Filter Crisis
9 years ago by
I have a love/hate relationship with filters.
Maybe we all do?
Yes, filters make photos look beautiful but ( like Garance talked about here) I can’t help feeling that the gap between our photographed lives and reality will soon be insurmountable. Every time I take a photo of someone, a full list of demands follows…
Can I see it?
Can you crop it so you can’t see my arm?
Maybe black and white?
I would just put a filter on that… and maybe up the brightness?
Eugh.
So I spend 30 minutes putting the image through four different image editing apps. Of course.
Then there are the friends who hate filters (I can’t win). It’s not their style and they’ve embraced the anti-filter way of life. Kind of cool at times, sometimes totally contrived.
I’ve tried it myself but, every now and then, I love an image that’s a little too dark… so back to the filter I go. Now, when someone takes a stand against filters, I just bite my tongue and go back to editing photos hahaha. It’s like we can’t enjoy images on social media for what they are: bite size snapshots of what we’ve experienced and want to share.
I feel conflicted by filters — I still don’t know whether to fully embrace them or deny them. Is there an in between?
Is it just me, or do you have a love/hate relationship with filters too??
Utiliser plutôt les filtres naturels ! Parce que Rise c’est vraiment trop trop trop ;)
http://www.therocamadour.fr
Oh, my husband, you mostly takes the pictures for my blog has also such an ambivalent attitude to filters … sometime he hates to use the filter and sometimes he is excited :) Fortunately I haven’t to decide this as he is the photography expert in our team!
xx from Germany/Bavaria, Rena
http://www.dressedwithsoul.com
I never really use filters I just do some slight editing
international giveaway on my blog!
http://hashtagliz.com
I’ve been printing since I was five(that’s a long time…) both professionally and for fun. I’ve earned my living with a camera or enlarger since I was sixteen(still a long time ago…). Please, stop fretting about filters/cropping etcetera. They’re just the tools we used in wet darkrooms; it’s just now they’re pretty much available to all.
Personally I do nothing with digital images I wouldn’t do in such a wet darkroom. So I crop, adjust colour, brightness, contrast etcetera. For monochrome I adjust all those and tone. Just now it’s on an iPhone or Capture One on a Mac, and I can drink espresso or tea without fear of poisoning.
We’re telling stories with our images. There is no such thing as an unfiltered image. Before we even press the shutter we’ve started filtering through our worldview. The key is integrity. Oh, have fun too.
could not have said it better
Well said , Simon Brown!
That’s such a beautiful way of explaining it!
Ben si on extrapole on va finir par filtrer aussi nos vies pour que ça soit juste beau à voir…
Sais pas, elle est où la réalité maintenant??
C’est un peu triste!
http://www.blushandbeyond.com/fr/
Bisous sans filtre…
Alix
Depends on an individual and the situation, I suppose. Sometimes it is indeed too dark and you need some brightness or colour or cropping. Like anything, as long as it is used in moderation.
http://shadeofredblog.com
I seem to need to play with one of three filters on all my instagram photos. I can’t seem to help it. I love that it makes some of my photos light and some dark and some black and white. Rarely do I not use one. No idea why. I guess it’s my instagram thing. Issue.
I think a beautiful photo will be beautiful, filter or not! :)
Anoushka Probyn – A London Fashion Blog
I agree with Simon, pictures tell a story. Sometimes a story is moody, volatile, sometimes is sunny and happy. Playing with light can help with that. I hardly ever use filters but I love playing with brightness and hues on my Mac.
Ana
http://www.champagnegielsabouttown.co.uk
I don’t have a love/hate relationship with them, but I definitely prefer to use them sparingly. I have the Samsung Galaxy S5 at the moment, which has an amazing camera, so filters aren’t usually needed. Besides, I’m too lazy to go through more than one imaging app now that Instagram lets me adjust the brightness, saturation, etc on my photos. It’s rare filters make my photos look legitimately better, rather I find them to give the photo an obvious effect like vignetting or overly warm or cool toned, which can look a little contrived.
Arielle from Tangled Musings
I know what you mean. The underlying idea of showing pics in social media was to flash moments of our life. Anyway some photos need a little boost, to make their way in instagram, which is the most visual social media. I use the hashtag #nofiltertoday to mark the unmade-up pics.
Beautiful!
Xxx
Elisa.
My Fantabulous World
If you take photos with a good source of light, you really don’t need a ton of filters. I find the instagram filters really cheesy. Why does everything need a vignette and grainy texture? I am so tired of people trying to make new things look like old things. I think other editing tools are a lot more subtle and I like all the options on VSCO cam.
I think there is more awareness on filters. I no longer see crappy filters and native instagram filters. There are so many popular instagram accounts and ones who set the tone for the rest to copy ( white instagram minimal backgrounds etc ).