> we might think of what we are doing as digital painting rather than photography.
Yet there is somehow some sort of value in it being photography instead of digital painting. You see pictures where there photographer carefully planned for when the moon would be in just the right place next to some building or mountain, even travelling to strange places where such effects occur and patiently waiting for the right moment so they could take a photo that looks just the way they want it. It would have been much easier to just photograph the moon and the mountain separately then combine them on the computer. I want to understand the motivation for doing it the hard way. Is it the feeling of accomplishment for doing a difficult task? It can't be that it's more honest because telephoto lenses and other photography tricks make it less realistic, and can make the feeling different from what anyone actually experiences looking at it.
Yet there is somehow some sort of value in it being photography instead of digital painting. You see pictures where there photographer carefully planned for when the moon would be in just the right place next to some building or mountain, even travelling to strange places where such effects occur and patiently waiting for the right moment so they could take a photo that looks just the way they want it. It would have been much easier to just photograph the moon and the mountain separately then combine them on the computer. I want to understand the motivation for doing it the hard way. Is it the feeling of accomplishment for doing a difficult task? It can't be that it's more honest because telephoto lenses and other photography tricks make it less realistic, and can make the feeling different from what anyone actually experiences looking at it.