Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

What a load of self-justifying horse hockey. The author’s pretensions jump off the page, at least to me.

It’s not really “post processing” it’s image processing. If such great “Street” photographers as Arbus, Winogrand, and even Weegie and HCB were willing to put time into it, why does this kid think his time is too worthwhile?

Yes, some photographers today rely too heavily on processing. That’s low-hanging fruit. But I think there are as many, or more, who are just too lazy and too convinced of their own genius to put in the work required to perfect their images.

Were Ansel Adams alive today, he’d be blogging on Lightroom, Photoshop, and other image processing software.

Andy

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

My question to all those anti-post processing folks is do they shoot all their work in auto mode? Post processing is simply an extension of the work you started in pre-processing. To think a photo should be right SOOC is akin to shooting in auto and just let the camera do all the decision making. Once you start making your own adjustments, in or out of the camera, you are beginning to become a photographer.
If you think about it, even if you do shoot everything in auto, and then get stuff right in post, it's no different at all from making all the manual adjustments in camera and fine tuning things in post. The main difference, imo, is post is far more challenging than getting your camera settings correct.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Not really certain why you feel so offended by the authors take on this subject, maybe read the last few paragraphs and rethink your response.

"I’m someone that has totally gotten on board with a minimalist approach to life. Naturally, this has transferred to my photographic world. I recently sold all my Nikon gear’ two bodies and five lenses. Now I have a Fuji XT2 with a 35mm lens. That is all I need and that is all I want. I have done the same with my editing software too, saying goodbye to Lightroom and now only using a basic editing tool that works perfectly on my Chromebook."

"Some purists may argue I shouldn’t edit at all, but I ‘m not that strict – yet. Rather I have gone for a more simplified approach to the process. Previously I would spend hours upon hours editing my images. From the colour in the shadows to obsessively tweaking the tonal curve, I would spend so much time over-thinking the final image. Now I only touch the basics. If I need to up the exposure by a few stops, no problem. Maybe add some slight vibrancy or contrast. But if I have to spend more than a couple of minutes with an image, then it goes straight into the bin."

"The biggest benefit to scaling back on photo editing is that I have more time to shoot. For a street photographer, it is imperative we spend as much time on the streets as possible. This gives us more opportunity to capture compelling moments – something we can’t do if we’re wasting time trying to rescue an image."

"We Have Lost the Meaning of Photo Editing
There was a time when photo editing stood for something. It was a way for a photographer to stamp their signature on their work. A well-done edit would make a photographer stand out from the crowd. All of that seems to have been lost in recent times. Which brings me to the topic of presets."

"Presets have become a lucrative form of income for many photographers. The more established photographer can easily charge hundreds of dollars to those that want to replicate there images. The result of this is that many photo streams are almost identical to the other."

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

The reliance on presets, and the hyping thereof, as well as the over reliance on editing leading to in-camera carelessness, are statements I can agree with.

But the author’s air of moral superiority and the click-baity nature of the headline and lede are kind of offensive to me.

Overblown and hyperbolic, IMHO.

Andy