Photoshop... I just love it sometimes! :)

[savona]

We talked about the final photo in the forums, and I thought I would share the much crappier (is that a word) original and the steps I took to get it to the final image. Feel free to blast me for manipulating the image too much. I changed so many things that some people would not even call it a photograph anymore. I would love to hear your thoughts on that as well.



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[SNAPaPHOTO]

I like it.

You brought up a question I battle with sometimes, when does it cross the line and be too much? I never want to get to where I don't worry about setting up the location first because I say Oh I can fix that in PS. I know you didn't say that, I was just referring to myself.

That is what I was referring to with one of my post about PS, how much editing changes it from a photograph to something else?

[Fibonacci]

Edward Steichien used to say that, "Once you have pressed the shutter your job as photographer is done." That has not been the case in a long, long time. Today, in fact, pressing the shutter is just the beginning. In many ways modern photographers are becoming more like painters who have nearly limitless control over their medium. This is both a blessing and a curse. There are no free passes for poor lighting or stray items that screw up our compositions because all of those things are under our control now. There are no more excuses, we are now responsible for every item in our image and if an item is not contributing to our composition it needs to be changed or eliminated. (This is especially true of the images above where there is a boatload of stuff that contributes nothing to the composition.)
Is there a point in which we have passed out of photography and into something else? I say no. I say welcome to the world of painters where you have all of the control, and with it, all of the responsibility for the final outcome.