Photoshopping

This is a picture of my brother's dog. Cute isn't he. Photoshopping has the purpose of changing a photo in order to create this image of what the picture is about. Now this untouched photo is really about a cute dog looking very comfortable and photogenic.

Now this picture feels different from the last one. It feels sophisticated, yet a has depressing side to it thanks to the alterations of cropping and making it black and white. Photoshopping has been called into light about the negative effects and I understand it completely. I do still see it though as a special effect to pictures that can help with message giving and just providing the overall tone to the picture. In my overall opinion when used as a special effect instead of providing a distorted reality, photoshopping can be good. However if misused, it can do some harm to the people who look to the images as inspiration. As long as the people are made aware that photoshopped images don't look like that in real life, I don't really see the harm in using it as a tool.