rpavich Loc: West Virginia

My thoughts?

Who cares?

Photos are an interpretation of reality, they aren't reality.

People have been getting "improved" in one way or another size people learned to pose to make themselves seem thinner...

It just is.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

If you do not care, why do you post?

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I think it is ridiculous. Most of this retouching takes only a few additional minutes of editing. Whitening teeth can probably be completed well under a minute, assuming the portrait photographer has done this many times before. As the photographer is already doing post-processing to the image (or so one would hope!), I do think it is unfair to the client to charge extra for retouching services - these services should be automatically included in the standard package at no extra charge. What's next, charge extra to use flash? Or adjust white balance for a few dollars more?

cntry Loc: Colorado

He was...two posts above yours :lol:



I'm with you. I see two different things...taking the photo and creating a picture. Two separate arts (for lack of a better word) that are often combined and, too often, seen as one. I have no problem with someone PP'ing their photo, just be honest about it - don't take credit for 'taking' a great photo if it took you an hour to 'make' it a great photo. And never, ever, ever use PP'd photos to brag up your camera - if you are trying to show what great pictures it takes they should be .jpeg's straight out of the camera - since someone considering that camera is interested in the camera's capabilities and not your Photoshop talents.
And yes, I do some PP on some of my photos...cropping and minor tweaks like sharpening, adjusting the exposure... but I'd rather spend my time behind a tripod than a computer screen, so the goal is to learn how to make the camera take the shot I want so I don't have to make the shot.

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

In my opinion if you do more than the basic gamma, dodge, burn, color correction and crop then your photograph become artwork.

cntry Loc: Colorado

ROFLMAO! I have no idea what you just said with the exception of color correction and crop. OK, I admit I've heard the other terms, even kind of know what they mean, but no idea how to do them so I guess my photos are, and will remain, photos. And since I do it for fun and not profit, that's fine with me. :-D

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Don't get me wrong, i've pushed a slider or two in my day, i just don't claim they are photographs.

No matter how startling or impressive to the viewer they might become they are now only artwork.

cntry Loc: Colorado

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I do mostly business portraits, and I include retouching in my price, because just about everyone wants it. I think photography can bring out flaws in people's appearance which are not necessarily that noticeable when people see them in real life, or even when they look in the mirror. I have had people notice things in photos when they see them large on a computer monitor that they had never noticed before - like a lazy eye or a crooked smile. I love being able to tell them I can fix that.

It gets into what people perceive they look like as opposed to what they really look like. When people see my photos of people they know, I don't want them to notice the retouching - I want them to think it's just a really good photo of them. In that sense, I think my retouched photos do portray reality.

As far as slimming goes, that is very sensitive for some people, and I wouldn't dream of telling them they are so heavy that they need to pay extra to fix it. I will slim some people down a bit even if they don't ask, and I've never had anyone tell me I made them look too slim. But if they do mention that they feel they look too heavy, I can tell them I can slim them down a bit, and the answer is almost always "Yes, please."

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Someone took a profile shot of me at a company picnic a few years ago.
I located it in the files, changed the aspect ratio and put it back.
Didn't charge them a penny for the slimming service.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

This has been difficult for me to come to grips with. I created courtroom exhibits for 7 years and while I might take liberties with vector graphics on a regular basis, I never, never adjusted pixels except to enlarge to 30" x 40". If I had, I would have been crucified. It still crosses my mind but I am getting past it little by little.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Legal photography, along with photojournalism and documentary are special cases. Altering them digitally is certainly considered unethical, or in the case of legal, probably illegal. One of our greatest photojournalists, W. Eugene Smith, employed very aggressive darkroom techniques like burning, dodging, selective bleaching to such an extent that if they were done digitally today, would probably be considered unethical.

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

You are not as alone as you may think. I believe that there is a big difference between photography and visual art. I lean heavily towards true photography, which is why I very rarely use Photoshop, instead, shooting raw and doing all of my adjustments in Lightroom which is akin to processing film in the darkroom. I feel that a photograph is the capturing of a moment in time, whereas photographic art is the artists (photographers) interpretation of the scene that is photographed.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Altering reality a bit to satisfy the customer is nothing new. When royalty posed for their portraits in past centuries before photography came along, how many of them do you think wanted total reality? Probably not many I would bet. As far as charging extra for a few minutes of extra effort to whiten teeth, or whatever, which is worse, charging $400 for a photo package and another $40 for some extras, or charging $500 for the same package and throwing in the extras for free? Just criticizing someone who bills for extras is pointless unless their billing structure is out of line for that area or region. Perhaps the customer was getting a bargain when it is all figured up. Complaining about how some photographers charge without having a comparison of how it compares to his or her competition is pointless, IMO.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

When you decide what scene to photograph, and then when to release the shutter, the photograph is artwork.

Everything else, even manipulations of the scene and the camera configuration before, as well as data editing later, merely refine the art.