#6 In your opinion, when is it beneficial, ethical, or appropriate to digitally alter photographic portraits? When do you think it is inappropriate or ethically wrong?

This is a tough question because we are so bombarded with digitally altered images in magazines and ads. (I am again coming from my background in apparel and textiles, so I am referring to mostly fashion and beauty magazines and ads.) We are so used to seeing everything look so perfect (yet we complain about it because it is unattainable beauty) that when someone is imperfect they are greatly criticized for it.

So when is it beneficial, ethical and appropriate to digitally alter photographic portraits? I guess for me always. Its part of the modern art of photography. It gives the photographer, the artist, so much more power over their image. The times when it would be inappropriate or ethically wrong to digitally alter a photograph would be when the photographer says that they haven't altered it but really have. (Or if is a photo that is being used in a investigation of some kind...it probably wouldn't be good if it were altered.) I think altering your images, even in just a small way, is just how it goes.