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In this digital age, post processing skill is just dominating the necessary photographic skill. Many good photographers are not necessarily a good photoshop-er. once upon a time i considered that there was a big difference between a photographer and a painter because the painter could paint anything according to his imagination but a photographer could not, but in this digital age i think this difference no longer exists. Do you think it is a transformation?
You cant make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, apparently. Dont know why but more and more I'm getting Keithh quotes back in my head ;0
Photoshop is just the equivalent of the darkroom but with a few more bells and whistles, and before digital a very good photographer often had a very good print man in the background.
Personally I dont think you need to know much about Photoshop if you know how to take a good picture in the first place, PS can often be used to cover up mistakes, to rectify after the event rather than get it right 'in camera'. But then I love messing around and trying new things to see what I can make, not always, just depends on my mood.
Sometimes I've seen people obsessed with the technical, meaning that there is no real life left in a picture and then on the other hand some are too taken with the idea that they are making 'art' to cover up the fact they havent got much of a clue what they are doing technically - and it shows - but photoshop is a way of masking or disguising this - nothing wrong with it so long as you enjoy it and are not trying to fool anyone 
Not really sure what the question is 'do I think it is transformation'? - well do you mean because of the advent of digital photography and the changes it has made to access of photographic techniques and processes. Or do you mean post production work itself being transformative?
Either way both are surely correct (for good or bad - but that is another question and one you don't appear to ask).
But you should remember that most of the PS and PSP facilities have always been available to the photographer - it is just that today they are available to photographer and non photographer alike. So maybe not quite as transformative as we might think.
Cheers
Robert
With any image it is the content that is important. Many a 'great' photograph from the early days of photography would not stand up technically.
Photoshop is the comfortable dark room of the digital age.
The digital age has opened up photography to almost everyone and personally I think that is great.
In that sense it is a transformation.
When Delacroix saw his first photograph and exclaimed, "from today, painting is dead", he was very wrong. Painting was liberated from the need to be representational and the schools like the impressionists soon followed.
Photoshop has set photography free. There were plenty of paste-ups and manipulation before the digital age. It was just a bit more difficult.
A good photograph is about emotion and, very often, high technical quality weakens a pic.
This "purist" argument is generally put forward by younger people who do not remember (or maybe never knew) how many hours we used to spend in the darkroom "enhancing" every image.
At least Photoshop is not as carcinogenic (as far as we know!) as many of the noxious chemicals we used to dip our fingers in.
well thanks all for your comments, first of all i must clear a point that it is just a learning process to me what you all think, i am not at all a purist, but you can not just ignore the fact that traditional dark room has some limitations but the digital dark room in this age has hardly any such limitations, it is no doubt a helpful tool as well as a separate field of art, on the other hand it is just giving an artificial definition to photography,( although i admit that i do not know anything about it ).
photoshop is a way of masking or disguising this- that is the point, if i can mask and disguise my technical mistake easily, my necessary photographic skill will be destroyed by habit, so photoshop is just destroying the perfection of the photographer at the time of shooting...
Photoshop is the comfortable dark room of the digital age- it is not too comfortable for everyone, it requires technique which is at the expense of photographic skill...
But you should remember that most of the PS and PSP facilities have always been available to the photographer - it is just that today they are available to photographer and non photographer alike. So maybe not quite as transformative as we might think- i completely agree that to some extend this facility is available to the non digital section, but there is a limit, in the digital section it is unlimited i think, my question is whether the distinction between a painter and a photographer exists still in this digital age...
do not think it otherwise, it is just a thought(if at all permitted to place, obviously)...
Quote: it requires technique which is at the expense of photographic skill
Can't see the logic in that statement at all - why does it have to be one or the other ?
Quote: i considered that there was a big difference between a photographer and a painter because the painter could paint anything according to his imagination but a photographer could not, but in this digital age i think this difference no longer exists.
This is just another way of rephrasing the 'it's not really photography if you use Photoshop debate" which has been done to death.
Once again I would remind you that photographic manipulation has been going on almost as long as photography. Rejlander was doing it in 1857
Your assertion that a photographer could not 'paint' according to his imagination is disproved by many photographs including Dali Atomicus.
Can't see the logic in that statement at all - why does it have to be one or the other ?- so both a photographer and a photoshop-er is the one and identical person, i think this can not be said, both are interrelated but not necessarily the same, a poor photographer may be a brilliant photoshop-er and vice-versa, because different skill is needed...
i completely agree that to some extend this facility is available to the non digital section- i have already admitted that manipulation exists in the non digital section, but with some limitation. In the digital section this limit hardly exists. Again, traditional dark room is limited to a few persons, but digital dark room is open to all( it is obviously a helpful tool), on the other hand:-
Quote: Quote:A good photograph is about emotionI agree entirely. Maybe emotion will be a plugin in some future release?
Again i should say it is just a learning process to me, i am not a purist...
Quote: the painter could paint anything according to his imagination but a photographer could not, but in this digital age i think this difference no longer exists
not quite. photoshop cannot alter 3D perspective, which is the basis of composition. If a composition isn't right in the first place, it can be cropped, and intrusive objects removed) but the 3D perspective can't be altered (ie the relationship of different elements in the frame to each other) - this has to be seen at the taking of the shot.
Similarly that all-important one - LIGHT. photoshop cannot create or recreate good quality light.
Quote: so both a photographer and a photoshop-er is the one and identical person, i think this can not be said, both are interrelated but not necessarily the same, a poor photographer may be a brilliant photoshop-er and vice-versa, because different skill is needed
Well I know a lot of really good photographers who are brilliant at photoshop, it's just part of the skill set a photographer needs these days.
yes you are right, i completely agree, but this do not fit to everyone or on the other hand it is also not necessary to mix these two skills with each other, and if the balance between these two skills is lost, as i have said photoshop skill is dominating the photography skill, that is the topic...
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