How many times have you heard (or said) “Is that Photoshopped?” I’ve even heard “Is that a real shot, or is it Photoshopped?”
Does that mean that if you use Photoshop (or any other image processing software), that it is no longer a ‘real photo’?
I’m not talking about composite photos, or obviously manufactured images – that’s a different art form.
I’m taking about color or contrast adjustments, or any other creative adjustments that a photographer can apply to an image. This is called post-processing. And all digital photos need some post processing.
Think this isn’t so? If you shoot JPG format images (as opposed to RAW format), your camera already did some post-processing. Check your camera’s menu options and you’ll find something like “Image Control”, or “Color Control”, or something like this. The options for this setting will be things like “Standard”, “Vivid”, “Black and White”, “Sepia”, etc. Some cameras will include “Sharpening” adjustments in this option too. In this case, your camera takes care of the post-processing. Sometimes your owner’s manual for your camera will explain the post-processing that is actually done for each of the settings. If you’re shooting RAW and not doing some post-processing, I guarantee you that if you switch to JPG your images will look better (unless your import program takes care of the post processing). (iPhones even have an HDR option – now that’s serious post-processing!)
One of the best known American photographers is Ansel Adams. His beautiful landscape and nature photos are iconic. Obviously, he came before the invention of image processing software, digital cameras, and inkjet printers. He has many famous quotes, but one of my favorites is “The negative is the score, the print is the performance.” He really meant this – he said variations of this statement numerous times. If you or I had an original Ansel Adams negative, we would never be able to produce an image that looked like his prints. He was a master craftsman and artist in the darkroom. (He was a master in the field – where he captured his images too – that’s for sure!) He would make a test print from his negative and figure out the areas that need to lightened, the areas that needed to be darker and he would reprint the image over and over using ‘dodging’ and ‘burning’ to accomplish these changes. He kept meticulous notes on his adjustments so he could reproduce it, or adjust it. Post-processing!
Ansel would have loved Photoshop.