Originally posted by Cuthbert I don' t consider the starburst filter as PP "trick" because it's done before an not added later, so the photographer can decide if he has to use it or not, how many points, then he can turn the filter to decide which angulation he wants and it's all composed in the viewfinder, so I assume it's a sort of "pre-processing", like choosing a green filter for a portrait in B&W or a warming filter in a cloudy day.
You know once upon a time before the digital era there were rock bands, mythological conglomeration of real people who were real musicians and they played live for real! Some of them like Queen and Boston also wrote in the sleeve notes of their albums "no synthesizers in this record" to point out that the sounds the buyer was about to listen were really produced by them with musical instruments...this is more or less the same thing.
I think the musical analogy is apt, but IMO it also just supplies another view from which I just disagree. While I admire the "pure" (this word is used a lot) and "traditional" photographic approach, and I obviously prefer film photography, I just don't believe that PP "tricks" or a digital workflow is any less artistic. Today there are remarkable bands still that play their recorded stuff live, sometimes better, and who record analog from source to listening format.... There are also strictly digital (and FAR FAR more that are somewhere in between) artists that create astounding music - and it isn't any less "musical" for it.
One of my best friends is a composer and music teacher and can play (uncommonly well) just about any instrument you put in front of him. He's recorded pure acoustic tracks and purely digital tracks. He's composed simple 1-guitar 1-vocal ballads and he's written full orchestral pieces - some of which even have digital, synthesized instrumental portions, some which have none but just good old woodwinds, strings and brass, mic'd up in a single take. You could (unsuccessfully, IMO) even argue that multi-track recording is a "trick", even when it was strictly analog, even on *glorious* 2-inch tape. :-O All of this doesn't change the fact that he's musically gifted in every sense of the word. Is Moby any more or less talented than Bob Dylan? Nope, not really. And when Bob started playing electric guitar half the world denounced him as a sell-out... pay no mind to his mid-career masterpieces. Where are those critics now?
Sorry for the diatribe!
I understand the sentiment, I just disagree with it...
You can add star effects before or after, just as you can add reverb from the amp, or in post. One isn't better than the other.... Though I'd certainly prefer playing with "real" reverb at the amp I'd often do without so that I could decide how much and what kind later, before it was too late to take back - much like adding the star filter later.. how much... what kind? And, you could argue that both are wrong and the reverb isn't genuine unless it's pure, e.g. placing that amp or instrument in a deep stairwell, small room, or large concert hall... Are the alternatives really "tricks", or are they too "tools"?