That said here are some definitions, which I wrote from my point of view as a professional artist and portrait photographer.
Integrity of the Image: Back with film there was little I could do to change the negative. Today, I can do almost anything to an image even without viewers knowing. The digital integrity of the image is all the tiny dots together to make up the image. Changing these dots to alter the meaning, idea, subject, cuting/pasting, or moving things crosses over from Photography to Digital Imagery. Everyone uses software to download and view images, but making any alterations to the little dots changes the original image at capture.
My personal preference is to maintain the integrity of my images. With portraiture, this is very challenging because we have some to visually expect a level of softness (less wrinkles), glowing skin (no blemishes), and perfect skin color (tonality). Every photographer today uses software that makes these corrections. Any Photoshop expert/professional can do this without the "plug in" freely in Photoshop. I have and used both options in our studio.
Basic Retouching: After I download the images from my card to the computer viewing software where I edit, I set the remaining images to have a perfect white. This ensures I have the exact skin tonality (specifically with portraits) or , with my landscapes or documentary work, a perfect histogram (logarithmic pattern that illustrates how the software reads the black, grays, and white). Now that I have a perfect white, I can add more light or darken in areas, clean any spots from the lens or sensor, saturate or unsaturate. Basic retouching, in my studio, is not altering anything, but enhancing what is there with the pixels (tiny dots). For portraits, this means healthy skin color with eye correcting for wrinkles and under eye circles, white teeth, and desired color saturation (depends on the client's usage and preferences).
Here's an example: Original Capture was in color:
Org. Capture Post Production
As you can see, I did absolutely nothing to the left image. The right side was after I did my BW conversion method (my own little mix), a little tonality balancing with the history brush in Photoshop, and sharpening of the infant feet. I think I also cropped a bit too much on the left and may change it.
That is why I have prints all over: view them into perception and note the changes I would like to experiment with to find what feels best to me.
