With all the filters and lenses on our cameras and phones, and the things we can do with photoshop there is a debate raging.
How much post production is acceptable? At what point is the image no longer authentic?
As I look at the images of the great photographers, those who built their careers long before the age of digital they still adjusted their images. Sure they had to content with natural light, but the could make adjustments in the developing lab allowing the images more or less time to develop to produce an image which reflected their view. That’s what separates a photographer from an artist. The photographer captures what they see, the artist sees more.
I pushed some of my editing tools to the limit on this image, and love the result. The white flowers stand out in stark contrast to the background. by cropping the image slightly the flowers are more prominently featured in the image. Have I distorted reality too much? You decide as you compare to the original image below.
The original image is pretty, but ordinary.
