So this evening I was doing some random surfing on the internet; and speaking of surfing…
Check out this photo taken during this years Maverick’s Surf Contest by photographer Brant Ward. The image appears on the SFGate.com photo gallery pages. The SFGate is owned by Hearst Newspapers, and everything about this gallery and other similar galleries tend to leave the reader with the perception that these are news-oriented editorial photo stories. Yet I am willing to wager a good bet that this image, contrary to all news-ethicalness, has been “fixed”. Notice the odd brightness immediately surrounding the surfer. Even the sunlit areas of the wave crashing are not as brightly exposed, or as oddly cyan stained. What do you think? Fixed or Not? A news photo, or if fixed, is it now ‘something else’ instead?
Bad News Photographer! Bad! (said while shaking a rolled up newspaper.)
It does look unusual Gary. I would be interested to hear the newspaper response.
This looks like standard-issue burning-in to me. Not a very good job of it, but I don’t see anything unethical in trying to make the surfer stand out more.
I can only speak for the photos taken from the shoulder of the waves to tell you that what you see in that gallery is what you get while there. The photo you’ve noted is more representative of crappy photo processing than anything else. Photos taken from this angle are taken from the cliffs above the Mavericks break and is likely a 1:1 crop. This angle yields very poor lighting at certain times of the day. This photo is a perfect example of that and the poor job of dodging shows.
I’ve photographed both views over the years… this past year while on the media boat. Something to factor in… they turned these photos around with in an hour or two if not sooner. In fact by the time I got home from the event (Half Moon Bay to SF) the majority of the photos in this gallery were already online. Due to the speed at which these photos are turned around and the fact the post-processing is being done by someone who wasn’t there…. you get these types of visual anomalies and or inaccuracies in color & shadow/highlights.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say these photos are fixed as much as quickly and poorly processed.