People are often sceptical regarding images edited in Photoshop or any other software, but I think we often judge innapropriately when considering images such as these. Take advertising for example; here images are created deliberately to influence our perspective, usually to seduce us into buying a product or service. Some adverts are constructed to highlight a certain social / political issue. We should consider the image upon the context it is based, adverts are often supposed to show perfection, whether in a models airbrushed face, or a ripe glistening piece of fruit. These images are not fake, they have been created to deliver a specific response. It would not be said that a painter had...

People are often sceptical regarding images edited in Photoshop or any other software, but I think we often judge innapropriately when considering images such as these. Take advertising for example; here images are created deliberately to influence our perspective, usually to seduce us into buying a product or service. Some adverts are constructed to highlight a certain social / political issue. We should consider the image upon the context it is based, adverts are often supposed to show perfection, whether in a models airbrushed face, or a ripe glistening piece of fruit. These images are not fake, they have been created to deliver a specific response. It would not be said that a painter had 'faked' a piece of work by using a certain colour / hue, or if brush strokes were visible. Often we consider digitally enhanced images as 'fake' because of our understanding of photography, however this concept relies on the indexical nature of chemical photography. The notion that an image is created by the very thing it represents, in the same way a shadow or a footprint is formed. What we should consider is that digital imagery is simply a different way of creating visual form, in the same way that chemical photography is different from painting. Having said that, it is enjoyable to look at photographs and attempt to determine whether it is genius in controlling f-stops and exposures, of if a few clicks solved the 'annoying reflection'. :o)