Slaves to Post Processing

When did photography become about spending more time with your hands on a mouse rather than a camera?

Post processing is not a new concept. From the colorizing of prints to cross processing to dodging and burning; adding effects to a photo after the fact is something that photographers have been doing for decades. The advent of digital photography simply made this process more accessible by eliminating the need for a lab or darkroom. While it can't be argued that post processing can be a very effective way to enhance one's photographic experience, somewhere along the way so many of us lost sight of what we were doing. Suddenly, "Photoshopping" became a priority rather than an optional tool.

How many times have you heard or spoken the words "I'm shooting in RAW so I'll fix it later"? RAW is an invaluable tool that allows us to correct and recover from mistakes made during shooting, but to use RAW as the foundation of your workflow seems to be such a waste of time (time that could be better spent shooting more photos). To me, RAW is like the lifejacket beneath your seat on a plane; it's good to know that it's there but it's something you shouldn't have to use unless it's unavoidable.

Most cameras have an array of settings that allow you to apply all sorts of effects the moment you shoot a photo. White balance, color saturation, contrast, exposure control; various combinations of these settings can produce a wide range of interesting effects. I think the problem that many people have is they don't think about how they want a photo to turn out until after it's been taken and they're sitting in front of a computer. To me, there's no greater satisfaction than pressing the shutter button and then seeing that your photo came out exactly the way you wanted it to. That should be the convenience of digital photography; to see the moment you take the photo whether or not you got what you want. Sure, you could shoot something and fix it later in post processing, but nothing beats getting it right the first time.

Maybe I'm lazy, but the thought of spending a large amount of time fixing all my photos after I take them makes photography come dangerously close to becoming a chore rather than a joy (the fact that digital compells some people to shoot hundreds of photos is a topic for another day). So in the coming days, my goal will be to get as much done in-camera as possible so that my time can be better spent doing what I love, rather than slaving away on things that shouldn't have needed fixing.