{"id":120912,"date":"2018-12-07T12:24:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=120912"},"modified":"2018-12-07T12:24:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:24:31","slug":"you-dont-take-a-photo-you-make-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/07\/you-dont-take-a-photo-you-make-it\/","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Take a Photo, You Make It."},"content":{"rendered":"

As a photographer, you are an image-creator.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

## 1. What is ‘taking’ a photo?<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

I think when we say ‘take’ a photo, we mean to say ‘shoot’ a photo. This is the act of lifting up your camera, and then pressing the shutter button.<\/p>\n

Of course in photography, to point your camera and then pressing the shutter button (shooting a photo) is an essential part of the whole full-stack process of photography.<\/p>\n

Yet, after you “shoot” a photo, you still need to do more stuff.<\/p>\n

Assuming you’re shooting digital, you either shot in RAW (which needs post-processing. Or if you shoot in JPEG<\/a>, you still need to import the photo, and somehow publish the photo (whether publishing it online, or printing it out).<\/p>\n

## 2. Image-selection (editing)<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

Let’s say you go out and you shoot 100 photos in a day.<\/p>\n

You must edit (select) the photos you like the best. This is another essential part of the photo-process.<\/p>\n

You select the photos you like, and you either “flag” it, you “favorite” it, or you “select” it.<\/p>\n

Then– you must choose the individual photograph, then process the photo (with filters\/presets<\/a>, developing in the digital Lightroom<\/a>).<\/p>\n

## 3. Processing<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

If you shoot a RAW photo, you must process it. You can add a filter\/preset<\/a>, and you can adjust the exposure, contrast, highlights, blacks, etc.<\/p>\n

If you shoot JPEG, the camera has already processed the picture in-camera. Yet, you can still post-process JPEG photos– add more contrast, still add more filters\/presets, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

And there is a great art to post-processing. Here is where you really craft the aesthetics of your photograph. You modify the contrast, you modify the exposure, etc– which changes the emotion, mood<\/a>, and look of your photograph.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

Ansel Adams<\/a> spent a lot of time in his darkroom to achieve his artistic vision. Richard Avedon<\/a> had detailed dodging\/burning instructions for his post-processing technicians (when he shot large-format film<\/a>).<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

## Why are we ‘making’ photos?<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

We are making photographs, because we are CREATING photo-graphs (light drawings).<\/p>\n

There is this really silly notion of “no filter”– as if not using a filter somehow justified a photograph as being better. Every photograph has an integrated filter– we filter reality via our lenses, our camera sensors, and we filter what to photograph or what *not* to photograph (selective filtering, when you’re out shooting photos).<\/p>\n\n\n

\"eric<\/figure>\n\n\n

The reason I really want to encourage the idea that you as a photographer are MAKING photos is that photography is as legitimate as an art-creation form such as painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.<\/p>\n

As a photographer, you create images. You are a maker, not just a mere taker.<\/p>\n

SHOOT ON!
ERIC<\/p>\n

Photos below shot on RICOH GR II<\/a>, processed with\u00c2\u00a0Eric Kim MONOCHROME PRESETS<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"eric<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a photographer, you are an image-creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/eric-kim-street-photography-ricoh-gr-ii-oc-v13-0001057.jpg?fit=1900%2C1258&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120938,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120912\/revisions\/120938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}