What is Photo Shop good for?

I've been on a lot of websites, and many don't want the picture to be

photoshoped, but what if I want to darken one area, or lighten another.

Anything would help in this category.

photoshop is amazing, it is great for making suttle changes like you said (darkening and lightening an image) as well as drasticly changing an image, like adding or removing bits, Dan

I think what the web site is saying is that they don't want the image manipulated. Most news services will fire you if you have 'manipulated' an image. It also applies to images of show dogs, cattle, legal, etc. where someone has 'altered' an image that is not an accurate representation of the truth.

 

Doug

It's good for resizing images for the web. It is OK for removing little dust squiggles from a scanned B&W negative.

Photoshop can do pretty much any kind of manipulation.

 

Web sites that tell you what you can and can't do aren't worth worrying about unless you're doing news or evidence.

I agree *generally* with what Jeff stated, but not specifically. If a site has specific, and detailed, guidelines for what is and is not acceptable for their site, then I see no reason to shun them - just because they have an opinion about how much is too much doesn't mean they have not right to host an internet gallery. Face it, we all have an opinion on that topic, some people are just more professional than others when discussing it, so why turn your nose up at someone who feels differently than you? Now, if they just use the blanket term 'no photoshop!' and give no specific reason for their choice, then, yes, it si quite possible that they are not going to be very professional, and therefore not worth dealing with. There are afew very good sites for people who do not use photoshop in any way, special interested groups if you will, that have a very clearly defined reasoning for their choice to apply such a limitation, and that, in my opinion, makes all the difference.

 

- Randy

To darken a specific area of a photo is called "burning" and Photoshop works quit well for this...

 

1. Create a new layer (set the blending mode to overlay and check the 'fill with medium gray box')

2. Press 'D' to set the background color to black

3. Choose a soft edged brush (set the opacity to around 15%) and run it over the area you wish to darken.

4. Once you have finished add a gaussian blur to the new layer to blend the effect nicely.

 

To lighten an area of the photo is called dodging, and can be done in exactly the same way as above, just use white as the color instead of black.

 

Hope this helps :)

PS replaces hours in a darkroom breathing noxious chemicals. It's scope is amazing although due to a steep learning curve not many people use it to its full potential. For art and commercial photogaphers it is indispensible with it's power to fine tune images and add to them. Try designing a poster sometime with multiple layers, graphics and text, this is where it shines. If you love photography, you'll know that taking the picture is perhaps not enven 50 percent of the process, the rest is processing and presentation and that's why you need something like PS or an equivalent.

Odd, I've spent years in the darkroom and the only noxious smells in there came out of me...

 

- Randy

Even before photoshop, if you or someone else wasn't controlling things like contrast, color

balance, cropping etc. of your film and subsequent prints, the results likely didn't come close

to what you eyes saw when you took the photograph. I would argue that with film and digital

there SHOULD be manipulation of parameters like contrast, sharpening etc, or your images

likely aren't reaching their full potential, and the idea that you could handle a digital file or

scanned film without image editing software is not realistic. I suspect they mean there is an

accepted level of manipulation they accept. There is a line between manipulation and

fabrication that is discussed frequently on photo.net, where that line rests depends on who

you ask.

Randall, stop drinking the stop bath!

My darkroom is my bathroom, so it all work out in the end (ouch!)

 

- Randy

I used to work in a newspaper darkroom where most prints were burned and dodged to make the best possible image for reproduction. As others have said, Photoshop (and other such programs) are simply electronic tools for doing the exact same things digitally (plus infinitely more). If someone forbids Photoshopping, find out if they ever scan and adjust image "levels" for optimum posting on their sites. If they do, does the word "hypocracy" come to mind?

 

Dave

Hence my comments above on outlining what is acceptable and what is not. A certain amount of correction needs to be done in order to make what shows up on the monitor appear similar to the physical print, and even then, what shows up on the monitor never looks exactly like the print I'm scanning. I've never seen any site (but I've not looked extensively either) that said you can only post straight from the scanner - they all have a set list of criteria that must be met to either (as on this forum) qualify as 'unaltered' or to be allowed to be posted at all.

 

- Randy