The Beginner Photography Podcast

You Don’t Have to Fix Your Photos. They’re Not Broken.

• Raymond Hatfield

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#584 In this episode of the podcast, I explore the idea that your photos are not broken just because they aren’t technically perfect or heavily edited. I share my own experiences as a photographer, reflecting on how the rise of digital editing and AI has made many of us feel like every photo needs to be “fixed” to be worth keeping or sharing. I encourage you to let go of those expectations and to rediscover what made you pick up a camera in the first place—whether it was to slow down, see the world differently, or simply enjoy making images.

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. The Pressure of Perfection and Editing in Modern Photography - Raymond discusses how digital tools, social media, and AI have shifted expectations toward perfection. He challenges the presumption that photos must always be edited, and recalls the joy of simple, unedited film photography. The key takeaway is to let go of perfection and rediscover the fun in photography.
  2. Imperfection as Art and Authenticity - The episode illustrates, with anecdotes from Raymond’s wedding photography, the value of candid moments (like a flower girl picking her nose), emphasizing that these “flaws” make photos memorable and human. He connects this to the broader theme of authenticity, suggesting that imperfection is what sets human-made images apart from AI-generated ones.
  3. Practical Approach: Enjoyment and Mindset Shift (Plork) - Raymond introduces “plork” (play + work). He encourages listeners to shoot for enjoyment, intentionally practicing and experimenting with their cameras rather than working only to “fix” images later. Actionable advice includes shooting JPEGs, skipping editing, and focusing on moments that feel right rather than those that look perfect.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • Plork: A blend of play and work, meaning practicing a craft with a playful, no-pressure attitude. In photography, “plorking” means shooting for enjoyment while still improving your skills—the core mindset Raymond urges listeners to adopt.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. When do you feel most pressure to edit your photos, and how does it affect your enjoyment of photography?
  2. Can you think of a photo you love because of, not in spite of, its imperfections? Why does it resonate with you?
  3. What habits can you adopt to “plork” more during your photography sessions?

RESOURCES:
Check out the Headway App for book summaries - https://makeheadway.com/
Book: "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin
Book: "The Dude and the Zen Master" by Jeff Bridges

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Raymond Hatfield:

