For anyone out there who is of the opinion that any form of retouching or color-manipulation on photographs is somehow “wrong” or “untrue” or “beneath you”…consider the two images above.

Actually they are the same image. Shot by none other than the great Ansel Adams. The first is a gelatin silver photographic print. The second, the raw negative. (Both are courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Notice the difference! He spent some time fixing that baby up! And it’s a good thing too. The enhanced print no doubt captures his vision of that moment in a way the “raw” image could not. I remember watching a documentary about him and hearing that he would sometimes spend weeks printing and reprinting a single image. All the while dodging, burning, exposing differently, and basically tweaking it until it was exactly to his liking.

Don’t get me wrong. Gratuitous Photoshoppery is annoying at best, banal at worst, and almost always detracts from the impact of a great image. But lest you think you must go straight from camera to print with no enhancement whatsoever, take a lesson from Ansel. It’s ok to tinker.