#nofilter

Roses and Meatballs (Digital)

On the way to a funky Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, my sister reminded me that we'd probably have to wait at least a half hour before being seated.  We got inside and sure enough, there was a wait.  As more and more hungry New Yorkers opened the front door, only to let the brisk air pour in, my sister and I both dug our phones out of our coats and opened Instagram.  

I swiped pass pictures of concerts, food, and wide landscapes.  I didn't notice, however, pictures with too many filters on them.  Remember those days?  Kids would take a picture of something "artsy" and then proceed to click and apply every filter possible on the pasta they were having for dinner. Nice.

Vintage Instagram (Digital)

All jokes aside, I'm sure lots of us were guilty of doing just this.  Just look at the photo above (something I posted years ago).  The photo is super-saturated and ended up doing more harm than good.  Rule of thumb: if your filtered picture looks like it was taken by a semi-functional toaster, remove the filters.

Filters were used and eventually abused by Instagram users all over.  There was good reason for this, though.  We, as a society, love recreating the past.  Whether it be vintage video games or bringing back overalls, there's a certain point in time where the past becomes cool again.  As it turns out, the introduction and popularization of Instagram was the time for new photos to look old again.  This picture would look right at home on your Instagram feed:

A photo taken by my grandparents in France decades ago.  I guess it runs in the family.  (Film)

It's funny to think, though, that with all the technology we have, we just use it to make our creations look like they could have been produced decades ago.  That said, I'm a fan of using filters editing photos digitally, at least to an extent.  It offers the more technical, perfectionist half of me to take over and focus on the nitty gritty details.  After all the instant photography, getting the result you want and expect can be a nice change.  All the imperfection has made me appreciate how close I can get to "perfection" with a computer.

I like to think of perfection, in the photography sense, as successfully portraying what one saw and felt as they took the picture to an audience.  If that portrayal requires some tweaking or that emotion wasn't harnessed while clicking the shutter button, I say go for it.

Summer's France (Digital)

Take the picture above, for example.  The reddish sepia filter (the red-black equivalent to a black and white filter) applied to the photo adds to the warmth of the photo, previously dominated by whites and blues.  The dark maroons on the bottom half help convey the intense heat of France a couple of years back when I visited.  Moreover, with the sun just behind the building, the sepia-based filter was a justified choice.

Other times, its important to let the raw image do the work for you.  Sure, adding filters can get exciting or even habitual, but never can it replace the timing, precision, and luck of an unaltered work of art.  Sometimes it's better to just stick with #nofilter*.

*please don't use the hashtag #nofilter as I was just informed by 2014 that it's not that cool anymore.

Some photos don't need filters

If you want to see more of my pictures, give me a follow @kvangodzik on Instagram.