On Photography: Truth and Ethics
Does photography reveal your truths and your ethics?
The Original Image
I’d like to make a very short post this time, and I will avoid the temptation to launch into a lengthy discussion about machine learning, human laziness, AI, and all that jazz. However, I confess I use tools like Topaz Photo to finish my photographs (for noise reduction and selective sharpening), and these tools rely on machine learning algorithms.
Let’s briefly discuss ethics. While I will not give you answers, I hope to provoke discussion and maybe raise a few questions.
First, look at the image at the top of the page. I made this photograph in the Fatehpuri area of Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad), of a church constructed sometime in the 18th or 19th century. The church is beautiful, but the ugly wires crossing its face mar its aesthetic appeal.
Most photographers start editing photographs by removing distractions in the scene. Most often, these are small distractions, but sometimes, they remove people, rocks, and a whole bunch of stuff they don’t like. Some even use the warp tool to change the shape of a mountain because, in the image, the peak looks flatter than they remember it.
Photoshop’s tools have improved over the years, and I am sad that I lost the first edits, so I will content myself with a screengrab from a presentation I gave a year ago.
YouTube Video
No Wires
Examine the second picture now; you will notice that I have removed the wires, but I have lost detail, and the resultant image looks similar to the original. Anyone unfamiliar with the original image may believe that this second image is a true representation of the church. Please note: I also changed the sky.
By golly, there are birds and vultures!
Let’s move to the third image. I started this edit in December 2025 and worked my way through it slowly. In the meantime, Adobe improved its remove tool, making it remarkably easy for me to remove the ugly electrical pole in front of the church. If not for this latest improvement, I would have struggled for a few more hours. Then, I changed the sky, added birds, and also added a vulture. We don’t have vultures in Delhi: we have kites, but the AI prompt kept adding the kites that humans fly, so I changed the prompt to ‘vulture.’
My ethics. Your ethics.
What happens now if I send this image to a travel magazine/agency/website and they present this image to the world as authentic? They will lose their reputation once tourists visit the church and wonder how the church gave birth to electrical wiring.
I can post the image of the church on my website or blog without revealing what I have done, and no one will be any wiser. Will I be following an ethical line of behavior?
Beauty advertising – as an example – exhibits women who appear flawless. They promote the ideal, and only when you meet a model in person do you realize how much work goes into making them look flawless. Advertising pushes us to buy products or experiences because we yearn for the ideal look, home, product, experience, etc. Even when the actual experience falls short of the promise, we rarely confess our disappointment.
Are advertisers ethical? They promote ideals, but do they actually show what someone or a product really looks like?
Where and when does truth start to exist in the grey zone? Black and white rarely exist in the real world.
Do you have an ethical boundary, or an ethical grey zone? If you have an ethical grey zone, how thick is this zone?
Where do I skate?
You may ask what I do? I remove small distractions without worry or care. In general, I do not remove people or make large-scale changes to an image. If I do such things, or change the sky or add birds, then I will present the image as an arty-farty image and add the fine print confession, admitting I have removed wires, changed clouds, etc.
Once you start editing and add gradient maps to an image to color grade the photo, you change the image's look and feel. Almost no one believes that the color represents reality, but they represent your reality.
My question to you: whether it is photography, or writing or any other creative endeavour, where is your ethical boundary, or zone? If you have a zone, how thick is it, and how many shades of grey does it possess?
Join the conversation, bitte! I’d love to read your thoughts!