Jim, Photography never need to be real! Yes, you did auto tone, but at the same time, you also take advantage of tons of color in /hue/saturation/lumi tweak have already being done to the image.
The image SOOC might be good, even more real, but can not meet photographer/artist personal need. That what photography all about, it is for yourself, or themselves,
I agree your position on IQ, which is much more broad topic than sharpness, color accuracy, DR etc...My opinion is 99% IQ from content, 1% from gear/tech for the stuff I enjoy to look.
I really enjoy images like posted link above from Alex Majoli, but at the same time, I also very interested in technical IQ of gear, which is a different topic but what a hobby is all about.
You certainly can say that it is not part of \'photography\', but to some, it is.
And here is gear forum, many people not only care about image content but also ultimate level of technical quality, hence for all this discuss so far debating between the two...
Jul 04, 2013 at 02:33 PM
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