fbpx
Features

Seriously Ask Yourself: Are You a Photographer, or a Photo Editor?

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/25/2019
2 Mins read
Final Umbrella Image of Grace by Chris Gampat (1 of 1)ISO 2001-30 sec at f - 5.6

This has come up in a number of situations where I see loads of tutorials on how to make an image look a certain way.

I’ve been quietly contemplating the idea of whether someone is a photographer or a photo editor, and at the same time whether or not they have the right to say that they’re a photographer or a photo editor. Go ahead and say, “Just shoot and do whatever,” but I think this is a major part of one’s photographic identity. If you screw a light bulb into a lamp you’re not an electrician. If you clean your apartment you’re not hired help. If you cook a special dinner for 25 people you are neither a woman of the kitchen or a chef (and I’ve specifically heard this said before by both genders). So if you focus on your Lightroom, Photoshop or Capture One skills, are you really a photographer?

Let me break this down: are you really a photographer if you shoot an image and most of the time that you spend making that image is in post-production? Can you really say that you know how to edit your images if all you did was just a little bit of tuning in a basic adjustments panel that took no more than 30 seconds? But did you spend more than 30 seconds trying to get that specific photo with full intent? Were you simply messing around until you got something you liked in post-production? Or were you messing around until you got something you liked in the camera?

I’ve thought more and more about this idea in recent times in conversations and observations with lots of “photographers” and “photo editors” I speak to. One can have a creative vision, but that vision only comes out in Photoshop. One can also have a creative vision, but that vision could equally be realized with lots of production, careful planning, direction, etc to make it happen. This doesn’t apply only to digital photography, but also to film and analog.

To really hit home on this, I want to explore our Creating the Photograph series a bit.

© Pauleth Ip / PI Creative

This is an image from Reviews Editor Paul Ip: and as he states in his piece, he didn’t spend a whole lot of time editing it because he tries to get the photo as much in camera as possible. To get that effect, he used a CD and bounced light off of it. You can read more about how he did it here.

This image above is from Manu Cabañero’s feature on his Splash Wars piece. He speaks about the shooting process and how the Photoshop process took a lot of patience.

So when you look at all this, who is the photographer and who is the photo editor?

 

capture one editing lightroom photo editor photographer photoshop post-production shooting
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
');
You might also like