrast printing is done through a process known as posterization, which reduces the continuous-tone image to a range of only a few tones. Multiple negatives may be produced for each tone, and printed together on the same sheet of paper. Specific films and graded paper will also produce effects that manipulate the normal tonal range of an image. Manipulation of the negative in the enlarger, such as sandwiching more than one image, will combine all involved negatives into one composite image. This can also be done through multiple printing, which projects individual negatives onto one sheet of paper. Photograms eliminate the negative altogether, and are created by placing objects on top of a sheet of photographic paper much like a contact print. Negative prints use the paper print of an image as the negative and produce a reversal of the tones. The digital darkroom of programs such as Adobe Photoshop allows traditional darkroom manipulations on the computer screen and further increases the ease of compositing multiple images and changing color and tonal variations, and may mimic special darkroom effects such as reticulation and posterization.
Toning and non-silver processes alter the basic chemical and color of a printed image. Toning can add a specific colorcast or alter the intensification of the tonal range. Non-silver processes such as platinum, palladium, gum bichromate, cyanotype, and hybrids of the photographic and silkscreen mediums further manipulate the photographic image. Spotting (retouching the print to eliminate dust and scratches), bleaching (lightening or eliminating part of a photographic print), and hand-coloring photographs are manipulative techniques that occur after the darkroom process.
The uses of manipulation in photography occur for aesthetic and commercial purposes. Fine-art prints created from many negatives mimicked the traditional narrative paintings of neoclassical artists, and manipulation in the darkroom was a characteristic of photographers such as Man Ray and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who used photograms and the Sabattier effect extensively in their work. Multiple exposures in the camera were a staple of Harry Callahan's images during his time in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, and Jerry Uelsmann's multiple printing techniques incorporate up to 20 enlargers and image fragments into one composite work. Digital manipulations are also utilized in contemporary fine art pieces. Commercial photography, such as fashion and product advertisements, utilizes high-contrast images, cross-processing of color films, and retouching through computerized and traditional darkroom techniques to produce a flawless final image. Photojournalism is one area of photography where manipulation is rare because of ethical reasons, and journalistic integrity forbids modifications of images published as factual documents.
Jennifer Headley
See also: Callahan, Harry; Cropping; Dada; Darkroom; Digital Photography; Dodging; Ethics and Photography; Film: High-Contrast; Film: Infrared; Filters; Hand Coloring and Hand Toning; Image Construction; Infrared Photography; Lens; Man Ray; Masking; Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo; Multiple Exposures and Printing; Non-Silver Processes; Photogram; Sandwiched Negatives; Solarization; Uelsmann, Jerry
Further Reading
Adams, Ansel and Robert Baker. The Ansel Adams Photography Series 1: The Camera. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Adams, Ansel and Robert Baker. The Ansel Adams Photography Series 2: The Negative. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981. Adams, Ansel and Robert Baker. The Ansel Adams Photography Series 3: The Print. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1983. Brugioni, Dino A. Photo Fakery: The History and Techniques of Photographic Deception and Manipulation. Dulles, VA: Brassey's, 1999. Gassan, Arnold. Handbook for Contemporary Photography.
Rochester, NY: Light Impressions Corporation, 1977. Stone, Jim. Darkroom Dynamics: A Guide to Creative Darkroom Techniques. Newton, MA: Focal Press, 1985. Vestal, David. The Craft of Photography. New York: Dorset Press/Marboro Books: 1978.
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