This cliche is a standard joke on every set. The joke is that there is some problem that is being left for someone else to deal with.
Two Steps: Production/Post
As I have written elsewhere, there have always been two steps to photography: negative/print, production/post, exposing/finishing, step one/step two or however you want to call it.
Now some people are good at production. And some people are good at post. But production and post-production are different environments so fewer have mastered both.
Also their personalities differ. Production people work out in the light, interacting with people. They are extroverted and artsy. Post people work in the dark, often alone, introverted and technical.
There has usually been a division of labor between production and post. A wall, if you will. Wedding photographers, magazine photographers and Hollywood DPs exposed the film. Wedding labs, pre-press service bureaus and Hollywood Post houses did everything after that. (It really doesn’t matter whether it is still photography or motion picture photography.)
So the domain of the photographer has mostly been production and I would call production skills photography skills. These skills are lighting, composition, etc. All the on-set skills.
The finishing lab or post house ruled the post-production domain. Post skills are often highly technical with the goal of producing a quality finished product.
The Wall Came Tumbling Down
Fast forward to today. Your digital camera can produce a RAW image file. You have Adobe LightRoom and Photoshop installed on your Macintosh Powerbook and do all the post-production yourself. The wall between production and post has fallen like the Berlin Wall.
Now you can fix everything that is fixable in post all by yourself. Provided you learn all the tools, of course.
The question is do you really want to?
Now when you say “Fix it in post” the joke is on you!
