I have been using Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC, since my sophomore year of high school. You could probably say that I've got the whole photo editing thing down to a science. But now being in college and not having a digital photography class, I'm starting to realize how much I can get out of all-natural photography. Yes, I may use a VSCO filter every once in a while or clean up a blemish or two on a mobile app, but never to the editing extent of Photoshopping. I believe that it's the true craftsmanship of the photographer's work that sets them apart from other artists.

I will admit, Photoshop did come in handy for the assignments I had due in my digital photography courses. Projects ranged from levitations to double exposures to just simply adjusting contrast or finding the right lighting. Without Photoshop's easy-to-use editing tools these tasks wouldn't have been attainable. I could make objects disappear, I could put two separate photos together and make it look as if they were taken all at once, I could adjust the shadows, highlights, saturation, levels, hue, sharpness, any visual aspect of the photograph could be changed or altered. It was almost like I could cheat my way out of a bad grade if I was able to edit a last-minute, poorly taken photo well enough. Looking back now, I can see that this isn't how photography should be.

In this same course, we also spent a semester of the year working with film cameras. At first, I couldn't understand why we would go through all the extra effort and risk of film if the final product would never match the quality of DSLR shots. We had to carefully load and conserve our film over a couple of weeks versus just popping in a memory card. With film, there is no way to see the work in progress. It isn't until after the whole roll has hopefully been developed correctly that you will see any evidence of your work.

This, unfortunately, scares many aspiring photographers away. They want the easy way out. So they just stick to the usual DSLR and Photoshop method. Don't get me wrong, Adobe has done an excellent job with their software. I just can't help but imagine how much more reality could be portrayed if artists worked harder for their success. Not just creating a photo, but truly capturing a moment worth showing to the world.

"Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs." -Ansel Adams

And I want nothing more than to be able to trust in the art of photography forever.