alt Hacker NewsJournalistic/event photography is about accuracy to reality, almost all other types of photography are not.
Portrait photography -- no, people don't look like that in real life with skin flaws edited out
Landscape photography -- no, the landscapes don't look like that 99% of the time, the photographer picks the 1% of the time when it looks surreal
Staged photography -- no, it didn't really happen
Street photography -- a lot of it is staged spontaneously
Product photography -- no, they don't look like that in normal lighting
Replies
This is a longstanding debate in landscape photography communities - virtually everyone edits, but there’s real debate as to what the line is and what is too much. There does seem to be an idea of being faithful to the original experience, which I subscribe to, but that’s certainly not universal.
Re landscape photography: If it actually looked like that in person 1 percent of the time, I'd argue it's still accurate to reality.
Nothing can be staged spontaneously.