Editing is cheating

I remember a conversation I had with my aunt a few years ago after I posted a landscape image to my Instagram. She told me, “Editing is cheating,” according to her, but editing of some form or another has always been a part of the creative process. Social media filters and over-the-top Photoshop fails can make it seem like any editing done to a photo is somehow deceiving the viewer. Don’t get me wrong—I love in-camera effects and try not to rely heavily on editing to get the shot just right, but editing has always been a natural part of the process. Whether you were push-pulling your film as you developed it or tweaking your image during printing (fun fact: dodging and burning are actually film photography terms, not concepts invented by Adobe), editing has been essential. It’s a crucial step in the creative journey and always will be, allowing photographers to bring their vision fully to life.