First, most photographers working digitally today are not concerned with manipulating an image to the extent of moving trees or altering colors and so on. They are simply in search of a finer photographic print, with often obsessive commitment to the integrity of how the image was originally shot. Secondly, the concern about big scale manipulations overlooks the history of photography. Photography has always had an experimental side. The computer, like the traditional darkroom, is simply another creative tool for the dedicated artist.
Digital prints are reproductions .
For the first time, we are dealing with a technology that is capable of producing both reproductions and original prints from the exact same printing device. One key difference of course is the fact that a painting already exists, and the artist is simply handing it over to a printing house with the instructions to reproduce the original as closely as possible. Duplication is the goal, with no creative interpretation. With the digital photograph, however, the final print IS the original. All creative interpretations and adjustments have been made in the computer, by the photographic artist, and the final result is the finished photograph.