Not really…

I have always been a big propionate of stating that all photography is “manipulated” in some fashion no mater what the era.  The photographer controls the composition, angle, subject matter (including or excluding),  pose, lighting, and mood or conveyance of a scene or person before pressing the shutter button.  When pressing the shutter button the photographers choice of shutter speed, aperture, film speed (ISO),  film type, camera format all influence the final image of the negative or digital file.  This doesn’t account for the “manipulative” tools employed in the darkroom, printing, and retouching, whether it be film or digital.  For example, is HDR photography some new invention from those image manipulation programs?  Think again. The concept runs all the way back to 1850 with Gustave Le Gray using multiple exposures to render seascape pictures.

But hasn’t Photoshop given photographers too much power  in altering the image?  It depends on the context and this is where all photographers have to draw their own lines.  For me, my Shenandoah, nature, and abstract work are processed in Adobe Lightroom 2 and those images stay in there.  By using Lightroom as opposed to Photoshop, I feel that my workflow more closely resembles the enlarger and film darkroom experience.  Now when it comes to client portraits,  almost every image will be processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.  My clients expect and often request for the photos to be retouched.

Photography is the manner in which we as photographers interrupt the world around us.  All photographers have their own vision and style in creating a photograph. It is up to the viewers of the pictures to determine their worth, whether it is partially manipulated or extensively hacked contrived with tools beyond the camera. So if anything, let us not criticize the tools for ruining a photograph but the people who use them poorly.  If we blame Photoshop, then we might as well hold flickr and the Internet accountable for allowing people to upload hideous pictures. Let’s face it, people have been creating bad photography ever since the inception of the first light sensitive tools.

If there is additional interest on the topic, check out these posts by Chase Jarvis and Scott Kelby.

Grace and Peace