My recent article “Stop This ‘Fix It In Photoshop’ Nonsense” has been linked to from several forum discussions and blogs. Yesterday, I did an interview with Scott Sheppard for the ‘Inside Digital Photo‘ radio program which airs on Saturdays on 1550AM KYCY San Francisco, and in several other national markets. I’ll let you know when my interview will air. It should also be available on InsideDigitalPhoto.com and iTunes after it airs on the radio. Being that it was my first ever radio interview, I was quite nervous — I’m interested to see what I said because I’m not sure I remember.

John Watts of the Watts Digital Blog., who I quoted in the initial article posted on his site, said:

I get a sense of righteous anger from Kevin that is well-placed….I blogged briefly about this last year on this post, but Kevin, as a working photographer who has to deal in the sometimes surrealistic and admittedly vain world of fashion photography, puts it even more succinctly. It is definitely a more in-depth analysis on why this trend of “I’ll-Just-Fix-It-In-Photoshop” has to stop!!! (Oh, and Kevin must be a great guy – after all, he quoted me in his post )

Bottom line – - – There is no substitute for good photography!!

(Go Visit John and let him know your ‘Fix It In Photoshop’ Stories).

John’s right there’s probably some anger in my response to the “Fix It In Photoshop” method. And he’s also right, there’s no good substitute for good photography and I think what I was trying to point out is that taking the easy way out on-set affects workflow (which photographers are always complaining about) and it affects the clients bottom line. Commercial photographers are constantly complaining that they don’t make enough money, but maybe our rates could be higher if we weren’t “spending” a large amounts of the clients budget on post. We’d also see a better bottom line for ourselves AND have more time to go out and shoot, or spend it with our families.

I think another important aspect that I tried to point out in my post is that I’m also very concerned about the quality of the image that I turn over to my clients and it’s a fact that nearly everything we do in Photoshop is destructive to the image. While there are many VERY GOOD retouchers and I have seen some amazing work done by well trained retouchers, I hear from clients all the time that they had so many problems with their previous photographer — most of those problems when properly researched were due to improper Post Production.

I’m glad that there are many who agree with me that we need to stop being “Photoshop Jockeys” and go back to the basics. By creating awesome images in camera and using Photoshop as a tool to enhance (not fix), we’re really upping the ante and it will show in our images.

In the next few days, look out for my article on “Workflow”. Something to think about — I consider my workflow to start at the planning stage (before a shoot has ever begun) and ends after the images are delivered and archived. I believe a well structured workflow can help photographers get away from the computer, create print worthy images in camera and spend more time shooting.

About the author

Kevin Michael Reed
Kevin Michael Reed (Google+, Facebook) is a fashion & beauty photographer and producer/director based in New York City and Los Angeles, CA. He is the President/CEO of RedFOG Visual Media, a production company in New York City, and a partner in Passion of Photography, Inc, a company dedicated to teaching photographers and sharing our passion through charitable causes. Kevin has lectured and hosted workshops throughout the United States and the world teaching photographers the business and creative sides of photography. (Kevin's Fashion & Beauty Photography Portfolio can be seen here).