The case against “Shooting for the edit”

I have been a hobby photographer for about a year now, and I’ve really enjoyed the experience so far. Photography motivates me to explore and look at the world from different perspectives. Finding compositions is a great creative exercise.

I was also impressed by the amount of learning material available on platforms like YouTube. It reminded me how privileged we are when it comes to access to knowledge. Previous generations mostly had to figure things out for themselves or be lucky enough to study under someone with more experience.

I watched many videos where professional photographers explained the technical ins and outs of photography equipment and shared their knowledge about topics such as composition. One concept that came up frequently was “shooting for the edit,” along with terms like “exposing to the right” (ETTR).

The idea was to optimize the amount of information the camera’s image sensor collects. The resulting image could then be imported into an editing suite such as Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. This is where the photographer could express their creative vision and edit the image to their liking.

Although I don’t have the ambition to turn my hobby into a job, I do want to improve and get better. So I did what the pros recommended and started shooting my photos with post-processing in mind. At first, I thought I was making progress, but then I noticed that my attitude had changed. I became sloppy and less passionate when photographing. It felt like I was simply recording a scene rather than capturing it creatively.

Many photography-related videos show before-and-after photos, intended to demonstrate how much an image can be improved with editing. I find it quite ironic that I often prefer the unedited photo over the edited one. The unedited version feels real, while the edited one depicts a scene that feels “out of this world”—like it wasn’t taken on this planet, but in another realm.

I’ve come to call these edited photos “Narnia shots,” since they look like they were taken in the magical kingdom of Narnia. And although you might be blown away by these images at first sight, they start to feel “off” the longer you look at them. I would pause the video when the images were shown and just stare at them for a while.

It’s difficult to make an edited image look natural. The biggest giveaways to me are the unnatural use of bright colors and the addition or exaggeration of light sources. It all essentially comes down to light. Many photographers seem to want their photos to look like they were shot during the golden hour—even when they weren’t.

The golden hour is the hour before the sun disappears behind the horizon. This time of day provides the best lighting conditions for photography.

I decided that this wasn’t the photographic style I wanted to pursue and devised a new strategy for my development. The first thing I did was acquire a smaller everyday camera—a more compact and lightweight camera that I could take everywhere. I love taking photos with my Nikon Z5, but it’s a heavy brick—not something you can just throw into a bag.

After researching different lightweight setups, I eventually bought a secondhand Nikon Z50, which can be seen as the smaller sibling of the Nikon Z5. I was actually excited about buying the Olympus E-M5 at first, but I didn’t want to spend time learning a completely different camera system. I wanted something familiar so I could focus on things like composition instead.

The Z50 was a great fit in that regard. It operated just like my Z5. Many of the controls were in the same locations, and the menu system was identical. The only thing I had to get used to was adjusting the aperture properly. A smaller, lighter camera did motivate me to go out and shoot more, but it still wasn’t enough.

One problem I had with the “shoot for the edit” mentality was that it made the shooting experience feel sterile. It felt like I was just operating a machine instead of being creative. Set the aperture, check the histogram, avoid clipping highlights or shadows, finally press the shutter release button. Then I was supposed to be creative behind a computer screen once I got home.

I’m not saying this approach doesn’t work for others, but it definitely wasn’t working for me. So, I left that method behind. I started shooting only in JPEG instead of JPEG + RAW. Shooting in JPEG kept me sharper, since there’s less room for error. It forces you to pay more attention to things like exposure and white balance.

I also started getting more creative with exposure, sometimes even clipping my highlights or shadows. There’s just something about making the decision in the moment, not later behind a screen. I still edit my photos, but the process is much quicker. I try to get everything right in-camera, and the JPEGs are already pre-edited. I only apply finishing touches.

After making all these changes, I can gladly say that my love for photography is stronger than ever. I love taking photos during my evening walks, even if most of them aren’t even good ones. It reminds me of when I was a kid, walking around with a point-and-shoot camera, capturing things I found interesting.

My advice to beginner photographers, from someone who is still a beginner himself, is to focus on getting to know your camera, building good habits, and learning composition, rather than diving straight into image editing. The pros on YouTube might say you have to shoot RAW and edit your photos (and buy their presets), but there’s nothing wrong with shooting in JPEG.

Once you have the basics down, developed the right habits, and maybe even started developing your own style, you can switch to RAW if you want to. Personally, I think the JPEGs coming out of my Z5 and Z50 are quite good. I recommend setting the Picture Control profile to either Standard or Neutral.

The Neutral profile applies minimal processing to the JPEG and is meant to serve as a base for editing. I’ve also assigned the “+RAW” function to my record button. By default, this red button does nothing when the camera is in photo mode. Now, it functions as a RAW toggle, allowing me to quickly set the camera to capture both JPEG and RAW. I call it my “safety net button.”

Whether you want to make fancy Narnia shots or take more true-to-life photos is really up to you. They’re your photos, after all. I personally prefer more natural images, even if they don’t have the same wow factor as the Narnia shots. I might go back to shooting JPEG+RAW eventually, once I’ve really cemented the good habits.

The only issue I have is that Apple Photos doesn’t offer a “delete RAW” option for JPEG+RAW image pairs. You can only delete the entire image. There is a workaround: export the original JPEG and RAW files, delete the image from your library, empty the trash, and re-import only the JPEG file.

It would be nice to be able to delete just the RAW files of images I want to keep but have no interest in editing. Who knows, maybe an Apple engineer will read this and implement the feature (though I doubt it!).

Anyway, that’s all I wanted to share. I hope this post gave you a different perspective from someone who’s just starting out.