One of the things that clients often wonder about, is what can be done to alter photos once we are finished with taking photos and we get back to the computer to process them. Photoshop is one of the several tools we use regularly, but we don't get crazy and carried away here like you hear about in social media and with all of the commentary these days about too skinny models.
One of the primary reasons we we take photos into Photoshop is to clean up distracting elements of an image that take away from the natural beauty and impact of a photo. One example from a recent photo shoot we have previously written about involves removing a dog leash from the image. We wanted to capture the dog waiting for it's owners to call, but in order to keep the dog safe and prevent him from running off, we wanted the leash on until everything was ready for the owners to call him. The original image shows the leash being held by an assistant, which we removed for the final edit.
Photoshop is a powerful tool - it has been used by others plenty of times to significantly alter reality or create reality that never existed. We believe in using Photoshop lightly, and in this example, it allowed us to get a great photo and keep our furry client safe in the process.