I was on Facebook this morning and came across an app that was advertising “filters” to create an old film style look to your images. I’m not going to name the app because it doesn’t matter for my purpose. I clicked to learn more and discovered it was an app for your phone that simply applied filters from what I could see. I don’t use the camera on my phone so I didn’t look much further but it got me thinking.
I’ve commented on this sort of thing before. In today’s world many people want instant gratification with everything in general, but also in their photography. They want everything to be easy, they don’t appreciate working for something special. Take a picture, apply a filter and done!
Maybe I”m a dinosaur but I enjoy the act of editing my photographs, I find it a relaxing process and in the end I have achieved something that I can be proud of. As a lightroom user, I recognize that it can create that very same look and many more according to your tastes and styles. Once you create that look, you can easily save those settings as a preset and from that point on, you have a one click “filter” and you never had to purchase any further app to do it.
I always encourage people to explore and learn to draw your own vision out of your work. Don’t just click a button and call it done. Learn what you like and how to get there, you will be far more proud of your photographs.
