I’ll fix it in post.

The words the purists love to use against us but the fact of the matter is it is necessary oftentimes. The featured photo above is an example. This old Knights of Columbus building in St. Mary’s Kansas. I haven’t been able to find the history of the building other than the city was laid out in 1866 and is the home of Saint Mary’s Academy and College, therefore the city despite being only about 2,000 residents in population had, at least at one time a significant percentage of citizens who were Catholic.

I was attracted to the building because of its architecture and coloring. The facade had been restored or well maintained and now becoming a women’s clothing store. The scene was a difficult lighting situation. While it was a bit of a hazy sky the sky was very intensely bright and the photograph itself was taken at about 9 AM.

Above is the original unedited version of the photo. The sky is even more boring and nearly blown out on the right side, the building is a bit dull with heavy shadows hiding the heavy wooden doors. This doesn’t resemble the scene nearly as my eyes saw it at the time. I knew I could “fix it” in post. Is it possible to “get it right”? Maybe at a different time of day on a different day but I was only at this location for a short period of time on my way back home from a photo outing. This location isn’t too far from where I live, it’s 90 miles away and would take about 1 1/2 hours to drive there, but it isn’t too close either.

Despite what the anti-post processing crowd likes to say, fixing it in post isn’t a bad thing. It gives us greater latitude and it is just another tool in our photographic toolbox. It doesn’t have anything to do with the lack of skills as a photographer, quite the contrary, it shows we have additional skills. Don’t let the naysayers convince you otherwise, being able to “fix it in post” is a good thing.