Refocusing on My Creative Journey
Two things happened last week that got me thinking about my photography more than usual. I received an interesting remark about my Try it in Black and White post and my friend Lindsey asked about my views on post processing. The comment and Lindsey's question both seemed quite timely as I've been thinking a lot lately about where I am on my creative journey.
I started this blog to document my progress as a photographer but I find that I'm no longer interested in becoming a photographer. At least not in the traditional sense of the term. It's not that I plan to stop making pictures but I'm finding more and more the limits set by myself and others only impede my creative progress.
I'm as guilty as anyone in creating these roadblocks as I've often written about my take on gear and photography in general. While my take on gear has not changed, I plan to stop preaching about it. Instead I plan to concentrate on documenting my own creative journey and the things I'm learning along the way. This may include gear and software I acquire or random creative things about making pictures, but not another word about the role of gear in photography.
This is where my responses to the comment and Lindsey's question come in. As with gear, the importance of post processing is ultimately up to the person holding the camera. If you are a purist and feel photographs should be pre-visualized and executed in camera, by all means work on getting it right in camera. This will greatly improve your photographic skills and allow you to minimize post processing work or eliminate it all together.
I on the other hand, am not a purist. While I did spend a brief period only posting images that were straight out of camera, I no longer choose to work this way. Currently, I find myself taking a more artistic stance on picture making. For me, the picture I capture in camera serves as my canvas. This doesn't mean I take crappy images with the intent of saving them later in post. I still prefer to start with the cleanest and best canvas possible by getting the exposure and composition right in camera. However, my creative juices don't start flowing until I get the image into my editing tool of choice. Whether it's Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro on my computer or Photo fx and Photogene or my iPhone, the creative exploration process kicks in as I start to mold the pixels before me into something that suits my creative vision.
3 Comments | in photography
Reader Comments (3)
Great post! I'm completely with you on the creativity aspect. I feel like photography (my photography in particular) is art and I'm very willing to explore where it takes me.
I couldn't agree with you more on this. We should always strive to execute the photograph as close to perfect as we can to what we see in our minds before we make it and that is something that I always aim to do. For me, I have found new life in my photography through a deeper and better knowledge of the software used for post. I feel that it is impossible to create with a single click the idea that you have in your mind at the time of the creation of the photograph. You will always need post to bring your idea to fruition. I see the use of the digital darkroom as a tool, not a crutch or an easy way out.
I think about my days in a Black and White class I took in college and I remember the use of various exposure times as well as dodging and burning to get regions 'just right' of the photograph. To me, the digital darkroom is no different. We make edits to the RAW file so that the idea that we conceived becomes a reality.
First and foremost, thank you for taking time to respond to my question, this is a brilliant post. I think you are a phenomenal writer about your photographic journey and your creative process, and I'm always interested in hearing your opinion. I've been struggling a lot lately with this issue re: SOOC vs. PP, and I really appreciate your very honest answer to a highly debated question among photogs. Having just returned after an embarrassingly long absence from photography, I find the whole idea of a digital darkroom fascinating as it wasn't available to me previously. In fact, I'm so enthralled with it that I find myself taking photographs of really mundane subjects just so I can play around with it in PS. Probably not the best way to get my creative juices flowing, but I also feel like I'm learning, and (dare I admit this) it's FUN to see all of the ridiculous things you can do. Because I have so many "purist" friends, though, I find myself always feeling guilty about putting any of my really thoughtful images through digital post, but I'm always so much happier w/ the edited picture. I've felt very bogged down with this issue recently, so much so, that I find myself wondering if I even HAVE a creative vision at all. I could go on and on but, I'll end by saying I completely agree with you. I look forward to future discussions on the topic and watching your creative process evolve. Again, thank you for sharing, it is always a pleasure to read your entries.