Filters and “Straight” Photography

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m big on filters. In the world of digital photography, where anything can be changed on a whim, I like the option of making the best possible photograph with the camera, and not through post processing. In fact, having done retouching professionally, I like to think of it as a last resort, and not a means to an end.

At the turn of the last century, the big debate was whether or not photography could be considered an art form. Image manipulation is not new. No sooner had the first image been printed that someone found a way to manipulate it. In fact, the art of photography had become more about pictorialism than realism. “Group f/64” was founded in 1932 to move away from this mindset, to establish a discipline of “Straight Photography”.

I view the use of filters in digital photography as a means to accomplish straight digital photography. Certainly there are an enormous amount of features built in to each digital camera to control how the image is rendered. But these, like Photoshop, act on the image after it forms on the sensor. I like the notion that I can control the image before it forms on the sensor.

Does this mean I’ll stop tweaking my camera’s white balance, contrast and saturation, ISO, etc, etc? No. But I do like to continue to employ filters and explore the effects I can achieve with them.