The photos do not reflect reality in spite of having that reputation.
I do not want to enter in the natural interpretation made by each photographer, for which we can only control is the personal ethics of each one.
The photographic medium has many differences that prevent even remotely resembles the human perception of reality.
The tonal range and adaptation of the eye together with the interpretation that our brain makes of the images are things that a camera direct photo image can never imitate.
That’s why painting give us more realistic feelings than photography. Because the artist directly mimics the feelings, not reality.
So I think that any photographic image always needs a minimum of postproduction. Do not argue with it the abusive retouching, but quite the opposite: to reflect it in a much more realistic way that we have portrayed.
I will set a very realistic couple of examples, without going into images that can ask for a extreme retouch.
The first is how would see it the camera with an automatic processing, while the second is with a later work:
In our wedding reports there is always a post production. I call it emphasis, to distinguish it from a basic retouching of imperfections about the shot (CCD stains, adjust color and contrast, etc..).
With the emphasis of the photo what I try is that it reflects best the feelings of a moment that deserves to be remembered.
