Sometimes….. the debate about “Photoshopping” one’s photographs seems akin to the current controversies about athletes using Performance Enhancing Drugs.

“You didn’t Photoshop that picture did you?” They’ll ask, knowing full well everybody’s doing it.

I can’t imagine a human-powered sport that doesn’t involve the ( illicit ) use of these drugs. Ever since the Russian women powerlifters were accused of using PEDs many decades ago ( “Daddy, why do those women look like Men?” ), the drugs have become a requisite if you want to make a living off of your athletic abilities.

Anybody who thinks you can be at the pinnacle of athletic-sports and not used them is probably under the influence of some other drugs.

So be it too for photographs that have been enhanced by Photoshop (this being the “generic” term for enhanced or modified photos).

If you’re making your living with photography and you can create the photo in few hours, that would have taken a few days to set-up and shoot (and possibly with poorer results), it’d be foolish not to use the most expedient tool for the job.

No client is willing to pay for the extra time just to allow for a “real” photo and as budgets and time-schedules are crunched, people will go looking for the most efficient way to accomplish the goal, that being a publishable picture that meets the clients needs…nothing else.

Now, mind you, this doesn’t in anyway condone the use of these Performance Enhancing Drugs, they are bad for the health of the athletes who use them and are unfair for those who’d like to be able to compete on their own abilities without the use of drugs.

It will also be interesting to see, if the drugs can be truly eliminated from sports, if we have a temporary regression in athletic prowess while the playing field once again returns to pure human-performance, and the record-books are adjusted accordingly.

So be it too in the use of Photoshopping. One shouldn’t move pyramids, darken complexions, adjust elements of news photos in order to improve composition or to put a visual slant on a news story (good thing the mass-media doesn’t lie, or we’d all be in trouble…), but, after the dust settles, Photoshop is here to stay.

That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of photographers getting most (if not all) of the image “in camera”, but on a day-to-day commercial (or academic) basis, photoshop is the place to be if you want to keep up.

Let’s hope that soon, the same’s not true of the drugs.