Direct oncamera flash bad?

Garbz

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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Had an interesting through today on the way to uni. I was reading the Australian Financial Review Magazine, a lovely publication full of articles people interested in the rich and the special read. As a side note the Canon EOS 1D MkIII was in this month's must have gadets for the ludicrously rich, but I digress.

What this magazine is also known for is it's fantastic photography, probably IMO the best of any Australian non-photography dedicated publications. They frequent fantastic portraits of the rich and famous, lovely studio shots of Tom Ford for instance. One article in the September issue on page 59 about Rugby league features a prominent member of the sport in a stuid headshot. The picture really tells a thousand words and is in every possible way a great portrait in my books.

Now getting to my point. This is the fashion issue and details a lot of designers. Rewind to page 47 and there is an article about Karen Walker. The photographer Derek Henderson in every photo hase placed her against a wall almost always put her in the dead centre of the frame, and nuked her with a direct flash. Basically if I posted a picture like this on strobist I would get laughed off the blog. Similarly if this ended up in the professional photography subforum people would wonder if I hit my head on the way out of bed this morning.

And now the point: Despite this the photo is still great. It is set appart from every other in the magazine, just like Karen Walker is set appart from everone else in the fashion industry because of her "too-cool-for-school personal style" The lighting may make her look flat but at the same time it emphasises her direct and different style.

Just a thought before you reach for your pocketwizards and lightstands next!
 
Meh, I'm really tired of this fake no-skills photography that is so fashionable right now. The DIY aesthetic is everywhere right now. I remember when grunge infiltrated fashion, and it still hasn't fully gone away. This seems to be the photographic equivalent.

I figure it may be cool right now, but there's no longevity in it. Any creative effort, even when undertaken as a commercial enterprise, has a life beyond its immediate use. I assume these snap-shot look-alikes will not withstand the test of time.

But hey, they're my personal pet peeve. Funny to me is the few people that have stopped by this forum in the last few months to ask "How do I get that look" meaning the snap-and-flash. Some of them are actually produced with considerable sophistication - you can see how well some areas are filled with flash.

Oh well.
 
The trends in any 'Art' is often about breaking the established rules...and of course it's cyclical and the trends will come and go.
 
Everything in society is about communication! Whether it's Art or selling really bad burgers. (things start to get esoteric when you start talking about building a dog house but you are still communicating to others that they need to take care of their dogs and you are capable oh helping them do just that)

We have rules in the Arts to help those who are not as creative as they could be. The truly creative are too busy being creative to remember to follow a set of rules (and generally don't give a rats left whisker about whoever wrote them anyway!).

$.02
 
Ahhh you blame this more on a trend than creative licence. Maybe I just overthought it :lol: And no I don't like the pictures one bit, but they do fit the character of the designer.
 

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