Photoshop is a very large graphic design software program. It has
a lot of functions but in photography field, it mainly allows photographers to
edit their recent photos. However, there is also an issue between two sides.
People in the first side are using the Photoshop program as it is a blessing to
them. They agree that Photoshop can perform powerful functions that give
wonderful results. People on other side are not using Photoshop. And they also believe
that they can make fantastic photos without Photoshop. In this blog, I am going
to talk about opinions of photographers who don’t want to use Photoshop.
As I research, some people never use Photoshop because they don’t
want a third party has any effects on their photos. In order words, they want
to keep their photos pure and original. According to Matt Suess in his article “Real
photographers Don’t Use Photoshop Plugins, Right?” on his website, he said:
If you are guilty of using such Photoshop plugins, be warned that the end result is not your style – it is the style of the software programmers. You have no style, no creativity, no voice and no vision in this Real Photographers Club if you are using Photoshop plugins.
Other people don’t use Photoshop because of the photography type
they are working on. Galen Leeds is a photographer who used to use Photoshop
but he stops using it anymore. He really doesn’t feel much of a need for it.
When he used Photoshop, he just used it for making signs and business cards. In
his article, he pointed out that Photoshop is not part of his photographic
view, he said:
I consider myself a documentary photographer. That is, I am documenting the world around me. Be it an animal, a landscape, an event, or a person- I will try to give my most honest interpretation of what I see through the lens, nothing added, nothing taken away. I might pull a few blades of grass that will interfere with my image, but I do that before the shutter clicks.
Moreover, there is a group of photographers who say “The Death of
Photoshop”. They have three rules for any photographers who want to join their
group:
1- No edited photographs
2- No edited photographs
3- No edited photographs
They are just looking for the most creative, weird, scary, mesmerizing, eye blinding, and inspirational pieces of
photography that are done in-camera without any after effects or editing
software. They want to see what can be done without Photoshop.
We can’t conclude that there is right or wrong
when using Photoshop. Using or not using Photoshop depends on individual’s
thoughts. However, either one of two sides have a large amount of art works created
every day.
Work Cited:
Suess, Matt. "Real photographers Don’t Use Photoshop Plugins,
Right?” www.mattsuess.com. Suess Fine Art Photography, 27 Apr 2011. Web. 24 Oct
2012.
Leeds, Galen. "Why I don’t use Photoshop?”. www.galenleeds.com.
Galen Leeds Photography, 23 Apr 2011. Web. 24 Oct 2012.
Wood, Thomas.
"We Say, Death of Photoshop”. www.deathofphotoshop.com. Death of
Photoshop, 2012. Web. 24 Oct 2012.
You provide a lot of good reasons *not* to photoshop. For aesthetic or stylistic reasons, one would not want the programmer's aesthetic to superimpose itself on the photographer's. What an interesting argument.
ReplyDeleteI wonder: have you ever used photoshop on one of your own photos? Could you enhance this text even more by showing a natural vs. photoshopped image?
I know this is a huge topic in photography simply due to the fashion industry and the unreal body expectations that come with fashion and modeling.
Nice selection of sources and content here.