Editing your Photos?

JackKelly

Just been messing around with Photoshop and noticed the improvement of some of my photos when "auto leveling" them or changing contrasts etc. Is it normal for people to use Photoshop to fix up their photo's?I would have thought of as kind of cheating! Yes/No?

PurpleFistMixer

I often touch up my photos. If you can, why not?
Provided what you're doing is something that could be done in a darkroom (I believe levels can be done in a darkroom) then it's not cheating at all.

Of course, if you can achieve a photograph you're perfectly happy with, without having to edit anything later, then that's a good thing.

JackKelly

thats what i mean, it seems like you would be making up for a lack of skill with the camera. Maybe thats rubbish though. Makes my photos look streets better!

PurpleFistMixer

Well, it's like it's a combination of using photoshop skills and photography skills. So it'd make you a 'digital photographer', kind of.
However, using 'auto levels' doesn't involve any photoshop skills since it's automatic, if you adjusted the levels yourself it'd be more... skillful. =P

Valentia

Every photo taken with a digital actually needs fixing - levels, sharpness etc. The camera manafacturers actually intend them to be manipulated afterwards. Most straight images from digital cameras look flat and that is what serious photographers want. They don't like cameras that make their choices for them.

Digital cameras, most good ones, are set up to give a conservative image. Editing them afterwards is a bit like choosing the film that you want.

Apart from transparency film every photo is manipulated one way or another during the developing and printing process. Even trannies are "push" processed sometimes for different effects.

If anyone tells you that using photoshop is cheating ignore their ignorance.

DotOrg

every single photo i take goes through photoshop; whether it be for slight cropping, converting to b&w using levels, tweaking contrast, cloning out unwanted elements, tweaking white balance etc etc

i want the end photo to be as asthetically pleasing to the eye as possible, the only time i wouldn't do edits like cloning or changing elements would be if it was serious documentary photography and my aim was to report through my work

Burago

People have been messing with photos in the darkroom for ever. Photoshop is just a different tool.