Experiment with Photo Distortion

I really could not say for sure why I decided to distort the whole QingMing photo collection. It really is a shift for me, for usually, I am a pretty standard issue, depict real life, photojournalistic type of photographer. Usually, I just want to document what is going on, telling the story that is already in front of me.

The first photo, if I remember correctly, that I distorted was “Say What”. Something about the colors and subject matter just jumped out at me when I shot it, and I wanted it to jump out at others, too. Really, though, all the original photos from that day had some strange coloring already. I still cannot quite figure out what was going on. I am guessing it was just the bright sunlight. One thing is for sure: mountainside graveyards at midday are not the best lighting situations.


Once I got going with the photo editing though, I really could not stop. I was having a blast using software to lay on an additional layer of meaning and artistry to these photos. And, given the subject matter, the extreme use or lack of color gave me a great tool to speak more through the photo than I would otherwise have been able to.

It was really one, big experiment. Since I bought my D100 in December 2003, I have shot only JPG, that is, up until the last few months. I started shooting RAW, and I will tell you what, I will never go back! For any shot that matters, I would not even think of shooting anything but RAW. That is just my take on it, but I will have to save my RAW tirade for later. The experiment with these photos was in an effort to learn more about the capabilities of my RAW editing software, UFRaw…again, a topic for later.

It led me into a whole new world of photo editing. I felt more like I was back in a darkroom again, but today’s tools are so much easier to apply than the physical world tools of yesteryear. Still, though, I will mainly stick with a photojournalistic style, but now have more experience with the tools at my disposal.

Cooper Strange Written by: