“Really Crap & Lazy Advice” — Ignore the Gatekeepers
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.