As we enter into this era of AI perfection, right? AI is gonna try to make everything absolutely perfect. It's going to be imperfections that give your photos life. Imperfections is gonna be the thing that gives humanity to your images that say, this photo was taken by a real human, and it matters because it exists. Hey, welcome to the Beginner of Photography podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and today I want to talk about something that I know has been, weighing heavily on a lot of hobbyists lately, especially those who have found photography later in life. You know, there's this phrase that, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And that makes sense for some things, it makes sense for a lot of things. Things like a light bulb. Anybody, whether they're an electrician or not, can tell you whether a light bulb works by flipping the switch. But how can you tell if something is broken and needs fixed when it's subjective, like photography? That is a much, much, much harder thing to do because, maybe you picked up a camera because you love the idea of slowing down. You love the idea of seeing the world differently but somewhere along the way it all started to feel like work. I've been there. There's this feeling that every photo that we take needs to be perfect. It needs to be edited, it needs to be polished, it needs to be sharpened. It needs to be color graded. It needs to be posted with like this super witty caption. Otherwise it's not even worth doing. And suddenly it's not about enjoying the moment anymore with your camera. It's about creating something to fix. So that's what we're gonna talk about today, how photography isn't about fixing problems. But first, the beginner photography podcast is brought to you by Cloud Spot. With Cloud Spot, you can deliver beautiful galleries. You can set up a storefront in minutes and start earning more from each shoot. And you can protect your photos with things like, passwords and watermarks on your images. So if you're not using Cloud Spot already, I don't know what you're waiting for, go ahead and grab yourself a free account over@deliverphotos.com now. So it's not a secret. I don't really like editing. I didn't get into photography to become a digital artist. I got into photography to take photos, and when I was growing up, the process of photography was, I got usually a disposable camera. I would point, I would shoot. My parents would drop it off at Target, Walmart, Costco, wherever. And then a few days later, I'd get my photos back and that was it. The process of shooting was fun and it was relatively quick. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, between the transition from film to digital, editing became like this default step in the process of photography, and not just for pros, but for everyone, and we see this everywhere with, Lightroom presets for sale, YouTube tutorials on how to salvage bad photos, or, these tiktoks of like wild before and afters. I mean, you're removing these crazy elements and changing the colors and creating this like dynamic light and, blurring out the background and making it darker. And it's like, wait, why didn't you just do that in camera when you took the photo? Anyway, all that to say that there's a lot that can be done in camera, but we don't necessarily look at it that way anymore. And it didn't always used to be this way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that editing is bad because it's not. I think that editing is, is pretty great. And I'm also not saying that editing is new. Professional film Photographers have always edited their images since the beginning of time, well, since the beginning of photography, I guess photography's time, but it was usually less about fixing a photo and more about finishing a photo. Putting their signature on an image in the dark room. Dodge here, burn here. Some color adjustments. I don't know if you know this, but when you go to, print a photo in the dark room, there are three different filters that you can put in front of the light that burns the image onto, the enlarged. paper into the enlarged image and those three colored films you use to get the color accurate to adjust the color, in the image. So like these basic edits, I mean, these things have been going on for decades, for a hundred plus years. Editing. It is not new. It's not new. Professionals would even do things like object removal, painting on the image. That would be like heavier, heavier stuff, it's not just colors. but I would say that most of the creative part of an image was done in camera. And most casual or even hobbyist photographers, film photographers didn't edit their images at all like me. They would shoot a roll of film, they would drop it off at like the one hour photo place and then pick up their prints a few days later, and that was it. Done. Finished. FTO but these, photographers, these hobbyists, who were just going shooting. Printing a roll. They're not photographers who were worried about, whether their photos would win any awards. All that they wanted to do was, remember and capture a day at a car show or a vacation with the grandkids, or even just something as simple as like a foggy morning walk. Today though, it feels as if we have, reversed that order. Maybe not reverse the order, but like, professionals still use editing much, I think in the same way to enhance their vision. Of course. But yeah, it's not reversed. Anyway a lot of beginners and hobbyists out though now are taught that, and often unintentionally that you need to edit your photos to make them good. And if you look at a photo and it doesn't pop, or, or if it's not moody enough or, if it's not vibrant enough, then it's just simply not worth sharing. Let alone even keeping, so instead of learning this tool that is your camera, right? The thing that we can physically control, for how to achieve these things, a more moody image, a more vibrant image, an image that pops. Instead of doing that, what we do is we just, we just lean on the editing. because with ease, I mean, you can fix things like exposure mistakes or a weird white balance or poor composition or even cluttered backgrounds, again, with ease. And I'm not here to shame that we all do it from time to time. It's invaluable. of a resource to have. I honestly cannot imagine the process of doing a head swap for like, maybe a family photo because somebody blinked, when we were still shooting on film. But when editing becomes a substitute for learning, that's when we run into a problem. And that problem being that we stopped growing as photographers in lieu of growing as digital artists. And again, like I didn't get into photography to get into, Photoshop and digital arts. I do love those things. I love, like, looking at them, I love the, creative mind that can create from a empty digital space. I truly do, but that's not why I got into photography. So, when we stop asking ourselves, things like, what do I want this image to say and start asking, how can I edit this photo to make it look cool? That's the problem. And I don't know, I mean, it must have been because instead of putting our images