Why you should develop your photos yourself
An attempt for analogy between digital and analog photography post-processing
My first encounter with digital photography was in 2004 when my parents bought me a micro four-thirds digital camera. Panasonic FZ7 — It couldn’t shoot RAW (not that I had any idea what RAW was at that point), it had full auto-mode, integrated zoom lens, and a memory card in the box, that I never ever replaced — To me it was like my old film point and shoot, but digital. And I did use it like that.
For a while — with time I got what the P mode was (like auto, but not quite), I got the hang of Shutter priority, and later — Aperture priority. Around that time I began to understand what the ISO is for; and perhaps I had some idea of White Balance (or at least I fiddled with it enough to realize the effect it had on my pictures).
But I would still just download the jpeg files on my computer and do nothing with them. That was digital photography for me — cheap and easy.
I had some experience with pre-press and graphic design, and I was familiar with CorelDraw. So I started editing my photos in PhotoPaint — I even made this colague of two pictures of the same girl:
After that I left photography in the background really and started work as a software developer.
I worked for four years in the field of digital imaging and computational photography — ironically — and I did learn a lot about digital photography, but I also got completely bored with it.
So I got the popular notion that post-process, and everything digital is a scam. That real photography comes out of the camera, and real photographers get it right the first time.
Of course I turned to film photography once again. But this time by choice. I felt that digital is a betrayal the world won’t forgive me. I quickly assembled a fleet of old film cameras and started shooting. The only thing I’d do after development would be to scan the negative to put it on Flickr — pure photography — Just how much up to my neck with bullshit I was.
And to be honest I think it was the early wave of hipstery cross-process effects, and later of course Instagram that made the first steps for me back to sanity. I started to question everything I knew and thought of digital post processing. Am I faking it using filters? Isn’t in-camera processing the same? Because I actually liked it. So I got back in the game and bought a DSLR.
Today I shoot digital. I use Lightroom to develop my RAWs into digital photographs. Sometimes I apply Instagram filters and film presets. Then I print, or publish on Flicker. And I have a new mantra:
Real photographers develop what comes from their camera themselves. That’s not faking, that’s post-process.
Email me when Vesselin Petkov publishes or recommends stories