Q: Misa, you speak about purity, no filters, no fakery… yet you use post-production. Isn’t that a contradiction?
A: No. And here is why.
Post-production is not manipulation. It is craftsmanship.
Every photograph in history has been processed.
Film was processed in the darkroom.
Digital is processed on a screen.
Only the tools changed, not the integrity.
Processing light is part of writing with light.
A RAW file is not a photograph; it is information waiting to be shaped into expression.
It is like a musician tuning an instrument before the concert.
The purity lies in the music, not in the tuning wrench.
Purity means “no lies,” not “no work.”
When I say no filters, I mean:
No beauty manipulation
No face sculpting
No AI hallucinations
No altering of the person
No digital perfection to erase reality
Purity is not the absence of editing, it is the refusal to distort the human truth that stood in front of me.
I use post-production to reveal, never to invent.
The digital camera sees less than the human eye.
A human face contains: light, shadow, texture, breath, silence.
A digital sensor records: data.
To transform that data back into presence, I must process it.
Not to change the person, but to restore the emotion that the sensor cannot feel.
Editing is the bridge between what happened and what the camera failed to see.
I remove nothing. I invent nothing. I only remove noise.
Post-production allows me to:
Balance light
Restore shadow
Remove technical distraction
Maintain the atmosphere of the moment
Honor the intention
This is not cosmetic.
It is respect.
Respect for the person.
Respect for the truth.
A photograph must breathe, not glitch.
The problem is not the tools. It is the intention.
Photoshop is not the enemy.
The lie is.
A surgeon and a butcher use blades.
The difference is purpose.
My purpose is presence, not perfection.
My work is to meet the person, not to manufacture a version of them that never existed.
Purity without technique is laziness disguised as ethics.
Some people call “purity” the act of doing nothing.
That is not purity, that is negligence.
Purity requires discipline.
Discipline requires mastery.
And mastery requires tools used with intention and integrity.
A good photograph is not born.
It is crafted.
Final Reflection
I do not use post-production to create illusions.
I use it to protect reality from the limitations of the machine.
I will never use AI to fabricate a face.
But I will always use my craft to let the truth of that face appear as it deserves.
No lies.
No filters.
No distortion.
Just light, shaped with intention.
That is my purity.