instead of having our images in this physical space like we did with film, this tangible thing that we hold in our hand that is in essence done. What we do now with all of our photos is that we load them onto a computer in a digital workspace where we're already a. accustomed to, editing word documents or writing out email or like creating things, changing things, manipulating digital things. We're very aware and accustomed and comfortable with that, and that once our images got onto computers, it felt like, wait, why don't we do that with our photos as well? don't think it's like, you know, a big photo. I don't think that that's this big problem. I think it just kind of happened naturally and unintentionally. Unfortunately, when that happened, and again, we stop asking ourself what do we want this image to say? While we're taking the photo and we start asking ourselves, well, how can I edit this image just to look cool after we've already taken it? Then we slowly stop enjoying the process of shooting and we start dreading the workload of, of fixing, and by that time, it's too late. At that time, it is too late because we think that that's what photography is. And what sucks is like when you go out and, you're still kind of in that transitional phase where you're trying to learn the camera before you morph into this thing that's like, oh, I'll just fix it in post, what you do is you go out and you shoot a thousand images of a tree or a flower or like a day at the park, and then when you get back to your computer. Again, society now kind of tells us that we must edit our images. We must shoot in raw, all these things that are just ridiculous. And now we want to save all thousand of these photos. And that's, that's the workload of like, uh, I don't really want to do this. And that's not fun. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to dread a hobby. You know? Nobody wants, photography to feel more like homework than it is a fun and enjoyable and fulfilling hobby. Nobody wants that. And listen, I'm not saying that I don't edit my images. I do but I optimize for fun and enjoyment of photography. So what does that look like? It means that I rarely use Lightroom on my computer anymore because I just love the experience of editing in Lightroom on my iPad. Why? don't know. I mean, visually they look the same, but there's, there's something about interacting with the images, with your fingers and pinching to zoom and using an apple pencil, like it just feels more fun, right? Whether it objectively is or isn't, I don't know, but subjectively it, it is. So I optimize for that. And I do everything I can to spend as little time in Lightroom as humanly possible. Now, even though that's the case, I can't imagine giving it up. In fact, I find it to be an invaluable resource for photographers, and it's not because, it allows me to edit quicker or better. For me, what I love most about Lightroom is the ability to catalog and organize a ever-growing, collection of images. I mean, it's always gonna grow, right? So to be able to catalog them and know exactly where my photos are at any moment, have them sink across any device everywhere, I love it. I cannot imagine getting rid of it. But that does not mean that you need Lightroom. It does not mean that you need to edit your photos. It doesn't mean that you need to do anything other than putting your photos in a folder on your computer, or better yet, printing them out, right? So we have this idea of what is and is not a photographer. So let me say this like real clearly. You don't need to edit your photos to be a real photographer. You don't need to fix every single image for it to be worth keeping. You don't have to keep every single image if you don't want to. And you are allowed to take a photo and look at it and just say, yeah, nice. And not have this pressure that the photo must get a million likes, and that you already have some sort of clever caption waiting for it. But you can say, yeah, nice. Because a photo simply reflects what you saw and hopefully how you felt in that moment. That is enough. That is enough. Imperfections. Imperfections don't mean that a photo was broken. Early on shooting weddings, I wanted to fix every single photo. I wanted it to look like every photo could be printed in a magazine. Now, when I look back at those photos, I cringe a little bit today, but at the time I thought that I was doing the right thing. I was smoothing out the skin. I was removing every stray hair'cause it was kind of windy outside or, you know, whatever. I would go into Photoshop and literally like, adjust people's smiles to make them look happier. That happened a lot with kids who, you know, just didn't like to do the family photos or whatever, but I wanted them to be picture perfect. And I achieved that by fixing quote unquote every photo. I looked at every photo and asked myself, how can I fix this to make it perfect? But what I learned is that, again, imperfection does not mean that a photo is broken. Sometimes the imperfection is the magic. There's this photo that I have of a flower girl picking her nose, right, while the bride and all the bridesmaids are all standing together and it's like this really sweet moment. And like they're kinda laughing. And then off to the side is a flower girl picking her nose. And I mean, she's like dig in deep. Like, she's just discovered picking her nose and she wants to explore every facet of what she can do with this newfound power that is like what she was doing. I mean, her face was scrunched up. She was really trying to get in there. I could have cropped her out of the photo so that it was just this nice little moment of the bridesmaids with the bride and that was it. I could have fixed the photo, but I didn't, I shared it as is. I left it as is now, of course, in the moment I took the wide shot with the flower girl in it. And then I also, you know, once I was confident in that shot, I took a step closer and just focused on the bride and the bridesmaid so that they did have the option to have the photo without the, you know, booger search and flower girl in there. But the point is, the image that I shared, was the one of the flower girl, I mean, digging real deep. And you know what, that photo is one of my most liked, I wanna say liked, but that photo has the most engagement, on my Instagram page. And do you know why that is? Because it feels real. It feels authentic. It feels human. It's funny. It's funny in a way that like, oh man, that's, kids, kids are gross. Geez. Ugh. I wonder if there was a surprise waiting for the bride when she got down the aisle and the flower girl handed to her flowers. You know what I mean? Like, these are the questions that pop up in your head because of this real, authentic and human moment, even if it is imperfect. And as we enter into this era of AI perfection, right? AI is gonna try to make everything absolutely perfect. It's going to be imperfections that give your photos life, it's gonna be imperfections that give humanity and give authenticity to our images. Yeah, maybe right now. AI has a problem with fingers and, you know, spaghetti or whatever. but like