Fiddling with Reality

Retouching photography isn’t something that Photoshop invented. Turns out that photographs have been retouched for about as long as there have been photographs.

Retouching used to be a hard-earned (and learned) skill and a true art form. (There is no undo button when you are working on a one-of-a-kind negative or airbrushing on a print.) Now pretty much every photo that a designer lays their hands on is tweaked a bit. Even amateurs have become pretty adept at altering reality.

According to this article in Smithsonian, back in the early days of photography (like the mid-1800s), albumin prints were regularly “improved” upon by photographers wielding pencils to add highlights and contrast. The resulting plates may have looked a bit freaky, but the photographs printed just fine.