I was browsing photoshop tutorials today, and I came across an interesting page entitled “Curves Are an Abomination”. The author, Jay Arraich (who hosts some wonderul photoshop tips) is passonate in his belief that curve manipulation bastardizes natural photography.

I don’t agree with all Jay’s points, but I think there’s some truth there. When I read Dan Margulis’s color correction book some time back, I remember thinking that many color casts are not only beautiful, they are natural. Removing them serves no goal, at least not beauty nor accuracy. And there is much beauty in accuracy. Jay goes on to defend traditional darkroom practices such as burning and dodging, presumably because Ansel Adams employed them.

But I would argue that many professionals (Mr. Margulis included) preach global color correction over local (selected) corrections for a reason. Sure, making such adjustments messes with the relative tonal values. But how is that worse than making local adjustments, which further fragment the original image data? Making slight color adjustments preserves detail and (when done well) enhances the original color information. To me, this is not as destructive as say, cloning, burning or even dodging.

Everyone knows that cameras lie, and many corrected photos give a better sense of what the viewer actually experienced than the original photo. Yes- making adjustments to a photograph can serve shallow, superficial ends. But it can also help captivate the viewer, move a photo into the realm of illustration, and bind an image into a larger design.

Here’s my retouched photo of the day- Jilly and I in Middletown last year. Probably a perfect complement to Jay’s argument, but hey- I’m still learning. Cloning, painting, local & global adjustments, median, various blending modes… you name it.