Have you ever taken a photograph of something you saw as beautiful only to be disappointed later when you looked at the actual image? I would guess that nearly everyone has had this experience. When it happens, you end up apologizing with phrases like “you really had to be there” or “photos just don’t do it justice.” This is the main reason why I edit and manipulate photos. I want to present an image of the scene the way I saw it, not necessarily the way the camera recorded it. Yet, often I read comments like “too bad it’s Photoshopped” or “that’s not how it really looks,” as if editing a photo is something that shouldn’t be done. In fact, even the word Photoshop seems to have become a negative. Now I understand if you are an editorial photographer capturing images to illustrate a news story, it would be dishonest to manipulate the image. But why do some people hold fine art photographers to the same standard? Isn’t art supposed to be about the vision of the artist? In the words of the late Ansel Adams: “The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” Many people rightfully respect Adams’ skill as a photographer, yet not many like to acknowledge that his images were highly edited and manipulated.

This is a photo of Ansel Adams with his famous image “Moonrise” next to the same image as captured on the film negative without manipulation. Would the image on the left have been as collectible and highly sought after as the image on the right? I doubt it.

These days, the RAW file is the equivalent of the negative, and the darkroom has been replaced by software, but the transformation is the same. Photographers who aspire to be artists must develop not only the skills required to properly capture a photograph, but also the skills to properly develop the image. This is where the artistic vision is revealed. While some images take many hours to be developed to my satisfaction, others take only a few minutes. But, it is a fact that none of my photographs are what would be considered “straight out of the camera.”

My goal in editing an image is to convey my vision of the scene, and with any luck, some of the emotion I felt when I was there. It is never to mislead or “pull one over” on anyone. I’m not ashamed that my photos are edited, in fact, I’m rather proud of they way they turn out.

So, if you wanted to ask, I will save you the trouble. Are my images edited? Yes. All of them. Some are “more” edited than others, but every single one is edited and no image I post is ever straight out of the camera. And that’s because it’s my vision, not the camera’s, that makes it uniquely mine. I hope you enjoy my art. Oh, and if you really want to know how any particular image was made, I will be happy to share. Just ask me.