Is this weird for a photography teacher to say/encourage?

[blackrose89]

I have a friend who is a few years older then me who is a photographer. Her focus/exposures are pretty dead on. Decent composition and knows about lighting. She is a professional who makes a full income from her work.

But I noticed almost all of her horizons are tilted. Some slightly, some really bad. I was suprised because in everything else she a pretty good photographer and even horizons seems like "photograohy 101". When I asked her about it she told me that her professor noticed she was doing this years ago, and praised her for it. Said the tilted/uneven horizons were indictive of her creative nature and is more or less her signature in her photos and should keep going with it.

Is there something I'm missing, or is that a really weird thing for a teacher to day?

 

[Overread]

Some art teachers are very good
Some are average
and some shouldn't be teaching at all



In the end remember that all artistic "rules" are only guidelines based upon artistic theory and visual appeal and that there is a lot of them. Common ones like rule of 3rds and straight horizons are only the tip of the iceburg and there is a lot more theory to learn. And this is before you even touch on the idea of fully breaking the "rules". As a result many photos that appear to break the common rules might well only be obeying other, lesser known ones or might be using key reasons to break the rules totally.

Furthermore don't confuse art with style and saleability - sometimes total rubbish sells and if it sells or has its own identity then who are we to argue against it - that part comes down to taste and marketing.

 

[jwbryson1]

A friend of mine is a pro photographer. Not just a pro, but one of the best photographers in the country. He shoots weddings and has many shots that are tilted, intentionally so. I think it's a style. I dunno.

 

[blackrose89]

A friend of mine is a pro photographer. Not just a pro, but one of the best photographers in the country. He shoots weddings and has many shots that are tilted, intentionally so. I think it's a style. I dunno.

Maybe it is. Just not something I've ever seen encouraged.

 

[MLeeK]

KNOW the rules. Then know when and how to break them

 

[Austin Greene]

KNOW the rules. Then know when and how to break them

I was about to say. If she can do tilted horizons well enough to make a full income off of it, I don't see anything bad about that

 

[Tee]

She's making a full time living? Tilt away!

 

[o hey tyler]

KNOW the rules. Then know when and how to break them

I was about to say. If she can do tilted horizons well enough to make a full income off of it, I don't see anything bad about that

If she makes photos with tilted horizons in the WRONG way, then there's plenty bad about it.

There's a right and a wrong time for tilted horizons.

 

[Derrel]

In high school, we had a drama teacher. He was a very unusual man...prone to emotional outbursts, crying after particularly good student acting, especially after the lunch hour. He said a lot of odd things...he was known as an "out-there" kind of man. He said a lot of really spacey, weird things to the students, but hey, he was a drama teacher. Then one day, another member of the drama department found him at home, in the living room, dead from a massive cocaine overdose. Huh...

Just because "a teacher" or "a prof" says something, it does not always mean it's a valid point. The world of education has its eccentric people. A photographer who cannot get her horizons level is kind of like a surgeon who cannot suture well, and whose work always leaves scars. Or a plumber whose pipe-fitting work leaves the homeowner with little drips of water because he's too frickin' stupid to know how to tape-seal a joint. "Encouraging" incompetence under the mantle of creativity...huh...
makes me think of the old drama teacher....

 

[CowgirlMama]

I used to take piano lessons. I struggle with rhythm. I can't count beyond a sixteenth note. When my mom mentioned it to my teacher (who had not even tried to address it), her answer was that I was "taking creative license". I wasn't. I honestly couldn't count. Now, years later, I'm back into playing and I have to re-learn how to count because my teacher didn't bother to correct me years ago. I wish she had.

I haven't seen your friend's photos. It is completely possible that what she's doing is fine, but it's also possible that she just got into the habit and was never corrected like my music. Personally, I wouldn't hire a photographer who chronically tilted photos. It would drive me crazy. One or two, maybe, all of them, no way.

 

[Austin Greene]

KNOW the rules. Then know when and how to break them

I was about to say. If she can do tilted horizons well enough to make a full income off of it, I don't see anything bad about that

If she makes photos with tilted horizons in the WRONG way, then there's plenty bad about it.

There's a right and a wrong time for tilted horizons.

But she obviously has a market, otherwise she couldn't make a living off of it. Technically, sure it might be wrong, but if she has that much revenue from a market that likes tilted horizons, thats just good business. As another said, if she's doing it well enough to live on it, tilt away!

 

[Dominantly]

All of my favorite photographers have their own unique identifiable style, some of which would probably get crap here for it if they posted, but it works for them and the masses. Take Jill Greenberg and some of her portraits with STRONG skin highlights, or Dave Hill and his "over processed" techniques.

If it's working for her- freakin sweet!

 

[o hey tyler]

I was about to say. If she can do tilted horizons well enough to make a full income off of it, I don't see anything bad about that

If she makes photos with tilted horizons in the WRONG way, then there's plenty bad about it.

There's a right and a wrong time for tilted horizons.

But she obviously has a market, otherwise she couldn't make a living off of it. Technically, sure it might be wrong, but if she has that much revenue from a market that likes tilted horizons, thats just good business. As another said, if she's doing it well enough to live on it, tilt away!

Many beginners or novices think that there is a "market" for continuously tilted horizons. That market is people who get enjoyment from bad photography.

It's true. Sorry to break it to you.

 

[blackrose89]

The question is not really should she go with it, is it ok if she's making money or if there is a market. This was advice she got when he was getting started. I really just wondered if this was an odd thing for a photography teacher to advise.

 

[inallseriousness]

There's a right and a wrong time for tilted horizons.

When?