All your verses sound like dirty dishes (gross)
I’m about to clean ‘em in the kitchen (woo)
And we making money by the minute (woo)
I’m about to do it way different (godly)
A few days ago, there was a picture that popped up on my Facebook timeline from a relatively new photographer. Looking over the image and a few more images on the page, I noticed there was a trend of “over-used” Photoshop retouching.
Disclaimer: There are always exceptions and technicalities.
In this piece I would like for you to bear with me, I going to attempt to compare a new photographer using Photoshop, with a young person getting into a relationship. Of course, they are two very different things and looking back at it now, it might not have been such a good idea to compare the two, but bear with me.
For anyone that might not know, Photoshop is an image editing and photo retouching software that allows you to do anything from creating a flyer to placing someone’s heads on someone else’s bodies to making a 1,000lbs sumo wrestler look like Justin Bieber.
Just for the sake of continued explanation a relationship is, according to dictionary.com, “a relation connecting or binding participants in a relationship or a romantic or passionate attachment.” And according to urban dictionary, “it’s a word created by females to show ownership or a legal form of prostitution where a female collects money, cars and other valuable things in exchange for sex.” That was just a joke; one that I know Charlie would not find too funny. (#Feminism, lol.)
So, here’s how we break this down
From observation I know that a lot of new photographers get in on the picture scene and already have set ideas in their heads. They’ve seen the amazingly clean skin of models in magazines, perfectly retouched images on their favourite photographers Instagram and they’ve also been bitten by the infamous Snapchat filters bug. The only thing they’re thinking is, “I need to be able to do this too!”
So, they reference these images of perfection and jump on YouTube to learn about frequency separation. And they overdo it. And they overdo it. And they overdo it. Trust me, it’s okay to learn the techniques and put them to practice, but there is so much to learn about the craft, even before you get to Photoshop. Lighting plays a huge role in getting “flawless images,” as well proper sharpness techniques (Have you ever tried retouching an image that wasn’t sharp?)
Now the angle of a young person getting into a relationship. Is it just me, or do all teenage shows nowadays have kissing and intimacy? It’s as if they can’t just be friends, or they can’t be in relationships and just talk/hang out. It seems like young persons also get in on the relationship scene and already have set ideas in their heads. The Instagram couple’s goals, the “man’s” and “girl’s” on the age appropriate shows that they watch, and for sure the “man’s” and “girl’s” on the shows that they ain’t finna be looking at, seem to be heavy making out, “touching up” and sex. The only things that make a relationship ideal. And they overdo it. And they overdo it. And they overdo it.
There’s so much that they miss out on. There’s so much that they get into too early (my opinion, eh). Can we even blame them, though, for imitating what they see in their environments and on Netflix (while they chilling)?
I was there once. In both situations, actually. I had jumped into Photoshop heavy when I was a new photographer and missed out so many more important things I could’ve focused on and improved. I, also, wasn’t too interesting in talking with girls; not when their boobies were available. But I’ve grown through and learned from these young mistakes. I grew to a place in my photography where Photoshop is only opened if necessary. The picture needs to be at least 95 per cent perfect in the moment I captured it. Much like I grew to value the company and conversation of women. In my opinion, in addition to their bodies being a privilege a man should earn, it was a bonus to their minds. Intimacy too early has a way of making things murky and messy.
Sometimes on a shoot, I take a picture and already know where or what needs to be Photoshopped. Just like with a woman, you can see her “bod-day” and know that when its “that time,” she gon get this…. But this comes from mastering the initial thing. It comes as a privilege to one who put in the work to understand how IT works. (Nawhm-shayying)
The endgame is to understand the process, to understand the privilege, to have something that is as real as possible and to have that thing be as true as possible.
*Cues Jaden Smith’s Icon*
