Photography v. Photodesign

Photography has drastically changed in the past 50 years. With the invention of Photoshop, which can mimick effects and edits done in a dark room, beautiful, unedited photography has been challenging to find as much. Some unedited photography is shown below.

Photodesign is basically photos taken and extremely edited in Photoshop or other programs like it, and using it in a design project of some sort. Extreme photography editing is shown below.

Both of these tactics of using photos are helpful to learn. Many photographers critic photodesigners for ruining photography for everyone. I don't think that's true. I think there is a beauty and an art about both types. The beauty of photography is that you can capture a moment in time and portray a feeling, emotion, or concept. The beauty of photodesign is that you can take a bunch of different photos, combine them, apply millions filters, and text to create a feeling or emotion. And sometimes just to make it look neat. They both have their advantages and they both have their disadvantages.

My suggestion balancing the two is to always make sure that when you're going for photography act like a professional unediting photographer. Try not to edit your photos in Photoshop even slightly. When you're going for photodesign don't pretend that you haven't edited them. Admit your editing process and let people know that you spent a lot of time editing and creating your own masterpiece.