Photo Manipulation vs Photo Editing: What's the Difference?

When it comes to understanding different terminologies, confusion can often reign, especially when it comes to terms that seem very similar, such as photo manipulation and photo editing.

However, it is important to understand the difference between photo editing and photo manipulation if you are going to be undertaking any work that involves either of these processes.

Photo Manipulation Definition

First up, photo manipulation (sometimes referred to as image manipulation)! Photo manipulation is when you try to improve or make alterations to a photo you have taken where you are adding in, replacing, or otherwise changing elements within the photograph.

Sometimes these changes can be relatively small. For example, you might want to replace grass on the ground to make it stand out or look nicer than it did in the original photo.

It's a minor change in the grand scheme of things, but it can really make a difference as to how the final photo looks.

However, you can also use it to make more major changes, such as adding objects or combining elements from other photos to make a completely new, original image from the multiple images you have included.

Sometimes, this can simply be to create a cool effect, but on other occasions, it can be to convey a particular message or to achieve a particular goal.

It's definitely a way for any budding artist to express themselves creatively. There's a whole host of ways to adjust images with photo manipulation that will help you release your inner artist.

Photo Editing Definition

Photo editing, or image editing, is a little different from photo manipulation. Photo editing is basically a post-processing technique designed to improve, enhance, or otherwise change visual elements within the final image.

Or to put it another way, it's the last thing you do in order to get your picture looking perfect.

This normally involves things like adjusting color balance, tones, hue, lighting, shadow, and any other elements that make up your final image.

These days, photo editing is so common that we barely even think of it as a separate process. Photo editing software is absolutely everywhere.

Sometimes this can be big, expensive image editing software packages such as Adobe Photoshop, but even most mobile phones have some photo editing capabilities.

Photo Manipulation vs Photo Editing: What’s the Difference?

While from the above description, it's clear that photo manipulation and photo editing are related to each other, they are definitely not the same thing.

Combining multiple images into a single image, for example, might sound like photo editing because you are editing a series of original image elements into a composite image. But that's definitely photo manipulation.

• What Do You Want to Achieve?

  One area of photo manipulation that is also worth addressing is what you want to achieve with it. With photo editing, making an image look a bit brighter, or making skin tones look more natural is a fairly straightforward concept.

  The actual image production in your software might prove challenging, depending on the state of the original image, but what you want to achieve with photo editing is simple - make an existing image look better by adjusting the existing components of that image.

• Photo Manipulation

  When it comes to photo manipulation, things are a little less clear.

  There are a number of different things you can aim to achieve with photo manipulation. For example, adding extra elements to an existing image might be useful if you were producing a poster to advertise something like a movie or a show.

  Taking different elements and combining them into a single image using photo manipulation is a great use of the technique and an extremely common one. It's a great chance to show off your skill level and your creative intent.

  However, because photo manipulation involves adding or replacing elements from an original photo, there is also the scope to use it deceptively.

• Case Study: Real Estate

  

  One area where both concepts are common is real estate photos. Using photo editing on a picture of a house to make it look like the picture was taken on a brighter day if it was originally overcast is fair enough - that's just a small adjustment to compensate for weather which you can't otherwise control.

  There's a fine line here between making a small adjustment and taking it too far, but on the whole, doing something like brightening up an image isn't actually changing it, it's just a small enhancement of the environment.

  However, with photo manipulation, real estate images can be altered to try to deceive the person looking at them. Maybe there's a huge pylon behind a house someone wants to sell that won't look great to anyone looking at the pictures - no problem!

  Fire up your image editing software, like Boris FX Optics, use photo manipulation to get rid of it, and suddenly something that didn't seem so desirable looks much better. Real estate photography suddenly got a lot easier - now you don't have to take carefully angled shots, you can just wholesale delete things from the original image!

  

  Obviously, that isn't ethical. You would be using photo manipulation to mislead potential buyers. But it indicates what can be achieved with photo manipulation that can't with simple photo editing and thus helps to underscore the differences between them.

  In one case, you're just making the image look better, in the other, you're actively removing elements from the original scene to change how it is seen.

  This is the power that photo manipulation has. You can use it to create composite images that can look beautiful, surreal, and dreamlike. Or to create something powerful that communicates a very specific idea or concept.

  But at its heart, photo manipulation is all about adjusting the reality of the image. How you use that is up to you.

Key Differences

In the table below, you can see the key differences between photo manipulation and photo editing.

Feature	Photo Editing	Photo Manipulation
Purpose	Enhancing an existing image	Creating a new or altered visual
Extent of Change	Minor adjustments	Significant changes, often creating new elements or scenes
Focus	Visual quality and technical correction	Content alteration and creative expression
Example	Color correction, cropping, removing blemishes	Adding objects, changing background, creating composites

This shows the fundamental differences between photo editing and photo manipulation. While one is clearly intended to improve images that already exist, the other is to adjust existing images or create new ones with photo manipulation. And while both involve image editing, the end goal remains different.

Final Words

Photo manipulation and photo editing are really important skills for professional photo editors to master. Even if you just want to enhance a few photos you have taken yourself or fancy being creative and producing a manipulated image to wow your friends or make something look interesting on a blog post, the skills involved are well worth learning.

Knowing the difference between photo editing and photo manipulation means you can now create not only great-looking images, but also talk confidently on the subject and really know which is which!