When people ask me if I use digital I say yes, all digital from capture to printing. I’m careful to let them know that I use Photoshop only as a “digital darkroom” in landscape work. I use it to emulate all the techniques from the wet darkroom. The great advantage of the digital darkroom is the tremendous precision, control, and speed it provides over the wet darkroom. Where I might have made one mask in the old days, I now might make three or four progressively refined ones to achieve the same goal with far better results. But I would never, say, copy-and-paste a great sky or tree from one image into another.

However when it comes to the larger world of Art in general, we must realize that some amazing things are possible in the wet darkroom. For example, Jerry Uelsmann is a renowned fine art photographer who’s work is carried in the finest galleries. He started creating surreal composited images long before digital imaging (early 60’s I think). I learned a great deal from studying his work. http://www.uelsmann.net/

Best regards,
Thomas Robert Frederick
Floral Photo Art with Hand-Painted Light