Photoshopped Photo – Before and After
I’ve been asked the question “Do you use photoshop? cause you know if you do use it, you’re not keeping the photographs real. it’s like you’re lying.” so many times that i have created a short response to make my life easier
I’m not a photographer. i’m an image artist. such a label, would also include photography. now, below, is a photograph i took in beirut. and then i photoshopped it.
Question is, would you still call it a photograph??
if you want to see a larger size, follow the link and then click on the link below the photograph.
Sanitary Measures 
What you did is perfectly acceptable, you merely adjusted the levels, brightness/contrast, colors… etc. and thats fine, what is not acceptable is altering the elements of the image itself and/or adding or modifying elements within in it, you did not alter the image, you enhanced its properties and thats alright.
so that’s one for yes, i’m still a photographer
I don’t agree with bakkouz. Of course it is acceptable to alter an image if the author wants to. As Mazz says, he is an image artist and so can do whatever he likes with his images. You wouldn’t tell Picasso not to put two eyes on one side of a face would you?
The risk with photshop is that artists can go too far because it’s posssible. The final image must still be able to engage with the viewer.
Katie, thanks for the comment.
thing is, as long as i say that it’s an image and not a photograph, i don’t think there’s a limit to the artist’s imagination. i’ll be posting a photo i manipulated heavily soon and repeat the question. i think that the example being used still puts the question in the gray area.