Last night I was scrolling Instagram when I saw a Reel that bothered me a bit. Maybe you saw it, too. It wasn’t from anyone I follow, just something the algorithm thought I would like. I would have much preferred to have been shown content from those I follow, but Meta kind of sucks and instead gives me things that I don’t really care for. The video in question was insulting, so I thought I would address it.
Specifically, the person in the video, who has a somewhat large following, doesn’t like that a lot of people within the Fujifilm world don’t edit their photos. “I don’t have a problem with Fujifilm cameras,” the video starts out. “My problem is with the brand and people telling you that you shouldn’t edit your photos, that you should skip Lightroom and editing, and that you should only do straight out of camera. I think that is really, really, really crap and lazy advice.” It goes on from there, and only gets worse. At the end he reveals that this is why he’s moving to Leica. Apparently he thinks that Fujifilm shouldn’t point out to their customers that their camera-made JPEGs are pretty darn good, and he doesn’t seem to like the Fujifilm community in-general and doesn’t want to be associated with such people. Perhaps not enough Fujifilm photographers were buying his preset packs?
First, I don’t think anyone is saying (or, if they are, it’s very, very, very few) that you can’t edit your photos, only that you don’t have to if you don’t want to. There are a thousand ways to do photography, and no one way is better than another. It’s only what works for you personally. If that’s shooting RAW and editing in Lightroom, great. If that’s unedited straight-out-of-camera JPEGs, cool. If that’s film photography, awesome. For a lot of people it can be a combination of things, just depending. There is no right or wrong way to do photography, and anyone who tells you otherwise is gatekeeping and should be ignored.
Fujifilm Recipes can be used in a surprising number of ways, not just for unedited straight-out-of-camera photography. Personally, aside from cropping/straightening and maybe a small exposure adjustment sometimes, I don’t edit my photos. I used to, until I realized that the straight-out-of-camera JPEGs could be made to look like my edited RAW images. That discovery literally changed my life (no hyperbole). Before that, I edited so many photos it’s not even funny. Personally, I don’t enjoy editing, and I’ve found it unnecessary for my photography. But that’s just me. Other people (like my wife) will sometimes edit the JPEGs, which have a fair amount of latitude for manipulation, in Capture One. Other people use the JPEGs sometimes and the RAWs other times, just depending on the picture and what they will use it for. There are some who are strictly RAW-only and still use Recipes because it helps them to better pre-visualize in the field how the edited photos will look, and it gives them a head start in the editing process. One person will sometimes layer the out-of-camera JPEG over the edited RAW image, and blend them together. It’s all about what works for you—not what other people are doing—and there are a plethora of possible paths, all of them legitimate.
Going back to the video, the implication is simple: if you don’t edit your photos and you tell others that they don’t have to, you are “really, really, really” crappy and lazy. That’s complete nonsense and just bullsh*t. A completely awful and insulting take. Someone who edits RAW photos is not inherently any better or worse than someone who doesn’t, and their pictures aren’t inherently better or worse, either. Even Ansel Adams used Polaroids and wrote a whole book about it. Was he being lazy? Was he giving crappy advice when he wrote a whole chapter on the benefits of one-step photography (skipping the development stage)? Was he a bad photographer because he didn’t always use the darkroom? Of course not! Nobody would argue that, but that’s essentially the argument of the video.
Photography is deeply personal, and many people—the gatekeepers—tie their identity to how “skilled” they think they are. When someone else succeeds with a different method—shooting JPEGs, iPhone photography, etc.—it threatens the fragile belief that their way is the only legitimate path. It’s a defensive shield: If you do it differently and are successful, then my choices—and hence myself—might be less special. Gatekeeping is a way of preserving a hierarchy that does not naturally exists. I’m a real photographer because I do it this way, and you’re not because you don’t. It’s a game of king-of-the-hill, except nobody else is playing. And it’s just dumb.
I’ve been told I’m doing much harm to photography because I don’t edit my photos and I tell other people that they don’t have to, either, if they don’t want. That’s crazy! You do photography however you want to do it, and worry less about what others are doing. If you want to shoot Leicas, edit RAW files, and sell Lightroom presets, by all means do so. If you want to spend less time at a computer and more time out creating photographs, Fujifilm might just be the brand for you. Whatever way you want to do photography, go ahead and do it that way, and don’t let the gatekeepers tell you that you are less-than for it. In the end, nobody really cares how you made the photograph, they only care that you made it.
