Legitimate Image Manipulation

Photographs can be manipulated in many ways. With excessive manipulation, however, the image might not be believable. I generally want to accurately capture the scene before me, but sometimes brightness and other factors can obscure significant details. Yet there are ways to enhance those details without overly manipulating the original image.

Below is a photograph of the snow-covered Princeton Battlefield at sunrise. It is exactly as I photographed it.

I never look directly at the sun, but I detected it out of the corner of my eye. I liked the way the light brightened the snow in a graduated way. The sky was interesting as the rays shot out. I focused the camera without looking at the sun, closed my eyes, moved the camera to the left, and pressed the shutter. 

Now consider the next image.

Through the use of the filters in Lightroom and certain specialized plug-in filters in Photoshop, I created a very different photograph. It is dramatic and more accurately reflects the reality of the scene rather than what my eyes could see. I did not bring out anything that wasn’t already there. I actually consider this the more realistic image of the two since it captures colors and contrasts that my eyes could not detect. It has not been overdone with saturation, but the increased contrast has made it more interesting overall. I removed the bluish cast of the snow, increased the contrast in the sky, and brought out some detail in the trees. 

In other words, manipulation may add legitimacy to the image when it comes to being able to present accurately what might sometimes be invisible to the naked eye.