Darkening of journalistic photography

[Alex Benjamin]

or just a completely intentional choice to darken the images for ideological reasons.

Yup. Possibly photographer's choice. Nothing to "fix". Live and let live.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Honestly, Alan, this is just Grumpy Old Men stuff. Photo may be too dark according to your standards, maybe perfectly exposed according to theirs. That you don't like it the way it is is fine. That you question their craftmanship and professionalism from a single photo whose exposure you happen not to like is a bit over the top.

I didn't question the photographer's skill. I defended her. I took the trouble to actually research her work and provided links to it. It showed she knows how to properly expose photographs and present them online accordingly. See my earlier post #25 copied below. I have no idea why the OP posted one of hers that is so dark, but it doesn't seem to be representative of her work. She's a very skilled and accomplished photographer.

Here's the photographer's portfolio for photojournalism. Her shots seem normal. Why not contact her and ask her why the publication messed up? Her phone number and email address are on her website.

faith ninivaggi

As seen in https://faithninivaggiphotography.com

faithninivaggiphotography.com

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

... and detail on the highlights is gone. It doesn`t matter as detail on highlights isn`t important, but the original picture was set for not loosing detail on highlights - maybe it just was some sort of auto-setting failure?

I deliberately left some of the details on the girl's shirt, the brightest part of the picture. But not all. A simple 5 second levels edit. With ten more seconds, one could have left all the details and still had a brighter picture elsewhere.

 

[Don_ih]

I have no idea why the OP posted one of hers that is so dark, but it doesn't seem to be representative of her work.

The photo isn't really representative, in either exposure or composition. But it is published by a news agency and widespread. And a number of other similar photos for similar news stories are also dark in that way. From yesterday:

looks like the photo is probably from the same batch as the one in the original post.

I said earlier that her photos seem darker going back to the election but I think it was only one example and not really dark in the same way these other ones are.

that's darkish but the exposure looks correct.

I think @warden was not really picking on that photographer specifically but on a more general trend toward less-bright photos, which I think is just a natural outcome of digital cameras + digital publication + no print media. And all we've done is pick on this photographers photo.

 

[warden]

I think @warden was not really picking on that photographer specifically but on a more general trend toward less-bright photos, which I think is just a natural outcome of digital cameras + digital publication + no print media. And all we've done is pick on this photographers photo.

Correct I'm in no way picking on the photographer, and as I said in post #1 I've been seeing this in other news outlets too from other photographers or the people that alter their images. I wasn't going to share the photographer or news outlet info initially because I didn't want it to seem that I was interested in either the photographer or this particular news organization. But it didn't feel right to share an unattributed image.

 

[Don_ih]

But it didn't feel right to share an unattributed image.

I'm glad you cited the photographer. It gives people a chance to see this photo is not the regular one you would expect.

Looking the Reuter's 2024 in pictures, you can see that there is a tendency toward more "cinematic-looking" photos - i.e., maybe you should be sitting in a dark room to view them. They're all well-exposed, though.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Correct I'm in no way picking on the photographer, and as I said in post #1 I've been seeing this in other news outlets too from other photographers or the people that alter their images. I wasn't going to share the photographer or news outlet info initially because I didn't want it to seem that I was interested in either the photographer or this particular news organization. But it didn't feel right to share an unattributed image.

Do you have the original link to the article the picture appeared in?

 

[warden]

Do you have the original link to the article the picture appeared in?

I don't see it now Alan but if you go to The Guardian the story was about Harvard and their legal situation with the federal government. The article is no more than five days old but I don't see it presently.

 

[Don_ih]

Do you have the original link to the article the picture appeared in?

Here.

 

[Harry Callahan]

I deliberately left some of the details on the girl's shirt, the brightest part of the picture. But not all. A simple 5 second levels edit. With ten more seconds, one could have left all the details and still had a brighter picture elsewhere.

I see.

The photo isn't really representative, in either exposure or composition. But it is published by a news agency and widespread. And a number of other similar photos for similar news stories are also dark in that way. From yesterday:

View attachment 396818
looks like the photo is probably from the same batch as the one in the original post.

... again it looks like someone set for not loosing highlights (though there aren`t a lot of highlights) ...

 

[Pieter12]

again it looks like someone set for not loosing highlights

You are assuming the photographer is using a Canon digital camera. I don't believe any others have such a setting.

 

[F4U]

My Nikon D 7100 camera does that which was the original complaint from the OP. Everything dark. Proof positive that technology can go too far and end up replacing that which was at it's peak (being film), and didn't need replacing. But as long as there IS film, I won't be exhausted into compliance. My D-7100 is nothing but an automated last ditch backup device for important shots, and a fair to middling exposure meter. Other than that I can say that digital photography has not improved the quality of my life one iota.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I sent the photographer an email and asked her about it. Let's see if she can settle it for us.