WHEN IS PHOTOSHOP UNETHICAL?

Showing reality through a picture is generally accepted as photography’s main purpose.

But popular and easy-to-use image editing software is calling that reality into question.
“If you use photo editing software to produce a piece of art, [then that’s] fine.
“But if you're using it to make material changes to a picture which you are using to report an event, and to make it seem something different to what it in fact was, then there's a technical term for that which you'd better get to grips with: it's a 'lie'.”

Mr Sinclair said a news photojournalist who uses Photoshop without declaring its use is tantamount to a “journalist who invents material facts underlying a story.”
He warned: “If you think it won't harm your reputation to become known for producing lies, then go ahead.
“[But]…if someone else suffers loss as a result of your lie, they may be sufficiently motivated to try and make legal history, with you at the other end of it.” 

The principles that bind ethical journalists are almost the same ones that photographers should adhere to, if of course avoiding legal bother is preferred.
Although under revision, the NUJ’s Code of Conduct currently states some clear guidelines for photographers keen to keep ethical with the likes of Photoshop.
Clause 6 of the code states that a journalist (or photographer):“Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means.”
And Clause 2 adds that the ethical journalist – or photographer - “Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.”
For John Toner, freelance organiser at the National Union of Journalists, using Photoshop responsibly “is not about 'best practice' in editing”.
Instead, "it’s about informing the public when an image has been manipulated and how it has been manipulated."
He advised that this can be achieved by spelling out in a footnote or similar that amendments have been made to the photo displayed.
"If an image has been manipulated the caption should state this. There should be no attempt made to pass something off as a fact when it is a fiction."

Photos where photoshop didn't make miracles :