I'm no evangelist for film. If anything, as my son in law says, I'm one who believes in substance not style. That he suggests, behind my back im sure, is because I have no style.
But lately he has begun so to see the tricks and gimmicks as not really showing what he wants to show. Oh he is going to keep on doing it for the brides, and the families that want the glitz, as would I. However, I think he has come to the conclusion that like the early photographers, the thing that you shoot has the beauty. It is not your job to make it more beautiful but to capture the beauty inherent in it.
I got some comment on the background in my retro bridal shot. It is absolutely called for, if you look at it as a photoshop project. It is also called for it you look at it as, "could you have moved her somewhere else?"
I totally agree the shot would have been better without it, but would the inherent beauty of the subject have changed. Since the shot was retro of a time and in a building from the 1800s, I'm not sure that the rough background wasn't called for. A formal portrait no, it was a shot at the wedding portrait. "Shoot it as it lays" Kind of thing but I'm not defending it because they may well be right. When I print it, I might do a texture thing to minimize it's impact without getting rid of it totally. But that is enhancement a fine line between that and cheap trickery.
The major problem with photography (need I say in my opinion) is that it is too damn easy now to make 3/4 decent pictures. 75% of the time you are going to get acceptable pictures, if you just set the camera on auto everything. That is pretty good considering never before in the history of photography was that rate possible. 90% of the time you are going to get pictures your family will love. The other 10% you can delete. So what is wrong with photography that so much is what we lovingly call crap (substitute mediocre) here.
Sometimes it's a tricky lighting problem that the camera can't fix and the photographer doesn't know enough to fix. Sometimes it just a boring shot though technically good. In others, if it were a film camera would we have wasted the buck on the shot? Think about what I just wrote. There is no longer any need to be selective in what we shoot. Hell with digital, we can shoot like it was a damn movie. Hundreds and hundreds of shots at a wedding, come on now why not just video everything and then select frames to enlarge.
Composition can't be stuck in a paragraph in the owners manual of a dslr. So you have a nikon, that doesn't mean you are an artist my young friend. It means you have a nice camera and can go clicking away at the world. I'm sorry a horizontal shot of your daughter with a mile of black on each side is NOT good composition, no matter what they tell you around here. On one side sure, if you are going to make a poster but not for a portrait. All it takes is to turn the camera so the format matches the subject. But that isn't in the owners manual from Nikon or canon so it can't be important.
There are hundreds of little things that move a snapshot up a level. If you know the rule and you break the rule it is innovative. If you don't know the rule is just a screw up. I'm sorry everybody who owns a camera is not talented. Just because you are alone in a crowd, it doesn't make you an artist. I'm sorry but thats just the way life is.
These days it's all about how to avoid paying your dues. Well guys when you do you get a majority of mediocrity aka crap..
Now let me say this right up front, or right in the rear. Not all digital photography is mediocre. Some of it is really, really good stuff. I don't much like the look of it usually, but that is just taste. The best of it comes from people who know about photography, not just the camera they are holding. They had studied and shot lots of pictures and LEARNED from their mistakes not by defending them. So, guys who know what's what and shoot digital, don't take this as inditement of you, cause it isn't. What it is though is a statement that if you are looking for short cuts to being a quality photographer, there are none. Shoot lots of pics listen to people who tell you things about them, and try real hard not to cop an attitude. Most of what people say about your pictures isnt personal.
From this point on I refuse to critique anyone else's photos.
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