Sad day for me

 I finally broke down and did it. I used this site's controls and photo shopped several of my photos to see what would happen.  I hate photo shopping. To me its nothing but cheating but it seems to be the only way to win anything on this site. I just had a great photo take off like a rocket after I posted it and not I'm wondering what if I destroyed it with P.S. ?? 

Hey no need to be sad.. Lets see what you done , show us the photo here if u can and if u want criticism we are here to help..  Photoshop is not cheating... it takes practice and you should enjoy every moment of it.. Wheres the photo?

Photoshop is half the photo process to me.  Any way, lets see your work

Tom-Lutz wrote:  I finally broke down and did it. I used this site's controls and photo shopped several of my photos to see what would happen.  I hate photo shopping. To me its nothing but cheating but it seems to be the only way to win anything on this site. I just had a great photo take off like a rocket after I posted it and not I'm wondering what if I destroyed it with P.S. ?? 

A) What do you mean "win anything on this site?" Are you referring to ViewBug? PT is just a forum; the contests are over on VB.

2) There are a number of threads on this site related to editing of images. There's nothing wrong with editing images, and editors such as PS/et. al. are just a digital darkroom. You can do a little or a lot, it's up to you. But editing is not evil in and of itself.

Keep in mind that adjusting contrast and exposure, dodging and burning and the like, just like was done in a darkroom, is considered "editing" and it's not a bad thing. I won't even discuss the fact that JPGs are images that have been edited by the camera's software.

Essentially, a refusal to edit based on "editing" is arrogant (stubborn), just like demanding that images are edited for the sake of editing. The goal IMO should be to create your best image and fulfill your artistic vision. If PS helps that, why is that wrong?

Frankly, most "out of the camera" images are not good anyway.

Tom-Lutz wrote:  I finally broke down and did it. I used this site's controls and photo shopped several of my photos to see what would happen.  I hate photo shopping. To me its nothing but cheating but it seems to be the only way to win anything on this site. I just had a great photo take off like a rocket after I posted it and not I'm wondering what if I destroyed it with P.S. ?? 

Your camera's files are meant to be edited. It's in the design.  Congrats, you moved up in developing your art.

Celebrate.

I've got everything posted over at viewbug on my profile over there. I'll admit a few of the pics I've worked were personal favs and in doing this I hope they'll get more views and awards than without the P.S.

Tom-Lutz wrote: I've got everything posted over at viewbug on my profile over there. I'll admit a few of the pics I've worked were personal favs and in doing this I hope they'll get more views and awards than without the P.S.

What exactly do you have against PS and editing in general?

To me its cheating. Let a photo rise or fall on its origonal merit, not on what's done after the fact.

What Gary said.  Plus:
The world's greatest photographs were edited in an old-fashioned dark room.  PS is now the dark room and you have artistic control over how much you edit or how little.  Cheating?  I don't see it that way.  I see it as a completion of the artistic vision that drew you to take the photograph in the first place.

Tom-Lutz wrote: To me its cheating. Let a photo rise or fall on its origonal merit, not on what's done after the fact.

You know your camera edits for you right? So you're effectively already photoshopping....

a camera isn't a full photo shop suite program. It only does a limited amount of editing. IF I ever get my old photos from my 35mm SLR that I used to have, I'll scan those off and post some of them to this site. That may be a few years down the road.

Tom-Lutz wrote: a camera isn't a full photo shop suite program. It only does a limited amount of editing. IF I ever get my old photos from my 35mm SLR that I used to have, I'll scan those off and post some of them to this site. That may be a few years down the road.

Correct.  The camera does limited editing.  Saying photoshopping is just saying you're editing.  It's a very vague statement.  Those old film shots you have been edited as well in a dark room.  There is literally 0 difference.

Look forward to seeing the shots you upload.

Maybe what you want to do is get it right in your camera then post it. If you don't want to edit then shoot in JPEG -- the camera can do the editing for you. But most photographers including me who is not much of a photographer had learned to shoot in RAW and edit through Photoshop. Now a RAW file need to be put in your computer and processed as a viewable image unless this site can accept RAW files for all of us to view each files. 

Translating your RAW file to a viewable image like TIF, PNG or Jpeg is processing, where you like to accept that or not. Celebrate your creativity... and learn from it.

 I do celebrate my creativity. I take great photos, without any type of enhancement. I get tons of compliments and at VB I get people giving me their awards of Superior  skills, top choice or what ever they feel my photo deserves. To me, to have to do anything more, is prop up something which by itself, wouldn't stand a chance on its own without the photo shopping. I keep debating with myself about setting up a contest over there and make it 100% photo shop free, no P.s. at all and see what happens.

You'll have to friend me over at View bug. I use the controls over there to do all the photo shopping and there's no way to lift it off that site and then put it here or anywhere. The site just won't let it for security reasons.