Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/12/03

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Ranting and Raving -- Photoshop
From: Shawn London <srlondon@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 08:07:49 -0800 (PST)

You make some very good points about Photoshop... but it is just a
tool... not the Devil's tool.  Photoshop's exposure-massaging tricks
create effects limited by the rules of physics.  For example, if Mr. Z
underexposes his film by two stops, neither adjustment in photoshop
nor alterations in the enlarging process of a print will recover the
lost shadow detail. The "information" simply isn't there.  Unsharp
masking can only create the impression of a sharper photo--it cannot
really correct a focusing error.

While Photoshop might not be able to do anything that conventional
photography tools cannot do if you aren't going to "push the
envelope", so to speak, Photoshop is much easier and faster to work
with. While an array of chemicals and tricks might work for a master
like Ansel Adams, I find that even for fairly skilled practitioners,
it is much, much faster to remove the inevitable dust spots or
scratches using the clone tool than it is to whip out the retouching
dyes.  

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