Photoshop Wizadry

I have to say that I found it interesting how frequently photographs have been doctored in recent years, and even before the digital photo era. In the (semi-)unwritten rules of the internet it’s frequently stated that any picture found is likely photoshoped or staged.

Staged from the Beginning

As we see in he article Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?, photographers and photo-journalists have been doctoring and staging photographs since well before the digital age. I have read, in high school history classes (cannot find the books), of pictures being staged in World War 1. The photographers would move this body here, this one there, put this helmet on that guy, find that body a gun. I find it very interesting that some one would do that, but, they claim, it was in the name of raising morale on the home front. This leads us to the article Photography as a Weapon It could easily be said that this form of staging photographs is being used as a weapon, a weapon to destroy the public’s pre-conceived notions. They say that a war is won on the home front, and in a way, it is. If the people stop paying taxes, stop building technologies, stop supporting, the supply train fails and so does the fighting force. If the other country puts out propaganda, as we explore in this article, and people know it’s faked, it still can hold power.

Other than the fact that shooting fireballs from his hands this photoshop magic is pretty convincing.

Be it for fun or for photo-journalism, it seems as though the notion and practice of editing reality shall continue.

MËTÄL!!

In Jon Undell’s video about the Metal Umlaut Wikipedia article, as seen here, he shows the change of a Wikipedia article over time and highlights some areas. I find it more interesting that he chose this article to go through mainly because of the current lack of usage of the umlaut in Metal naming. In current naming conventions in the Metal scene it is considered the umlaut cheesy or stupid. Where it is used, it’s usually used ironically such as with the semi-fictional bands Dëthkløk and Spın̈al Tap. Here they used it to make fun of the over usage in Death Metal and Glam Metal, respectively. Very interesting video, and while I do love metal, I feel that it may have been misunderstood by Mr. Undell.

~~ Colin

P.S. I just noticed that I was on GMT for some reason, so, while it is now fixed, all my posts are 5 hours off.

Digital Past!

I’ve essentially grown up on the internet. I spend my time on the internet when most people spend it watching television or playing sports. I thought it was interesting to learn that the French Cyclades was a major influence in the make up of the modern internet’s basic infra-structure. I personally had never heard of Cyclades or the NPL and hadn’t realized that they had such impact on the modern internet. Through Cyclades computer scientists learned how to better deal with network traffic.

Historical Topics I’m interested in:

  • Music Production in America
  • Radio in America
  • Computing in America

~~ Colin