Distorting Reality
When I first started taking pictures with a digital camera, I used to visit many other pages of photographs on the web. Each time I came upon a site with pictures that were obviously Photoshopped, I'd consider that photographer a hack. After all, that's not an actual picture that came out of the camera. It doesn't show my the shooters photography skills, it shows me his Photoshop skills. I'd write off the photographer and, deep down, think that if only I knew Photoshop as well as this person did, my photographs would be just as pretty.
That's what I thought then.
Now, I think that with the age of digital photography becoming more and more prominent, what 'real' photographers used to do in their dark rooms, is now accomplished by Photoshop. Post-processing was always a part of photography. So, someone who's using Photoshop to enhance or add creativity to his photographs is using another skill set that goes hand in hand with their choice to use the digital medium. Learning to master certain skills in Photoshop gives the photographer an opportunity to bring out the best of the image.
The downside of my new way of thinking, of course, is that I have to learn much much more about Photoshop now that I have grown up and stopped dissing people who use it. Not to mention, I still have a truckload to learn about the art of photography itself.
Well, one day and one photograph at a time, I suppose.
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