Photo Cliches you Love to Hate

[medic2230]

At least I feel better knowing my hydrant was red.

 

[snowbear]

We have those, too, but they are private owned and installed. Where I live, they are yellow with a band of blue Scotchlite. We efen have blue reflectors in the roadway that line up with them.

Where I work, most have been green over white or light grey but it looks like they are painting them all grey.

The University of Maryland has yellow and black.

 

[medic2230]

They use the blue reflectors down here to mark them also. Most down here are red but you will occasionally come across one that's another color.

 

[unpopular]

SOOC bragging. All that says to me is that you're too lazy to learn RAW processing.

In a similar vein, Wide open bragging...

This I don't even remotely understand. Not only is shooting wide open easier because you have plenty of exposure, composition is easier since your subject is inherently dominant.

One thing I love, not so much am bothered by, are when noobs shoot manual mode in a way that might as well be auto mode, feeling so proud when they've learned how to line up the little triangle with the zero.

All this says is that they still have NO IDEA what they're doing.

 

[Derrel]

RE: Wide open bragging...

This I don't even remotely understand. Not only is shooting wide open easier because you have plenty of exposure, composition is easier since your subject is inherently dominant.

I am going to guess because shooting wide open means it's often very tough to get good focus, and since there's so little DOF in a lot of situations, many images end up being crappy, substandard, useless rejects... that's my thinking about the rational underlying wide open bragging. AT least for people with experience; there is also the, "I just got a new 50mm f/1.8, so I am shooting everything wide-open!" brigade. (Shooting in manual, wide-open, that is!)

Speaking of cliche shots...has anybody mentioned WIDE-OPEN bokeh shots of Christmas lights?

 

[dennisbray]

Black and white, highly sharpened photos. Black and white photos have their charm, yes. However I think a great number of people over use them. It's so easy to slap a B&W filter and taka e a bunch of photos. Even kids do it and it would still look arty.
You can always tell if a B&W photo was done by a pro or amateur, however I personally try to stay away from this.

 

[rexbobcat]

SOOC bragging. All that says to me is that you're too lazy to learn RAW processing.

In a similar vein, Wide open bragging...

This I don't even remotely understand. Not only is shooting wide open easier because you have plenty of exposure, composition is easier since your subject is inherently dominant.

One thing I love, not so much am bothered by, are when noobs shoot manual mode in a way that might as well be auto mode, feeling so proud when they've learned how to line up the little triangle with the zero.

All this says is that they still have NO IDEA what they're doing.

I think they're mostly referring to people who shoot at at wide apertures almost exclusively regardless of the situation or need for it.

I know a few people who care more about dat background blur than having their subject's eyes in focus.

 

[thereyougo!]

^^^ This. (Quote doesn't work from mobile safari). There is a time and a place for a wide open shot. But the number of times I see someone post a shot saying. LOOK! I shot this wide open. Aren't I artistic?! Low light isn't necessarily a good reason for it as cameras cope so well with higher ISOs now. The fact that you will find whole discussions just about bokeh wide open just says it all.

I'm not saying bokeh isn't important, but it shouldn't be the only reason for picking an f/1.4 over a f/2.8 on a lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.4. Heck on my Minolta 85 f/1.4 I still get great bokeh at f/2.8 but on researching the lens there were 100s of posts about quality of bokeh at f/1.4 without talking about colour, contrast and sharpness which is IMO more important than bokeh wide open. If all you have in focus on a bride's portrait is one eye it's going to be a challenge! Her whole face might be soft except for her left eye but God, what great bokeh!

 

[unpopular]

Oh, I know. I'm just saying the shooting wide open is not going to be technically more difficult aside from [manual] focus, if anything, it should be easier - more exposure means less noise potential and hand-holdability. Narrow DOF definitely has it's place. I just don't see it as something to brag about.

 

[gsgary]

I don't understand why an entire medium would be considered a cliche.

Whatever, I'll just be sitting here rolling my eyes.

And film

 

[limr]

I don't understand why an entire medium would be considered a cliche.

Whatever, I'll just be sitting here rolling my eyes.

And film

That too