 |
| This sketch was done of a cave painting in Spain, ca 11,000 BC. |
 |
| This is the original cave painting that was sketched above. |
 |
| Black and white rendition of the above cave painting. |
 |
| This boomerang dates to the 1820's and was found by a researcher for National Geographic. |
So, please tell us what you feel about these images above. Here are a few of the questions that guided our analysis: What do you think of the colors, the source, the quality? Any other observations? Does the sketch bring anything additional to the photo? Do you enjoy the black and white or color photo more? What emotions do these photos give you? Do you see any potential bias in the photos? How do you feel about the cropping?
GOTCHA!
The images above were actually taken, edited, and displayed by members of this blog. Did we fool you?The originals follow:
As we looked back on all of our blog posts we realized we had a common theme: photos can be edited, be it changing color tones to black and white or sepia, staging, using sketches, juxtaposition, and cropping. It took us maybe 15 minutes to edit these photos and these simple changes completely changed your perception of them. Many believe that photos represent truth, when in reality editing is a huge part of that truth.
Sorry for fooling you but it does bring to light that just because a photo is a snapshot of history does not mean that it is necessarily an accurate one.
Warning: This blog looks fairly cynical as a whole. The emphasis evolved into one surrounding how photos can be changed and altered and the negatives of those actions. However we do not want everyone to no longer believe photos ever or think all editing it bad. Taking out red eye is very different from enlarging bones to make them seem like they came from a giant in most peoples eyes. We only want the public to be aware it is a possibility. Photos can be a great form of media to learn from, viewers just need to be vigilant and aware that they are not FACT.
What we're saying here is, photographs play an important role for archaeology, but it is important for the public to realize that photographs are easily manipulated. Photographs do play an important role in sparking interest in archaeology, and giving the public something to engage in. However, it is important for the public to have a critical eye when looking at photos.
ReplyDeleteSorry we fooled you guys! We've definitely learned a lot about analyzing photographs and making sure we're critical about everything we see. But as the warning says, don't be too critical about everything! Although all photos have bias, it isn't alway malicious.
ReplyDelete