Well over a decade ago, I remember when I made the decision that the staff of the Phoblographer would be testing cameras and lenses using Capture One instead of Adobe Lightroom. And in the long run, I think that it was absolutely the best decision. Adobe’s products surely have merit. However, I feel like most people who use them end up spending more time in post-production than actually shooting images. To that end, they’re not intentional with their photography shoots. Instead, they’re intentional with their editing. In 2026, this doesn’t make a photographer — it makes one into a post-production artist instead.
If you’re reading that and throwing your arms up in protest, I assure you that you’re having an identity crisis.
If you’re reading this and are as truly intentional about the pre-production, using lights, filters, tripods, etc. as you are about the post-production process, then I think that you’re a different beast. You’re surely a type of photographer who works more on balance.
I, on the other hand, put all my work into the pre-production and shooting side. This is so much so to the point where all I need to do is perhaps apply a preset to an image and export it. If anything, my post-production isn’t really intentional, and it’s more just an automatic process. My meta keyword process for the images and naming conventions are perhaps even more intentional.
Cutting down on post-production made me a better photographer because of a word I keep saying here: intentionality. My images tend to feel way more human, and I’m often very careful about creating images that I don’t believe that AI could make. When I look on Reddit at the various subs, I often think to myself that AI could’ve easily made the images that I’m looking at. The photographs often lack soul and depth and instead seem more like they’re made for content and views instead of introspection at a museum or gallery. They surely aren’t the images that I’d imagine people stand in front of with their arms crossed in silence as they take in what’s in front of them.
Think about it: if someone spends more time plating and bringing dishes out to people, are they a chef? It’s part of the process for sure, but in a restaurant, those people are completely different from the actual cooks. Photography isn’t much different.
Those images have as much of a place in a museum as someone who raids their grandparents’ albums to bring up historical imagery as a form of excellence. The MoMA did that last year; and I truly found it to be insulting to the photography medium.
Let’s reason here: those images are probably going to be lost forever in a sea of digital nothingness. But the images made with intentionality and meaning are photos that will stand up to time. And truly, there are very few content creators that I’ve seen make those photographs.
Photographers: we need to prevent brain rot and decisions being made for us. And we need to remind the world that what we make matters. It’s time to become enamored with making your own images and being intentional about the work that you’re doing.