Filters: Tools of the faceless men

I’m going to start this post by thanking @rubilu for his post drawing my attention to this post. That’s all you get though, man. No 100 HIVE.😂

I would’ve been mad mad (intentional) if I missed this prompt because I love photography. Many people that know me know this. Not the posing-for-the-gram kind of photography. The shooting-random-pictures kind of photography.

Anyone that is into photography knows that filters are a key part of getting the best results out of a photo. You can have a great camera and your pictures will still suck, because you don’t know the right filters to use for what picture or the combination of filters to use. Which is why you find that two people using the same phone can exhibit different levels of photography.

I’m not going to bore you much with the details of filters when applied to random pictures like I normally do, because I don’t think that’s what this prompt is focusing on.

This prompt is focusing on using filters on pictures of people.

Honestly, it’s a complicated subject whether using filters is a problem. It’s just like applying make up, except make up is more physical and in the real world. So filters are basically…online makeup, if you like.

So the question I pose now to you is, do you think putting on make up is bad? Of course I don’t expect you to answer, but it’s obvious different people will have different POVs about the subject.

But I’m the writer in this case so I’ll be talking about what I think.

I don’t find a problem with editing pictures. I just cringe when I see people over-edit pictures. I feel different about make up, though.

I use a phone with a very good camera, so people use my phone to take pictures a lot at occasions. Almost every time a lady takes pictures with my phone, they ask me to edit it before they send and when I do, I’m always told “you didn’t even edit it”. But I did, ma’am.🙂

There’s someone in my contact list that almost always has me going wtf when I see the before and after editing pictures on her status. It’s like almost every time, the before is actually far nicer than the retouched picture. But hey, it’s a free world.

I’m just glad though that I’ve never been deceived by someone using filters, and I’ve never deceived anyone with filters before either. I am what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of person and I like the people I’m close to to be the same. I use Snapchat, but just enough to maybe smoothen your skin and give your face a nice rounded look, nothing extra. I also rarely even use it at all. Maybe once every month, or sometimes not at all.

I edit some of my pictures, but the editing I do mostly is not light weight and to my own body, but to increase lightning or change the mood of a picture. An example is the picture above. I took that picture a few months ago at a book donation we did, and I applied a Dramatic Cool filter because it gave the picture a certain appeal I liked.

I use warm filters and vignettes to throw you into sympathetic moods or to show something that feels sad or like a memory. Like this picture from my graduation (a dramatic filter applied) or this dam I took a few weeks back(vignette).

So uh yeahh this is my take on filter use. It’s not exactly a black and white scene (no pun intended). It depends on the person. I don’t have a problem with editing as long as it’s done right and not extreme. Or if the edit serves some sort of deeper aesthetic or artistic purpose.

Thanks for passing through. Have a great day:)

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All images in this post are mine and were shot and edited in phone’s default editor.