Posted by Glyn Wade
So how much do you have to digitally manipulate an image for it to be clarified as ‘Photoshopped’?
And if you have a problem with that term please see my last article on the subject!
On a wildlife photography day our instructor told us that he didn’t have time to do much to his pictures. All he did, and this mantra will stay with me till I’m old and senile (yes I know I’m already there before anyone else says it!), was:
‘lighten the lights and darken the darks’
Or was it darken the darks and ligh….
So does something that simple warrant the clarification as being Photoshopped? What if I just cropped an image? What if I shot a picture in RAW and just hit ‘auto’? If I turn it black and white or sharpen an image slightly it has been manipulated. Or does a picture have to look unnatural to be deemed as being ‘Photoshopped’?
Every photograph I take is looked at on Adobe Bridge and then the ones I keep are almost always opened in Photoshop. The vast majority of time I do very little to each picture but there is always something that will improve it (hmmm…maybe I should practice the actual photography a bit more…).
Maybe I’m just picky but even just upping the clarity a tad or following the aforementioned mantra adds something to my images. So, is that Photoshopping? You would never be able to tell from looking at the finished product without seeing the original so, if a competition ever asked for it, I bet I could get away with saying the images hadn’t been digitally manipulated at all….
I would surmise that people would class something as having been Photoshopped if it is obvious and hence looks somewhat unnatural….but I’m open to (polite) suggestions….
And then that brings about a whole new kettle of fish….is there anything wrong with something having been digitally manipulated? Surely now we have the technology we should embrace it and move forward? Didn’t the same argument crop up in similar fashion when digital images began its trawl over the embers of film photography? An article for another day perhaps…..
All these images have been Photoshopped but which ones would you have said were if I hadn’t just told you?
Seattle Seafront
Paradise Wildlife Park
Donkey Village
Alpaca
