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Hi Nicolas! Interesting thoughts. I agree that some degree of editing is part of the creative process. Not allowing the removal of backscatter is just cruel (hah!) and I actually didn’t enter OGPICOTY due to some of those harsh restrictions. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist with my images, and to not be able to clean things up like specks of backscatter just feels sloppy to me. As divers we understand there is always particulate matter in the water (some days more than others) but the viewers of our image deserve to see a polished, clean representation that enhances the beauty of the underwater world. I do think there should be some reasonable restrictions on AI, but some post processing should be allowed, and encouraged, to help clean-up the raw image.
As for baiting, I personally am not a fan. I do realize some photo ops wouldn’t be available without it though, but I do think it at a minimum it should be disclosed.