You don’t have to spend much time on the web, let alone Facebook, before you come across an article on how Photoshopping (i.e. digitally altering) a picture has gone too far, how it creates unattainable standards of beauty, and/or how it is evil. Photography forums populated by the people who routinely use Photoshop will even agree and mock users who over-photoshop or worse do it poorly (e.g. three hands).

You can’t discuss music in the church for more than about two or three sentences before someone invokes the word “excellence“. Certainly our goal shouldn’t be do to things poorly, but how far are we willing to go it in the name of excellence. Is it possible to Photoshop a Worship experience, and is it possible to go too far with it? What happens if we slip up and allow people to see three hands (e.g. expose that we use backing tracks)?

Are we giving up anything in the name of excellence?

Where is the elusive line where things have gone “too far”?

While there are purists in any field who argue photoshop is an artistic compromise or even unartistic, I personally can’t get behind the purists. I think filters like the guitar pedals on The Edge’s guitar are part of his sound, part of his instrument, part of his art. Back in the film day, the dark room was part of the craft of photography. Today we have Lightroom and Photoshop, and these are arguably part of the craft of digital photography today. In fact, all my images on this blog were post-produced in photoshop, and if not photoshop, then lightroom.

In the audio world, would we ever suggest that mixing can occur without using compressors and equalization? Or if you’re a mixing engineer, that mastering is not a necessary part of the process of creating an album?

I think it may be helpful to understand something better by understanding it’s opposite. The opposite of “excellence” is sometimes framed as “inclusiveness”, as in the only thing keeping us from excellence is that we’re not being exclusive enough thus we’re allowing less talented folk to participate. While I understand this particular tension, I think another tension exists between “excellence” and “authenticity“.

We think it’s ok to use delay and equalization and compressors, but not as much pitch correction because we expect people to be able to sing on pitch.

The reality is that bad photoshopping, which I’ll generalize as “over-production” is an issue not just in church music, but in society as well. However the problem is compounded in the Christian context due to a pervasive perception of inauthenticity (via hypocritical moralizing or simply wearing a happy “fake” face).

I think it’s safe to say, we’ve seen production, we’ve seen over-production, and at this point there is a thirst for under-production if it provides for a genuine experience. Where we do use production techniques (and I do), we do ourselves and our message a favor to not overdo it.