this is the worst that it's gonna be. It is continually getting better and better every single day, and it's going to focus on perfection. And hey, I mean, that's great for things like commercial work that's great for certain type of portraits that's great for certain types of, of paid photography. But if you are somebody who wants to use photography as a creative outlet, as a way to slow down and experience the world as a way to be more present, as a way to document your life, then imperfections is gonna be the thing that gives humanity to your images that say, this photo was taken by a real human, and it matters because it exists. I think that that's part of the reason why film has seen such a resurgence, because it's perfectly imperfect. Yeah. I mean, you could say, for the past 10 years it's been on the rise, but the past like two years, holy cow. I mean, hockey stick moment again. And that's because we're now seeing what AI is doing to photography, and people are looking for a way to validate or authenticate that their images are real and that they existed, and film is just, there's no denying it. Once you see the negative, the physical negative. One of my favorite books, I try to read it every year, it's called The Dude in the Zen Master by Jeff Bridges. and in this book, it's a very short read, it's very enjoyable. It's conversation. Jeff Bridges talks about how he likes to pl on his guitar, pl P-L-O-R-K. It is half play, half work, pl. It's play in the sense that there's no expectations when he picks up a guitar. No expectations. He's just playing around. But it's work in the sense that he's simply putting in the reps and therefore will become better at it. He's gonna be, you know, I don't know, working on his scales, working on his fretting, working on his picking, Whatever it is, there's work involved. But within that, he's just playing around. I love that idea. I love that idea. I want you to try to incorporate that the next time you go out and shoot. So next time you go out and shoot, try this. Don't shoot with the goal of fixing or even editing the photos later. Shoot with the goal of getting it right in camera, not getting everything right in camera. Just getting something right in camera. Now, right does not mean again perfect. It does not mean quote unquote, properly exposed. Right means as close to how you see the world as you can. Maybe that's gonna be the right moment. Maybe it's gonna be the right light. It may not be everything at once, but you're trying to get something right in camera. So it doesn't have to be technically perfect. It doesn't have to be award worthy, but it does have to be intentional. So pay attention to things like the direction of light. Pay attention to where your eye goes within a scene. Pay attention to a moment and composition the basics. You know, use your viewfinder more of like a window than a rough draft. What that means is slow down. Again, take a look at the light, adjust your exposure, change your angle. Wait a few seconds, take the photo, and if it doesn't work, cool, no worries. You learned something, try again. Right? You're just poring. You're just pl. That is such a fun word to say. I used to love saying salsa. Now pl kin, Aaron Larkin. I bet he would hate to hear it. Anyway. that is right there the mindset shift, right, is that you're just Larkin, you're just playing around while working on something, right? The images that you capture, photography isn't broken and it doesn't need to be saved. Photography simply needs to be enjoyed. In fact, now that I think about it, I got this email this morning. Hold on, let me pull it up. I don't know if you, have ever heard of the app headway. If you haven't, highly recommend it. Headway is like, quick book summaries. So you can go through like a whole book in like 15 minutes. It pulls out all like the key points and whatnot. Anyway, one of the quotes that I saved and then it now emails me. These quotes that I've saved within, the app, headway It is that art must bring pleasure and happiness, not necessarily financial success, right? That was by Rick Rubin in the book, the Creative Act. Again, photography doesn't have to be fixed. It doesn't have to be saved. It just simply needs to be enjoyed. So before I let you go, I want to give you some permission today. You don't need permission. You're an adult. You can do whatever you want, but I'm gonna give you some permission anyway, I wanna give you permission to shoot in jpeg and skip editing entirely. That doesn't make you any less of a photographer. I wanna give you permission to print straight from your camera roll. That doesn't make you any less of a photographer. I want to give you permission to share a photo just because it simply feels right, and even if it's not right in a technical standard. That doesn't make you any less of a photographer, and I want to give you permission to let your camera be the creative tool, not your editing software. That doesn't make you any less of a photographer. In fact, that's the one thing that I would say makes you more of a photographer. I may not know you but I'd be willing to bet you didn't get into photography to spend more time in front of a screen. You probably got into photography to slow down. You probably got into photography to spend more time outside. Maybe you got into photography because you're not good at drawing or painting, but you can create something with a camera. You got into photography to see the world differently, so go out and see it. Now if there's one actionable exercise that I can give you to make this whole thing stick, I don't think it's going to surprise you, but it's gonna be this. Take five photos a day for the next week and commit to not editing any of them. Not because you're trying to prove something. I'm not saying that editing is the enemy. I'm not saying that editing is bad. I edit photos. People edit photos. It's been happening for hundreds of years, but you're doing it because you're practicing seeing again. You're practicing figuring out how you can use this creative tool in your hand. That is the camera. Five photos a day. Commit to not editing any of them. Pay attention to what you notice, what patterns emerge. Do you shoot for light? Do you shoot for color? Do you shoot for emotion? Whatever it is that becomes your artistic signature. That's the thing that makes your work stand out. It's not a Lightroom preset, it's not some, image lut or color grade. It's what you notice in an image. Remember, you're not a machine. Your camera is not broken, and your photos, they don't need fix They just need to be yours. That's all that I got for you today. A bit shorter today, but hopefully just as actionable. Hopefully that can give you something to, to chew on as you go out and shoot next time to see the world differently as far as your approach to photography. And editing. It's a great tool, but what are you optimizing for? To become a photographer or a digital artist? Choice is yours. No wrong choice, but the choice is yours. So that's all that I got for you today. Until next time, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you'll be tomorrow. Talk soon.