Photoshop can be used as a verb, as in 'to photoshop a picture', meaning to use image manipulation software to change the content of a picture. For example, the Bush/Cheney campaign recently publicized a modified photo of senator Kerry from the 1970's by adding an image of Jane Fonda from another picture to make it appear the two were in kahoots during the Vietnam war.
There are, however ways to use Photoshop within the ethic of photography to process photographs much as one would have done, back in the dark(room) ages. Although processes like unsharp masking, layering and noise abatement were difficult in a chemical darkroom, they are possible. I know this because I used to spend days to get a single special effect image from the darkroom.
Last night I completed a class on Photoshop, wherein I documented all of the techniques I used to process photographs, where the image remains a photograph rather than becoming digital art. As culmination to the class, I wrote a paper that describes, in detail, with examples, my techniques for ethical Photographic Manipulation.
Mail to the Future is back!
