05.30.2021

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF56mm f/1.2 R: 1/250s, f/8, ISO200

Salutations! The sun’s been saying that too early for me these days as we head into summer. There may not be many of you out there, but I apologize none-the-less for my lack of content. I will do my best to be better in June. There will likely be less landscapes, so look forward to that (or not)!

The photos in this set were taken back in April with everyone’s favorite: Rachel! Special thanks to Ryan for setting this shoot up as well! I would have LOVED to share these sooner, but on top of my workhorse 2012 MacBook Pro computer dying a few months back, my Drobo 5D3 content storage device also decided to commit hara-kiri. I have since sent it in for repair/replacement and hope to get it back in time to pair it with a new computer? Apple? 🙏🏼 That said, I’ve gone even further back in time reviving my ancient 2011 iMac to hold me over until new Macintosh computers are announced (and purchased). Having been spoiled with “retina display” technology, going back to an old screen has been tough, particularly for editing. My eyes get tired much faster with the old screen to the point where I no longer want to edit at all. This bring’s me to the main topic of this post: Editing Photos.

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF56mm f/1.2 R: 1/1000s, f/5.6, ISO200

I’ve run the gamut of opinions on this topic throughout my time in the hobby. I went through the “everything should be solved in-camera” phase, also known as SOOC [straight out of camera]. I feel this philosophy served me well when I was a beginner. It helped me to become more intentional about what to include and not include in the frame. It forced me to be precise on my exposure and color settings and more selective when choosing backgrounds. I held the philosophy most strongly when I was shooting landscapes and candid photos. At that time it was convenient. Processing photos took zero time. I was introduced to filters (the tangible, resin/glass kine that physically screws onto a lens, not the digital social media stuff). They further enhanced the level of control I could exert over my exposure in-camera. Finally, as I started getting more serious about portrait photography, I discovered flash and lighting in general, and those tools helped me to expand my capacity to “get things right in-camera” to the limit. Somewhere along the line, however, I discovered that there were distinct limitations to this philosophy that disallowed certain styles and room for creativity that I increasingly found myself longing to explore.

Fujifilm X-T4 + XF16mm f/1.4 R WR: 1/200s, f/7.1, ISO800

As with most things in photography, I started editing to the extremes. Landscapes became VERY saturated. Skin became plastic and textureless. Body shapes became manipulated, teeth and eyes hyper whitened, all pairs symmetricized. I think this is the image people have when they espouse the evils of retouching and how using it reinforces some impossible ideal standard of beauty that is perfectly unattainable. But I quickly grew out of this phase, and I think most photographers do. The process helped me to discover that it is precisely the idiosyncrasies that make people and nature beautiful. Retouching, for me, has become a process of removing distractions from the person or the scenery. A person won’t always have that unfortunate zit that suddenly popped up the night before the shoot, or that reddish bump from that hungry mosquito. They will continue to have that scar from that time when the long story happened that they proudly share. Editing, for me, has become the process of turning a photograph into a memory. How I remember a person or a place, or an object. If it’s not a distinguishing feature, it can be removed. If it distracts attention from the subject or scene, it can be removed. In professional situations, the client also has a voice in the process. In the previous Rachel post, I removed a LOT of little white rock things embedded in the surface of the background because they had a blown-out reddish flare that I found entirely distracting. In this set, I left them in because they didn’t have the reddish flare, and because editing on the old machine is just too taxing on my eyes. I do reserve the right to remove those white rocks in the future, but in either case, I don’t think their presence, or lack thereof would result in some standard of unattainable beauty.

I know this topic can be contentious, so for any readers out there, I’d love to read your thoughts on the matter!