I’ve recently added a page to this site regarding my photography philosophy on photography work in the modern age of digital photography. Here’s an excerpt:
A Philosophy of Art
In a time when everyone uses a filter to create a look, even in Light Room, I still like to just use camera technique and knowledge of Photoshop adjustments to create my own custom look to my work. While others are buying filters to mass produce a look that someone else has created and reselling it, I prefer to put my own touches on every final image I deliver.
Processing or Programming?
Through over 15 years of training, trial and error, and experience, I have come up with techniques he knows work and are his own. We can argue about Photoshop and it’s pluses and minuses, but even in the days of film we had different film for high saturation, low saturation, high and low contrast, etc. A digital photo can only take you so far. You need to understand camera settings and post processing just as you had to understand camera settings and dark room procedures in the past to get certain looks. But something seems lazy and misleading about using a preset filter that someone created to mechanize a process so all your work looks like someone else’s. BUT, it does make it hard to compete when competitors can mass process all their photos to look a certain way based on programming. Even if the look isn’t their own. I still try to keep the art in my work.