Is Photoshop Cheating?
If one painter only has a dozen colors to work with and one has 64 colors to begin with, are they cheating to use the extra colors they have available?
Do I cheat? Yes, I do and I'm proud of it. I will lighten eyes, darken skin, remove pimples, increase contrast, increase color saturation, and occasionally do something creative like this.
I create images to give an emotional response to the viewer. I consider Photoshop and other computer programs like it as tools of the trade. This argument is not something new. I remember when some argued that it was cheating to use filters, or electronic flash. The only thing that I consider cheating in photography, is when the photographer closes his or her mind and stops trying to be as creative as possible.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tedric Garrison on -
I am of the age where I remember trying to do stuff like this in the camera (35mm of course), or even worse trying to do it in the darkroom. I feel it quite liberating to take my images to the fullest extent of my imagination. Of course just as it took many years to master the camera, Photoshop also has a steep learning curve, but I think the end results are worth the time invested.
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Permalink Reply by Ira May M. Famador on -
Before,I thought it was cheating. But as soon as I got my DSLR, I learned the value of post editting. One thing I realized, these editting softwares are there to enhance a beauty you have already captured. If we can boost the technical aspects, why not!Composition and the story is still the bottomline.You can't cheat that, right?
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Permalink Reply by Al Latorre on
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aw, but there are those that manipulate the image so that it no longer represents what they saw...example:
a photo that has a tree smack dab in the middle, alittle manipulation, and viola the tree is gone. Things like
bumping up the darks or lights, undersaturating, etc. those well are to preserve the image. Those techniques
were practiced in the darkrooms. The challenge here is to try and capture your best right out of the box. Unfortunetly, that means throwing away alot of not so good shots, something which we don't because of the
many possibilities provided by photo editing.
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Permalink Reply by Brad Bauter on -
Photoshop is a tool, just like burning, dodging and using a water marker for blemishes back in the darkroom. Photoshop is a digital darkroom.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Lok on -
To each his own. Personally the only pp I do is the basics such as adjusting the exposure, sharpening, etc.which is all I know about Photoshop at the moment! However I have seen pp done to the extent that the end result isn't really what it was shot & unrealistic. From the creativity point. I guess you could say ''wow". Likewise the use of color filters, etc. I had some natural color sunset shots of clouds descending over me which really hit me so hard that I can only say "Wow, God is up there"! See pic.
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Permalink Reply by Fusion - Ian Kydd'Miller on -
Totally agree. Most of the things (and I say most) could be achieved in the old wet darkroom (with a lot more time and effort need I say). Photgraphers have alwayd ''edited'' their images to get the best from them, nothing has changed except the technology to do it more easily.
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Permalink Reply by Eric G. on -
My personal preference has always been to edit as little as possible. In the past, my stance on photography had been to share the moment exactly as it occurred...blemishes and all. I used to think that "photoshopping" an image detracted from the artistic features of the photo because it added or removed something that was or wasn't really there. I was definitely "old school" and I actually did look at Photoshop as cheating. At the same time, editing software has turned some good images of mine into great images, so there is obviously a time and a place for the tools. I have since come to realize that there are many times that even the best photographers or equipment can't quite capture what was seen and felt through the viewfinder, but the editing software was able to enhance the image enough to bring the viewer closer to what the photographer actually saw and felt. And that's as important as anything else.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Berry Photography on -
The big difference is the definition of photography and the definition of art. Digital photography has made it more possible than ever for digitally captured images to stray across into the realm of art.
I have given some thought to what is art, and what is photography: In my consideration photography is the capturing of an image, as it is seen, through mechanical (photographic equipment) means, the result being an unaltered picture/image taken from this process that is a real and true representation of what was seen. ie: if you take a photograph, use every means possible to perfect that image before the shutter is pressed, once the shutter is pressed and the image produced without any further alteration then you have created a photograph.
Any excessive alteration, beyond the camera to recreate, manufacture, alter etc by means of a darkroom or a computer then you are moving beyond pure photography into the world of the artist.
If, your images are not complete, and were never intended to be complete until they have been radically manipulated digitally then, I would consider you an artist and not a photographer, you would use a camera as an artist would use a pencil or a brush, variable paper choices etc, etc. The end result being a concept which the image taken from the camera was only a small part of. To me 'real' photography is capturing what is seen, without any further manipulation other than to correct defects in the image. If you images are taken and the end result is intended to be a true representation of what was actually seen without any extensive alteration, then I would consider you a to be a photographer. As the unaltered image is the intended end result and not an extensively modified 'different' creation.
On saying all of this, whatever realm you operate in, there is no such thing as cheating, just experimentation, mistakes, lessons to be learned and onwards to the future.
As a photographer, my personal preference is to do as much as possible to create the image I want before I even get the camera out of the bag, once the image is ready to be captured, then the camera comes out. Alternatively to capture what is seen in a documentary fashion, in all its realism as its happening. If I have to do any extensive alteration to an image then once it's on the computer I'm not very happy! Unfortunately digital image capture has so far to go before it can catch up to the qualities of medium/large format film in respect to latitude, colour rendition and black & white capture that computer alteration is inevitable in a some respects.
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Permalink Reply by Donna Chapman on -
You Said "I have given some thought to what is art, and what is photography: In my consideration photography is the capturing of an image, as it is seen, through mechanical (photographic equipment) means, the result being an unaltered picture/image taken from this process that is a real and true representation of what was seen. ie: if you take a photograph, use every means possible to perfect that image before the shutter is pressed, once the shutter is pressed and the image produced without any further alteration then you have created a photograph.
Any excessive alteration, beyond the camera to recreate, manufacture, alter etc by means of a darkroom or a computer then you are moving beyond pure photography into the world of the artist."
I so agree with this. I have had so many people come up to me and say 'Oh your a photographer' just because I use a camera. When in fact I consider myself to be a photographic artist. I start with a photo just like a painter starts with a canvas. I use a digital medium instead of paint but that still makes me a fine artist, not a photographer and people seem to find that hard to understand. Then there are the painters that look at me as if I am cheating at painting as well. They want to put me into one field or the other and have not yet come to accept that there is a middle field. It took me a lot of time and skill to get where I am just like any other artist or photographer. So I do not consider photo manipulation cheating, I consider it a part of me.
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Permalink Reply by Fusion - Ian Kydd'Miller on
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The camera only see's within the limitations of its technology, it does not see what we see. Using tools to bring the image nearer to what we actually saw is not wrong it is doing what photographer have always done, manipulate their negative, be it in the darkroom or ''lightroom''. Photography IMO is an art in itself but can been taken further to become artistic.
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I concur with your comments...stated solidly.
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Permalink Reply by Dasiavue on -
Very true, Tim. There was a famous artist who achieved the same kind of affects that people do with photoshop in the darkroom...only it took him days to do something that can be done much faster now. Just because it can be done on a computer doesn't make it any less artistic. Is using a washer and dryer cheating when you do your clothes? If we didn't go forward with new technology, we wouldn't have the time to do all the things we do today.
The only time I can see photoshop being "cheating" is if you are doing an assignment for a magazine and they expicitly tell you not to alter the image at all. However, many publications DO alter the images (do we really think the models look like they do in magazines?). Is lighting and makeup cheating too?
I wish I remembered the website of the artist who did all the work in his darkroom and achieved some awesome stuff. He did lots of photo manipulation and it took him days. People also hand colored images before digital photos.
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