I agree. Please feel free to move my comment and yours to a new post if you think there should be any follow up or sharing… ( am not sure how to do it or I would) As I see it tools like retouch, liquify etc etc dramatically distort things…they may use the original pixels but the result is entirely modified. If you move a tree or remove a tree from within to me its not much different that being able to include some external pixels and blend them in. Once you begin on a series of local edits the global relationship of the original pixels is broken. There is the art that you capture and then the art that you make. I suppose you could make a red car blue or you paste in blue car… its all a bit of semantics to me if you try to come up with a separate definition. For me the idea of photography stops when the shutter is pressed… photography is the skill and act of the capture, after that it is all digital pixel pushing which alters the capture in some way to create an image that pleases the “developer” and it is now their art… Its only my opinion and worth nothing and I see your point that combining images might be seen as no longer developing but creating. My point is the tools used to “develop” also rework the image dramatically making the original capture into a secondary artform… feel free to move or hide or disregard this post
1 Like