THE RULES OF BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER!!

A few days ago, a fellow artist passed along that on AdultFolio, a photographer was calling everyone out for over editing images. His "soapbox" moment entailed critizing those who smooth the complexion of models...which I am assuming he's referring to Frequency Separation, along with any number of skin softening techniques. In his mind, NONE of this should be used and if you go beyond simple bemish removal, than you are less the photographer you claim to be.

This would be the notorius "RULES OF BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER" that I have ran into my entire 35 years or more of being a "photographer" and the main reason I stepped away from calling myself a photographer and joyfully switched into the title of being a, PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST.

First off I told the artist to ignore the entire soapbox rant the idiot shared. There are no rules. Burn whatever rule book this guy got all these ideas from. I can name a whole host of extremely popular photo artist and even photographers who enjoy smoothing a models skin and I'm talking about going beyond removing blemishes. To name just a few who smooth models skin...Robert Alvarado, Stefan Gesell, Chris Lechner, HUGO V, Ryan Berrier, Ryan Sims, GW Burns, Andrew Baran, Peter Coulson, etc.

Personally my view point is that I intentionally will work on a models skin until it is smooth... free of bliemishes, age lines, off skinn tone, wrinkles, scars....I'll take it to the point they are glass. Every model I have ever worked with knows this, and will often request it. My work does NOT reflect the true look of the model, it never has. I would rather work in fantasy over reality. I'm an artist.

So, Photographers who pass along their treasured, "rules".....GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!

I've seen way too many young or amateur photographers quit and give up because some know it all hard line ignorant "photographer" gave them advice from their stupid soapbox. There's a fuck load of YouTUbe videos that make a heck of a lot of money training photographers, Photographic Artist and Artist, how to smooth skin down to glass. So, sit yourself down and shut the fuck up!

Why? Why do more than a few photographers devote their lives to the never ending rules? In my honest opinion they don't have the creativity to go beyond what they produce, so they lean on rules that keep everyone at the same level. If your want is to create something more, or delve deep into Photo editing, then you will have to endure their rule wrath. And, it never stops with just skin. They have rules for everything. Lighting, composition, type of lens to use, type of camera, jpeg or raw, etc. It's honestly endless and made to be broken. Break all the rules!! Simply create!

Now...I'm off my soapbox.