I've been thinking about this ever since you posted the thread, but haven't had time to get here and talk about it. 

As a contributor and regular visitor to both Photography and 2-D, can I share my concerns about this?

It will be easier if I can give some examples:

Here's a photograph that's basically straight out of the camera.  I know it LOOKS like a painting, but I assure you it's "pure"  --  http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2299030&user_id=481818&member&np

Here's a photograph that I postworked to look like a hand-done piece --- totally postworked in Photoshop  http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2290735&user_id=481818&page=2&member&np

From time to time I do actual paintings, so nobody who knows me would be at all surprised if I posted a painting in the 2-D gallery.  (Well, Helle would be surprised that I'd got around to it, because I don't do many despite her encouragement, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility.)  If I posted either of the above images in 2-D, nobody would bat an eye.  They'd think I'd painted them both unless I specifically said I hadn't.  My concern isn't so much about what goes in the Photography gallery, but what ends up in 2-D!  There are a lot of talented artists who go to a lot of trouble to hone their craft and learn to paint with traditional materials or digitally, and I assure you it's a lot more work than fiddling with filters!  Not that getting a painterly result with filters is easy mind you, but it's a whole different skill set.  I'm a lot more impressed with someone who can paint something from scratch than someone who can competently use Photoshop, mainly because I do both and know which one produces more sweat and anguish!

I'd rather see a photograph, no matter how postworked it is, in the Photography gallery, simply because posting it in 2-D is a cheat, imho!  Posting that 2nd image (the heavily filtered photograph) in photography, at least everyone knows it's not a painting.

That being said, I TOTALLY agree with you about stars and fairies and added bits.  The minute I add someone else's image to my work, even if it's a photograph from the public domain (or even one from my husband's files), or if I use a Photoshop brush (even if I made it myself), I post it in 2-D and say what's my own and credit what's borrowed.

It seems like you're trying to define a line that's basically indefinable.  I could show you work from my gallery that ranges from pure photography to total postwork, and at some point there would be an image we couldn't classify into one category or another.  (This isn't about me, btw ... I'm just using myself as an example because I don't want to drag anybody else's specific work along with me just in case you get mad!  LOL!)  I often use one of the filters you mentioned and back it down to 20% or so, which gives a bit of an effect but doesn't take the image into the realm of "flat" artwork.  At what point do we say the filter I've used is too much?

This is all by way of saying that I'd love it if you'd consider moving the line a bit.  It seems to me it would be very easy to draw the line at anything that didn't start out as your own photograph.  For example, if I post my own photograph, no matter how it's postworked, and I add a few stars with a Photoshop brush, or some text, or use a tiny bit of somebody else's work, or add something with a paintbrush, it doesn't belong in Photography any more.  But if it's 100% my own work, and 100% photography, even if it's postworked to look like a line drawing, it's still photography and NOT an actual line drawing.

All I can do is ask that you consider it.  I know exactly the sort of work you're talking about, and when it's well done it DOES look like a hand-colored line drawing, but nevertheless ... it isn't.  It's photography.  The artists who produce that sort of thing are photographers and outstanding postworkers, but they are NOT traditional artists, and it I don't think it's right that their work be placed in the same category as someone who knows how to take pencils and watercolors and make colored line drawings by hand!

Okay ... there's my two cents worth.  I hope you'll think about it again.

Thanks!  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."  ...  Robert Capa