Welcome to The Digital Age - Helpful or Hurtful to The Photography Industry
Has the digital age made things too easy for photographers? It seems as though everyone and their brother is now touting themselves as a photographer. Let’s just get Uncle Joe to shoot our wedding instead of paying a professional photographer. Granted the technology has become so affordable compared to what it used to cost, why not go out and buy a big shiny new name brand camera and start shooting! It won’t cost you nearly as much as it did to shoot with film. Memory is such a cheap alternative compared to the cost of purchasing and processing film.
Another thing that I am noticing with the digital age is, perhaps it has also caused some photographers to become lazy. When I say lazy, I mean photographers aren’t taking the time to plan out their shots, use their settings or even their eyes to get that perfect shot. They are of the mindset now it’s alright if I didn’t get it close in camera I will just fix it in post using Photoshop or Lightroom’. Shouldn’t we as photographers let the cameras do all the heavy lifting? Shouldn’t we be a little more reliant on our abilities as photographers instead of relying so heavily on software to make our images? Don’t fall victim to the “spray and pray” method of shooting! Save yourself the trouble and time, get it as close as possible in camera to avoiding unnecessary time spent in the postproduction process.
If you find yourself on a shoot and you are saying to yourself “I will just fix it in post” take a step back, breathe and remember the time that you will save yourself in post IF you get it as close as you can IN CAMERA! I think that all the advancements in technology, especially related to photography are an incredible thing and I guess necessary to move forward. We just have to remember not to become subservient to this wonderful thing called technology.