Enhancing/Manipulating Digital Photographs
With the advance of digital photography and the many programs and software available to be able to improve and enhance them it is inevitable that members will want to use these facilities when uploading to this website.
There is nothing wrong in doing this if it is done well and it is allowed on this website, however there have been instances where some photographs have been over enhanced and manipulated in a manner that spoils the effect and creates an artistic and unrealistic image.
This website was originally launched and intended to be one of good quality Ship Photographs and is considered to be one of the best on the Internet for showing ship photographs and also sharing shipping news and knowledge, I feel it still is but we have to be careful with the way we handle the enhancement of digital images.
This is not a website for artistic photographs, uploaded photographs should always have a natural looking appearance and should be seen as they were taken, but with digital photography if they appear to look dull then they can be brightened up, but this needs to be done with care, if a photograph is over enhanced then all manner of things can go wrong, for example if it is not good quality to start with then it can easily become pixilated and also ghosting can appear and when this happens no amount of Gamma or Contrast can improve it.
This problem has been has been discussed at length by the management team and it has been decided that enhancement is permissible with the following proviso.
If a photograph that has been enhanced and appears as good quality at screen size and also remains as good quality when enlarged then it has been done correctly, if on the other hand when enlarged it becomes corrupted and unnatural in appearance then it has been over enhanced and will not be allowed to remain on the website.
This is not meant to be an artistic website, so any photographs uploaded that have an unnatural appearance will be removed, there are other outlets for this type of photography, so please be careful when enhancing or manipulating a digital photograph
Regards
Ken Smith
Webmaster