Do You Think Editing Is Cheating In Photography?
By Mifth221
@miftha (1621)
Bekasi, Indonesia
June 12, 2021 9:08pm CST
Like cooking, before being served on the dining table, all ingredients are processed first in the kitchen. Photos that will be published, I usually fry first.
I know photo editing about cropping, dodging, burning , raising and lowering saturation, contrast, light and dark. That's what I do regularly after the photos are transferred from the camera to the PC. This is an example of before and after editing that I did. Quite extreme in my opinion, "removing" the background by burning techniques around the object .
I did "cheat" this photo, because I did not get a situation that is not ideal when shooting in the field.
Just sharing my experience, thank you.
16 people like this
20 responses
@yukimori (10142)
• United States
13 Jun 21
Context is important.
Photography is an art form like any other, open to the artist's interpretation. What you've done to this one is extreme, yes, but it's something that could be done in a darkroom with film photography, too. A bit of cropping or retouching is sometimes necessary to bring out the best in the photos we've taken.
The only time I really consider it problematic is when photos of something are altered to manipulate perceptions of reality: things like cropping an image to hide something in the frame that is relevant to the context, changing the colors within the image, moving elements in the image to make them appear differently than they really were (there was one I saw during the coronavirus lockdowns where a tabloid moved the people within a photo to make it look like the celebrity and his parents were ignoring social distancing rules during a visit even though they were strictly following them)... that sort of thing is unethical. But if it's a photo taken just for enjoyment, why not use all the tools at your disposal when creating your art?
2 people like this
@averygirl72 (37716)
• Philippines
17 Jun 21
Yes it's not cheating can be editing, enhancing or just modifying
1 person likes this
@paulobraga85 (809)
• Brazil
13 Jun 21
@miftha I think that If the photos are for you try use without any program.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (43065)
• Staten Island, New York
15 Jun 21
What do you mean by "Photos that will be published, I usually fry first."?
1 person likes this
@Kouponkaren (5488)
• United States
13 Jun 21
Well, I will say this: When digital cameras first came out, I did think it was like cheating to manipulate the photos to look different than what I actually saw in the camera lens. But now I do it all the time now. I like being able to enhance what I saw. In the same way, a woman puts on makeup...is it cheating to add makeup to a woman's face to enhance the looks God gave her? I think it's like putting her best foot forward...or "face" not foot in this case. So I prefer to think of it not as cheating, but enhancing the photo, and the face as well in my other example!
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
17 Jun 21
Cheating implies dishonesty.
Photography is an art. You could enhance your photos to make the images look pleasing to the viewers.
@Prabhatsingh (3537)
• India
13 Jun 21
Photography isn't real anymore these days.
it's all about saturation. burning, exposure, and highlights.
1 person likes this
