- What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
The fluidity of the digital refers to the change of photography brought by the advance of editing techniques. As photo editing software becomes more popular and easier to use, people, not just professional photographers, can manipulate the photo by changing the architecture of the image. It can be easily transformed into other media such as video and virtual reality. Such as the 360-degree video which needs to be made with a special camera, but a low-quality video can be made with a group of photos. I know people who have photoshopped their report grades and manipulated their test scores to fabricate their academic success whether it’s for college admissions or other application processes.
- Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (e.g. text, video, virtual reality, books).
Photography can capture a part of reality, just like how our eyes catch a moment of life. It is relatively neutral compared to other media such as text that can be easily manipulated to mislead the audience. A photo can contain a lot of information and space that allows the audience to have their interpretation. It can also be controlled through a clever angle and selective information. However, as photo editing becomes more and more popular, the information delivered from the photo becomes more direct by deliberately deleting “unnecessary” information. Although the edited photo can make itself less real and convincing, it does bring a new kind of reality. Taking advantage of the latest technology, there is now a future photo that can depict what various areas might look like based on the scientific predictions of global warming. Instead of the previous documentary function, now, it has the power to visualize the future in our imagination (or a more realistic future) just like all the science fiction movies.