In a day and age when you can shoot photos and film with the same camera it seems only appropriate that you can edit footage the same way you can edit a photo in photoshop.
There are mixed emotions about post work of any kind and how it either makes or brakes of photo. Too much and it looks fake. Not enough and it looks normal.
In this period of time is the retoucher as influential in the picture making process as the photographer? I think so. It just so happens that i do both the taking of the picture and the retouching so i have an appreciation for both skills and yes i say they are 2 very different things.
I think most people’s problems with one or the other is that they lack the skills in one or the other department so there is not understanding or an appreciation for what can or can not be done or even better what should or SHOULD NOT be in the post production process.
“Fixing it in post” is not an excuse to do hack work. However “fixing it in post” is a very real necessity we all live with in the creative world. There are very few if any commercially published photos or movies these days that do not have some kind of post magic done to them so for the purist, reading these thoughts on a computer and not a hand written letter, I would challenge you to find the balance in the merging of the skills.
Both photography, film, videography and the like are skills that are necessary but so are compositing, rotoscoping, vfx, and retouching as well. I think if we get a healthy grip on the symbiosis of the two worlds, use them both tastefully and skillfully, then the both worlds can coexist and win.
This short film is from a guy that i assume has met unique challenges on both sides of the fence and seems to be venting his frustration here. I am willing to bet he feels the same as i do. He wants to do great work on set but can not deny the power of post to take his work to the next level. check it out.
By: Rick Navarro
Los Angeles Fashion & Entertainment Photographer