Is using Photoshop on digital pictures acceptable?
Is photoshopping for image enhancement ( levels, saturation, etc.) a normal or acceptable practice for today’s photographers?
I’m quite new to digital photography, and I wonder if photographers ( amateur or pro ) normally use Photoshop or other photo enhancing software to create those stunning photos.
Do you enhance your photos?
Thanks!
Generally, yes. It is perfectly acceptable. However, if you are entering competitions for photographers, make sure to read all the rules carefully, because some of them are very picky about digital manipulation.
Good use of Photoshop (and note Photoshop is a trademarked product from Adobe, so technically you don’t want to say “photoshopping” but rather “image editing” or “image manipulation”) is similar to what used to be done in the darkroom. In fact, some of the terminology and tools in Photoshop and other such programs comes directly out of the terminology and tools of the darkroom.
There is a rule, however, that pro photographers will tell you. It’s “get it right in the camera.” The idea is to always place emphasis on taking good photos to begin with. Get the image in the camera. Learn your equipment, understand the settings and how your camera functions, when to do what for the particular type of photo, lighting conditions and so on. Take lots of pictures. Remember that with digital cameras, you aren’t worried about wasting film (which was expensive). Bits are cheap! If you take a lousy shot, delete it and retake! And don’t make the mistake of worrying about “how many shots can I get on my memory card?” Whatever camera you are using, always use the best quality and largest file settings possible. You can always delete info from an image, you can’t add it. Consider shooting in RAW if your camera lets you do so (RAW is the completely uncompressed image information, all the data the camera sensor can record for an image).
The best idea for using photo editors is to start out with as good an image as possible. Do minimal editing: don’t take the attitude of taking any old shot and assuming that you can “fix it” in your image editor.
Hope that helps!
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