delder Loc: Maryland

We can go back centuries to the beginnings of the Camera Obscura to see the human hand involved in the Art of Photography.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The camera obscura was not photography. It was an optical aid to accurate drawing and painting. It didn't become photography until the image could be captured and fixed on a light sensitive material.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Do women photographers need a good man?

MrGNY Loc: New York

Now that is a fine photo. Oh wait, I meant fine art.

MrGNY Loc: New York

That is fine art.

Great shot.

Garyofthedesert Loc: AZdesert

Just say "This is my creation." how you achieved it is your business. If someone asks how, the answer is up to you.

Artcameraman Loc: Springfield NH

Tes!

levinton

Best photographer I ever met was a woman. Hella Hammid. In the field she used that old wonderful small Olympus 35mm film camera and was brilliant at getting people to pose naturally. She was chosen by Steichen for his famous Family of Man series. She made her money photographing children in the studio and field in NY, LA. I expect they obeyed her. I surely did.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

This is just another instance of the interminable question: "Is photography art?"

fantom Loc: Colorado

'Nuff said. You said it all.
No need for any explanations if it is presented for art or just viewing pleasure. If it is exhibit A in a court of law you might want to divulge the processing.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Answer, as in all of life, is, "It depends..."

Did the photographer… have artistic intent? Communicate visually in an artful way? Create an effective composition? Apply an effective combination of skills, experience, knowledge, training, and tools to the task of creating the image? Does the result affect people in some way (i.e.; teach, inform, disturb, calm, emote, remind, change minds, record history...)?

Since a banana taped to a wall with duct tape commanded $120,000 at an art sale (one did — Google it!), it's pretty damned hard to say a good photograph isn't art!

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

I'm sure that we've all 'edited' images... After all, just adjusting the contrast or brightness of an image is 'editing'. And I'm sure that you've done things like removing something from an image. For example, in the first image below, there were a couple of people standing next to the doorway to the chapel and while I waited something like five or six minutes, they just didn't move (they appeared to be having a rather animated conversation), so I took the shot and 'edited' them out using Photoshop as I wanted to try and sell this image and it just looked better without the people.

Now the second image below, that one is like the OP's where he added the clouds over his photo of the lake in Oregon, only in my case I didn't 'edit' the image. As you can see by the date taken, this photo was taken long before digital photography or Photoshop. It was originally a 35mm slide, and it looked like the third image below, with a completely washed-out sky behind the silhouette of the sawmill. All I did was take another slide, of a sundown, and simply mounted both the original, washed-out slide, and the sunset slide, in the same 2 x 2 mount. Years later when I scanned the image, what I got was technically an 'edited' image, just not in the sense that people think of today.

Holy Family Shrine and Catholic Chapel near Gretna, Nebraska - June 2019 - Sony a6000, 10-18mm


An old abandoned Henry Ford sawmill on the shore of Lake Superior near Pequaming, Michigan - September 1970 - Minolta SRT-101, 58mm


The photo of the old abandoned Henry Ford sawmill on the shore of Lake Superior near Pequaming, Michigan, without the added sunset - September 1970 - Minolta SRT-101, 58mm

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

I prefer the first two beauties 🏆👀👀👀👀

brentrh Loc: Deltona, FL

I don't feel you need to disclose anything about the way you edited you photograph. People today have become to critical and opinonated on what is a real photograph. Ansel Adams would be under attack today by them. Ansel told me what he did to manipulate his images, he would be chastised today for what he did.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

I post them for people to enjoy. Its non of their business how much processing went into it., If asked I would tell what I did, but in a private message, not public.