Hi Riju,
This is gonna be a long one
When you take a photo on film, u need to develop it to see the picture, this developing needs just as much skill as u need for clicking the shots. A good click badly developed spoils the shot totally.
In the digital era, the in-camera capture is not on film, but on storage disk space. So u develop whatever comes out of your camera in a digital dark room. RAW is digital equivalent of 35mm film(though i dont have it in my cam). As new art forms develop, as new tools are made, there is a fairly small but very loud group of artists that crib at the idea of this new development, others adapt it to their use, and others embrace it.
By the way, your thinking made me think of how i used to perceive digital photography as well
It's a pretty common thought process. But after interacting with many pro photographers, and my professors as well as many students majoring photography in my university, i got opportunities to attend a number of Digital photography Workshops and Expos here and understanding that taking pictures is just half the process, made me change my perception.
All I can say is that in the eyes of a photographer who is an artist, and I know quite a few
, the finished product is what makes a photographer. This doesn't involve altering compositions though,So it is good practice if an image is composed to actually draw attention to that fact. Rather than be like some of those Professional Photographers that stage their real war shots, or other such public deceptions. Also as long as we are honest about when an image has been pushed from "artistically developed" to "fantasy" I think the use of digital post-processing tools is the way to go, especially for art photographers. Working with a good composition in the dark room, digital or film is liking polishing a diamond, you can only work on a diamond to make it shine n glitter, but if u take a stone n try to make a diamond out of it...it will not be of any use.
It deeply offended me when you said its time i post originals. That was a direct attack on my credentials. Your perception of original, according to my understanding and also the understanding of many pros is quite different. Digital pp is not a one button click. Also, i love your critique, you are of the few honest critiques out there and that's wonderful. Not once did I misinterpret your statements, i mentioned the "nitpicking" thing purely as a joke.
Hope you take it in absolutely the right spirit.
Regards,
Mukul.