[markbarendt]

All photographs require manipulation whether it's cropping, exposure or burning in.

Frankly Gary that is just your opinion. That may be very true for your chosen workflow and style, and there is nothing wrong with that.

I would say that any image can be "changed" to manipulate it's look but it's by no means a given that improvement can be made. Improvement can only be defined when the expectations for the job are known.

For my own work it depends on how hard I worked at the shoot and how well I've defined my "normal" processes for a given film. My goal is to be completely done creatively when the shutter drops. This is especially true of weddings.

I crop with my feet and my zooms, I look for natural vignettes and frames and context, I use flash, skrims, and reflectors to burn and dodge and control contrast.

At the end of the day I'm pretty well done and the film can be processed "normally" and printed without special work in the enlarger.

She traded on a reputation that didn't reflect all of her services. My opinion is that those friends wasted £500 on shoot and burn in an attempt to save some money.

This is only true if there was something less than full disclosure on the photographers part. If the client was informed of the pitfalls and chose to press ahead there no reason to berate the photographer.

There is no sin in providing great camera work and letting someone else do the rest.