u/AaronScottsky

A soft debate wanting to know which side do you prefer in either the kind of photographs you take or the kind you prefer to view ? Are you more atmospheric events raw no edits (lots of green dot) - or light edits keeping the photography as true as possible to how it was seen with the visible eye - or artistic liberties in either skill in how the photo was taken or through post processing and edits that make the photograph stand apart and hold it’s own as an artistic work? We can lean hard as an absolute purist to a visionary - or hold balance seeing value in all but in practice leaning one way or the other. Personally I think in practice I am more of a documenter with high desire to take artistic atmospheric photography . I see value in the science like documentary side - but admire and maybe even aspire to take memorable atmospheric events that have artistic merit and beauty, and improve my photography - Honestly I kinda hate seeing green dot in my own photos but Im not so much critical seeing it in others captures and especially the more unusual captures of rarer events - the dot can add authenticity that the photo isn’t adulterated by ai and lots of photography chicanery some might unfairly attribute to spectacular atmospheric optics that on first notice can look unreal and even fabricated , but in truth are more representative of the actual event when properly taken and or edited. But honestly i’ve gotten good enough to see iridescent color which is too far and feint to be captured by my camera but I’m also able to isolate the events especially iridescence to now see that many of the events the camera or modern cameras are strong enough to capture still don’t do complete justice without some judicious editing and crop and learning angle and light control as well as timing to improve ways to bring out the magic and beauty of the event as discovered - and Im even improving on not having to crop out camera artifact especially from blowout, better utilizing lighting and angle while taking the photo so that the green dot isn’t even in the raw - but it’s not always avoidable - and that’s maybe one of the more exciting aspects of atmospheric photography , its being in the right place at the right time to notice the event and then get the best possible capture to hopefully let others be witness as well
- and the truth is - still a lot of people haven’t even seen iridescence or know how to see it- so regardless of your style - if you recognize it and have a tool to record it - maybe we aren’t pro - but we just might be the best available and certainly in the moment sometime the only recording it - so why not own it and make it as amazing as the eye can see - Im interested in others views and opinions?