Amen! I teach photography in an adult learning environment. It is usually a mix of adult beginners using smartphones and serious amateurs loaded down with fancy gear and decades of preconceived notions. On more than one occasion, a student will ask me about some gatekeeper comment they read online, usually about RAW vs JPEG or Crop sensor vs MFT vs Full-frame. You know the drill. Your words here are the most eloquent way to deal with these issues. I’m gonna quote you in my classes and encourage my students to follow your blog!
Amen to that too! Thx for the support.
There’s just so much of this gatekeeping nowadays, and it’s all nonsense. I knew someone a long time ago that did Polaroid emulsion lift. It was super cool, but I’m sure way outside of what today’s gatekeepers would find as an “acceptable” way to do photography.
And this is why I don’t follow anyone especially on YouTube. Every shill is out there selling something and it pisses me off. I shoot Fuji X, Fuji GFX, and LEICA Q2 and Q2M. I tend to edit most keepers but the Fuji jpegs are so good that I use them as stock w no edits! The gallery I work through prints and sells my work up to 70” x 52”. I have images pretty much all over the United States and many are non-edited!!! So screw that guy. Again: I avoid these “professionals” at all costs.
I would love to see your gallery. I recently moved into a new house and have empty spaces where I need to hang some art.
If your client is happy with your shot, straight out of the camera, you have done your job.
Similar to getting you’re Polaroid initialed prior to shooting the real transparency.
This is a success.
If your client needs some not previously discussed post processing but is still happy, this is a save.
You have grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.
Compare this to heavy dodging under the enlarger or having to rub a print in the developer.
Maybe having a transparency mildly airbrushed.
A success but with a cut to your profit margin.
Any more than this and maybe you just didn’t know what you were doing in the first place.
Maybe you are fudging when you should have used a lens with movements or maybe gone full cobra with a technical camera.
Even having to post process will kill your workflow.
Unless of course, you are not a photographer but more of an art or craft restorer.
Malcolm.
I think that a lot of people who claim to speak for the “pro photographers” are actually quite surprised how real professional photographers actually do photography. I think it oftentimes is much different than they believe it to be.
OMG! That’s indeed complete nonsense and just heavy bullsh*t. Fortunatly I quit Instagram since a while now, and was spared of this crapy reel / ‘influencer’. Meta took over of Instragram and their updated algorithms totaly suck, as we discussed many time together Ritchie, and keep not showing the content from those you follow, giving you crappy thinks like the one you just commented, ‘thinking’ you might like it (more so pushing something against your will, nothing intelligent there, pure marketing / probability / corruption like in the days of Cambridge Analytica…).
Best way would be to quite IG… Unfortunalty closing the gate of many friends and talent people that one is following / exchanging with.
That’s sad.
Well, I’m going back to my loved SOOC philosophy, straight jpg with no / minimum editing (only when required and a missed shot is a missed shot, but of course the power of RAW especialy with GFX can uleach the full potential of the camera when dealing with serious lignt challenges and need to get the juice out of the crazy dynamic range that GFX can bring – it’s a tool nothing else). Philosophy since many years now sparing me loosing time on a computer editing something that should / can have been done in camera (framing, composition, lighting) and not ‘how’ I will casualy take the shot in RAW so I can edit it afterwards’ which is really, really, really crap and lazy! In the film days you did have this luxury. And finaly philosophy granting me time to go out, shooting and enjoy taking pictures with my Fujifilm gear! This guy do not know what he is missing. And going even to Leica will not help him.
But in fact who cares?
Many thx Ritchie for your post.
I would quite IG if I could. Of course I need to be on it to reach photographers and keep everyone informed of what’s new. Otherwise, I try to spend as little time on social media as I can. But sometimes I do get sucked in.
As far as this influencer and his bad take, I think he fails to realize the illogicalness of his argument, and also the hypocrisy. His “flounce” was a little unorthodox in that he didn’t blame the gear for his departure, but the community. The Fujifilm community is the best in photography, the kindest, most welcoming, nicest people (the real life people). Folks like you and all those who were on the photowalk in Copenhagen, and elsewhere. Either he never actually met anyone in the community, or the problem is something else. And like the saying goes, “Wherever I go, there I am.”
SPOT ON.
