"my gripe is with the people who look at Photoshop as part of the photographic routine - if that's the case, you are NOT a photographer - you are a GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATOR..." That would be the same as looking at the darkroom as part of the photographic routine. I'd like to point you towards Jerry Uelsmann: http://www.uelsmann.net/ No one is perfect. Perfect exposures are not commonplace, which is why people get 2 or 3 shots that are worth printing out of 36. Calling someone a graphic illustrator because they use photoshop to "fix" imperfections... that is a bold statement, nad isn't justified. People dodge, burn, tone, solarize, blur, soften, add bas relief, and do multiple enlargement prints in darkrooms, yet somehow, doing those things in photoshop makes you less of a photographer? I personally don't use a digital camera btw,I i loathe them, so i ain't really biased here.... If you ask me, someone who can make a "bad" exposure/shot look really good has tremendous skill. Not more or less, just a different kind than the person who has natural talent for "perfect" shots. Think about it, a "bad" shot, into something good. A bad shot into something bad, ok, you lack skill, but making it good? no offense, but what the fuck is wrong with that? Pressing the button is the first part of a photograph, and is definitely not the last, and not always the most important step in terms of the final output, be it digital or traditional. PHotoshop is merely another tool. People have relied on darkrooms for decades to aid in the final output, and sometimes that means going from a mediocre negative into a fantastic print... and I have the feeling there'd be a lot more slack cut to people who do it in a darkroom than in photoshop... its no easier either way, its just different people with a mastery of different tools. "Five years ago, the studio photographer would be concerned about dust particles on a small product shoot - now they let it ride and say "I can touch that out in Photoshop"." Well, that studio photographer would get rid of the dust particles with a little blower... what makes that more noble than blotting out the dust in photoshop? If anything, its more time consuming, and requires a greater level of skill, after all, anyone can squeeze an air tube... "That is what I was try to get across in my (then) drunken state." Im gonna bite my tongue on this one.