I thought this might make an interesting discussion or at least give me something else to think about until Monday night.
Photo retouching or post production has been around probably as long as photography has but with the digital age it has become increasingly easier. The mysteries of the darkroom have been replaced with home computers and photoshop. Everyone is now able to adjust their photos in someway. A phrase I hear a lot while shooting with others is 'don't worry you can fix it in photoshop' and I know I have been guilty of thinking this too. Is this thinking causing us to 'fix' photos that probably should have been deleted instead of only selecting our very best? Are we processing the final image so far that we are losing the realism of the original photos? At some point does it become less like a photograph and more like a digital painting?
These questions seem to come up a lot in discussions with other photographers. Some feel that digital post production is ruining photography. I don't believe this. Like anything you always will get the good and bad. Many photographs are ruined from over processing but there are many photographers who are getting it right and producing amazing photographs that wouldn't have been possible without digital post production.
So what do you think?
Of course we can't have a thread about photography without some examples. So here are a couple I have done recently where I have done way more post production than I would usually.
Feel free to post your own photos that you feel have good post production or that you feel are better straight out of the camera. Maybe explain why you made the choice you did.
Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.
Ansel Adams