What do you think is legitimate? How far can we go in manipulating photos?

[Hamster]

Maybe split things into photography as one category and fine art photography/ digital art as the other. I suspect that almost all entries here will be photography.

OK, but we're back to the problem of defining this line. So you'd need to tell people what you would say constitutes a "photograph" for the purposes of an AP competition, i.e. the rules. Saturation change allowed? How much? Contrast adjustment? How much? global or selective?..... An interesting point somone made was that they can move a coke can from a scene before they take the shot, but if they remove it using the clone tool then that might be too much manipulation for some. That seems very silly to me, but is cloning in or out?

I agree with Glenda. I don't see a real issue with photo manipulation. There are some spectacular images presented here and elsewhere and I am not all that concerned with how they get to that end, ... If it means that I need to learn how to do these post processing manipulations, then so be it, it will mean that I can present "better" images.

As for Steve's fungi images, his are more of a reportage style and probably need to be accurate for identification purposes. However, that is a different topic. We are not discussing reportage photography, we are discussing what constitutes a pleasing image and one that we would love to have hanging on our wall. If it is obvious photo manipulation people will either like it or not like it at vote accordingly. If it is not obvious then does it really matter? If it looks great then people will vote accordingly. The point is, would you have it hanging on your wall? If so, then vote accordingly. If not, then also vote accordingly. I think there is a little bit of jealousy that some do not have the skills to manipulate a photograph and are thus possibly against photo manipulation....
At the end of the day, we all make our judgements as we are the ones scoring the photo, not faceless judges. If it were supposed to be a perfect representation of what the photographer saw, then that is a different matter, this is reportage photography and most of those I wouldn't have hanging on my wall unless it meant something to me for some reason. However, this may mean it doesn't mean anything to someone else.

*Paraphrased for the key bits I like*

Exactly. Do you like it or not, does it evoke some emotion, does it make you feel calm, angry. Do you like the tones, the light, the composition (ooh probably cropped, take points off - of course it is, but was it done well...to enhance the story)
I too suspect that some peoples dislike of PP is linked to their lack of skill in this area. Understandable in some respects, but no one ever achieved something great by saying, hey you, stop cycling so fast, I can't go that fast so this cycling competition has a speed limit that just happens to match my maximum.