Let us test that one :-) : HDR bracketing photography? Time-lapse photography on a single photographic plate? Rotating (Cirkut) panorama camera? Several stereo camera models with more lenses but one shutter?
met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla
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Yup, HDR, photostitching, and other "photographic" methods that rely on multiple image sampling techniques are photo illustrations by my definition. I'm not trying to disparage photographic illustration by any means. Philippe Halsman's masterful portrait of Salvadore Dali, "Dali Atomicus" began as a straight-forward "real" photograph. The cats and water flying through the air were recorded as a single event, not comped into the scene after the fact. However, once the image was published in Life magazine in its final form (i.e., wires retouched out, artwork added to the easel, etc), it became a photo illustration. That a photo illustration can look absolutely like a "real" photograph should go without saying. Likewise, cameras that use time-scanning shutters, etc., even the venerable focal plane shutter which traverses the film as a slit at faster shutter speeds, push hard up against my definition, but I give them a pass, because in spirit even if not perfectly by the physics, they more or less achieve a single, contiguous, and uninterrupted exposure. I suppose HDR, if performed electronically in the camera at "near instant" overlap would also get a free pass from me, but when I build HDR images from regularly spaced individual exposures, I regard the final result as a photo illustration.
As a further example, consider whether Ansel Adam's "Moonrise" would be regarded the same way if the final image had been created by a double exposure to position the moon within the scene. It would then be a photo illustration by my definition, and while it would have the identical visual aesthetic and have been produced entirely by photographic methods, I doubt this image would have garnered the same admiration as it has today because we know it to be a true photograph of a "decisive moment" in time.
All that said, photographers, photography curators, and historians have been debating this "true photograph" subject for over a century. I harbor no illusions that everyone will agree with my definition
Please feel free to define a "true" photograph yourself. It's not so easy, and some widely regarded photo techniques and processing methods will surely fall into a "gray" area.
cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com