Is "fixing" photos cheating??

[Christina0701]

Hello All!

I am very new to UW photography, I have a SeaLife Mini II camera and am a recreational diver. My camera does NOT blow me away with its performance and I've been doing nothing but endless research and reading on here about what my possible future upgrade could be. I'm not ready to make a larger investment YET so in the mean time I will deal with my quirky little SeaLife....

I have come across some posts on here where people "fix" their photos. So, I took some of my old UW photos from Tulum and played around with Lightroom 2 on my Mac. I also have Aperture but couldn't figure out how to use it. I'm amazed at how much better I can make my photos look with Lightroom! My question is (and may sound stupid but whatever) is this cheating? Or does everyone even with high end cameras "fix" their UW photos? If so, what programs does everyone use? Completely out of curiosity here!

 

[ScubaSteve]

Who cares? That is not intended in the mean way either . I only mean, why would it matter to you if someone else thought you were "cheating"? If you were entering the photo into a contest as the original then I would say yes it is. Otherwise, I would say be honest about what the photo is but be proud of it in any form......altered or not. I for one only adjust RAW colors and perhaps crop (my ability to compose a shot is usually zero) before converting to JPG. But if you want to eliminate backscatter etc.. then I say have fun doing it.

 

[Hawkwood]

In the "old" days of negatives, cropping, burning in, dodging, touching up with knife and ink, etc. were common.

 

[mblazer]

Christina: Post processing is neither "fixing" nor "cheating". It is a routine, often necessary part of the photographic process. I've been an amateur photographer for 38 years. In the old days, "post" was done in the darkroom. Since the advent of digital, it has become much more user friendly, and even more common. I doubt you will find many avid photographers who can (honestly) say that they just keep what they shoot, with no post work. As far as "high" versus "low end" cameras, the extent of post that may be required or desired is a function of not just the equipment, but a variety of other conditions and factors, including whether you're shooting jpg or RAW. After many years of land-based photography, I started under water with a Sealife DC1000. I've since moved up to a Nikon D800 with a Nauticam housing (my wife keeps saying that I have no cheap hobbies). I frankly do much more post work with RAW, which is now all I shoot, than I did previously with jpg -- a function of the format. So, be happy with the results you get, both pre and post processing, and remember to leave only bubbles and take only pictures.

 

[boulderjohn]

It would only be cheating if you somehow found and entered a competition that did not allow it.

 

[Lizard Leg]

I don't think it is cheating - I take pictures with a cheap Canon SD1400 and a Canon underwater housing. Most of the good shots come out in post.

here are two pictures - the raw version and the "fixed" version:

 

[antattack]

If the goal is to create an image that you enjoy, Then fix away! I'm pretty sure Ansel Adams routinely cropped photos, pushed exposures during development and chose specific paper to print his images on. If Fixing is good enough for Ansel, it's good enough for me!

 

[Larry C]

Your camera only interprets the light that comes through the lens. If it's not what you saw, you can use whatever tools are at your disposal to adjust the image closer to what you saw. The better you get at taking pictures and learning the adjustments available on your camera, the less you'll have to adjust.

 

[Venus]

On another message board they had a similar question and most people didn't want to see post processed pictures ....

.... I removed all the pictures I'd put up on there over three years

I see Photoshop as part of the process to creating a picture
and learning the power of the application allows you to do so many creative artistic things to take that picture to another level

 

[flareside]

If you find yourself digitally adding in fish that weren't really there, yes it's cheating. Everything else is pretty much fair game.

Photography is an art form. Do what pleases you.