Was drawn into Fuji when we got a X-S1 for a trade-in offer. that’s it and we got a XE2 and X30.Sold Sony DSLR and have away a NEX5.
Now I have a X-T2. I found no need to edit the RAW though at times I did it to try my skills at it. Fuji camera JPEGs won most of the times.
There is another group who bash Fuji Raw File Converter. Many a times that was more than enough to save a badly exposed shot and with the film recipes got what I enjoyed looking at.
With Sony I was literally stuck on my PC and LR4
I have an old laptop somewhere that hasn’t been powered on for years. On it are thousands of unprocessed RAW files because I never found the time to edit them. I spent so much time at a computer editing, and always felt like I could never catch up, always working on photos captured months before. Switching to SOOC was a liberating experience.
It’s kind of ironic that our in-camera JPEG hater is switching to Leica in a huff considering one of the most famous Leica shooters, Henri Cartier-Bresson, was well known to favour strictly composing in the viewfinder and avoiding all darkroom manipulations.
Here’s a quote that Wikipedia attributes to his book, “The Decisive Moment”:
“Constant new discoveries in chemistry and optics are widening considerably our field of action. It is up to us to apply them to our technique, to improve ourselves, but there is a whole group of fetishes which have developed on the subject of technique. Technique is important only insofar as you must master it in order to communicate what you see… The camera for us is a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy. In the precise functioning of the mechanical object perhaps there is an unconscious compensation for the anxieties and uncertainties of daily endeavor. In any case, people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.”
I think that’s a position we can get behind.
I totally agree. Thanks for sharing!
I wouldn’t care about some Leica waving in your face dude’s opinion. As soon as you need to wave any kind of camera in the video, your opinion automatically nullifies.
🤣 🤣 That’s a fair point.
I’m sorry but… you say the guy is acting like a gatekeeper, is spewing bull, and must be ignored…
So ignore him.
I absolutely agree with you, and thus I wonder whether there is still a sufficient need to warn people that characters like him are legions on social media: it should be really obvious by now (by 5 years ago, really). Because otherwise, what you are actually doing is the opposite of igonring him. you are taking his bait.
In reality, his opinion (assuming that it IS his opinion and not just something crafted for optimal trolling efficiency) does not count. Nobody’s opinion on Instagram (or FB, or tik tok, or YT, or …) counts.
Yeah, maybe I should take my own advice.
I wouldn’t say that the opinions of those on social media/YT shouldn’t count. For example, Pal2Tech’s opinion should count. But even someone like our “spewing bull” subject at hand, he’s an “influencer” which is to say that people do listen to his opinions (whether or not they should is a different story entirely). People watched his video and were in total agreement (proven by the comments).
I do think there needs to be a counter argument that points out why gatekeeping is wrong; on the other hand, it’s a good idea not to reward them with the attention that they are seeking. It’s tough to walk that fine line, and I probably stepped a little on the side of drawing attention while trying to counter-argue the gatekeeping.
“I would have much preferred to have been shown content from those I follow…”
morpheapp instagram could be your best friend 🙂
It sounds great. Unfortunately, it’s not available for Apple. I appreciate the tip, though—thanks!
I physically don’t have time to edit RAW files. It’s a cool process, but time consuming. I like Fuji recipes and want more companies have something like this in their cameras. And it is a really good way to experience digital film approach
I’d think that more companies would jumped in. Nikon has to a degree. Ricoh, yes. Panasonic with LUTs (they should have called it something else for marketing purposes). I’m surprised that a camera maker hasn’t partnered with VSCO, RNI, Alien Skin, etc., to have their filters integrated into the cameras. That would be an instant hit, especially if it was paired with a vintage-inspired body design.
What a pleasure to read such a wonderful and thoughtful approach to the simple joy of photography without all the time consuming chores of heavy editing.
To be honest, I feel like 95% of influencers have zero credibility, even more so when they try to force their point of view on you.
On another note, I got into Fuji for the film recipes and stayed for the physical controls. I started out barely editing my JPEGs, and now I edit a lot of my RAW files. I’ve created my own presets that I haven’t quite managed to replicate via recipes, and in just a couple of clicks, my photo is ready. I do this with photos from both the X-E5 and the Q3, and I don’t think I’m betraying the ‘Fuji spirit’ because of it.
Then again, with my X-Pro3, I only shoot in JPEG and only keep one color recipe and one B&W recipe loaded, it’s my pseudo film camera.”