To Edit or Not to Edit… That’s the Question

In the days of film photography I had no way of changing a photograph if I didn’t like it. And I couldn’t afford to take five or six of the same scene and once developed pick the best one. A roll of 24, and even 36, would soon run out, never mind the cost. It was always exciting when I picked up my developed pictures from the photo store, took them out of the little envelope, and saw for the first time what I had captured.

Digital photography changed all that. I know an instant after I take the picture what it looks like and I can take a few with slightly different angles and then determine once they are downloaded at home on the computer what pleases my eye the best. Sometimes, though, none does it for me, and that’s when I open my ancient version of PhotoShop to see if by cropping the picture I can create an image that speaks to me.

The landscape-oriented photos of these wildflowers are the originals I took. While they are not bad, they didn’t really have that "wow, I like that!" factor for me. So in PhotoShop I changed the layout to portrait and cropped the image that way, keeping the dimensions of the original photo. And now, suddenly, I had an emotional reaction to each photo… they now told me their story.

Tall buttercup

Twisted stalk

Twisted stalk

Veiny meadow rue, female

Many years ago I took a PhotoShop class. I’ve forgotten most of what the instructor said, but one thing has stuck with me. He showed the class a picture of an old building in Greece he had taken, and next he showed us the PhotoShopped version. He had removed the drain pipe in the corner, made the bush a little greener and fuller, and spruced up the dull-looking stucco. All of us agreed the second image was much more pleasing to the eye, but it was not a true representation of that building. It was what he wanted to see, and therein lies the dilemma. If you are an artist and use PhotoShop as your canvas, then go ahead, knock yourself out. But if you just want to make your image look nicer by removing or adding things to it, then, in my opinion, it is not ethical.

I have a very old free version of PhotoShop Elements on my computer. I don’t need the newest version with all the bells and whistles as I only do four things with the program: I crop, I lighten dark areas, I darken light areas, and I add my watermark to the images I post here. That’s it. I do not change what my eye saw through the viewfinder, just how it’s seen, to make a more pleasing image. And for me, that’s all I want.