Zoom-in Online

I am not a photo purist. I am all for adding a personal touch to your pictures, giving them a unique look and some snap using post processing. In fact, that's half the fun of digital photography. But there is such a thing as taking it too far, and one of the most common "effects" I see, and one which I hate almost beyond description, is fake water ripples.

I only mention this, because I keep seeing it pop up everywhere. It first started bugging me in the queue at iStockphoto. Photos with that kind of filtering are rejected for that same reason, but suddenly everyone started doing it anyway. And then I started seeing it elsewhere, from Flickr to professional photo-mags, and I began to wonder: Am I a filter nazi?

The truth is, I may well be. Retouching is cool, adding a little oomph is awesome, but if you take it too far, all you end up with is lameness. Now, I don't mean to bag on those, who are just playing around, experimenting with new techniques or learning Photoshop. Indeed, looking at a tutorial on how to make aforementioned water effect, it might actually be a great exercise in post processing. But I don't need to see your exercise work, really, and neither does the rest of the world.

So, here we are. You now know my stance on heavy filtering in general and fake water in particular. Now, I'm off to see if I can find the Pacific Ocean and maybe take a few snapshots of real water.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.