&$LIKE PLASTIC SURGERY_+

I'm not sure if I can ever get over it. To me photoshop is kind of like plastic sugery in the way that you can change almost everything about an image and turn it into something completely different. Anyway, the difference between the two pictures below are pretty big and I've only auto-corrected them. So think about what could happen when you would crop it and change lighting, everything. I have to admit picture two is way prettier, but I never took that picture...

1.


2.

I don't know why I hold on to the idea of non-post production so much. It's like a moral thing or something. Like, I would not want to betray my camera. It just doesn't feel right and I'm afraid it never will. But last week my photography workshop teacher showed me one of his photos, both before and after post-production and the difference was incredible. Picture one looked so not pretty. The composition was there but it kind of looked like what I would normally take with my camera. Picture two seemed to come straight from a magazine. So much more light was added, it really opened my eyes. The changes that can be made are immense. But picture two really wasn't like picture one. It was the same picture, yet completely different. That's not what I want :(

All these images that I post on a daily basis I'm sure they're messed with, but a big part of me is still too naive and believes these pictures are the original ones. If not, how could I ever look up to a photographer. I need to have an example. Someone I can idolize...

Time to go to bed and call it quits