"Photographers: you’re being replaced by software"

[2WheelPhoto]

Thoughts?



Photographers: you

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Quite some bold statements but the author posts pics to back them up

For the first time in history, photography is about to lose control of its monopoly on affordable, convincing realism and it's time for us to understand that realism has never been the most important feature of the photograph. Although we rarely think about it, we understand this intuitively: a computer rendering of your daughter's wedding will never be the same as a photograph even if both are equally realistic. The photograph is defined by its causal, mechanical connection to the real world. Academics have studied this aspect of photography for a long time (for a very clear overview see Kendall Walton's Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism), but almost from the beginning photographers have stayed blissfully unaware of theory and have systematically ignored and even undermined their medium's connection to the world.

 

[imagemaker46]

It's not so much just the software, but video as well, as the quality of video gets better, image grabs are all that is going to be required. I don't believe that photography will die soon, but it's a scary business to throw a lot of money into these days.

 

[bhop]

Depends on the product. I'd like to see him make one of our t-shirt samples draped on a human in that software.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Depends on the product. I'd like to see him make one of our t-shirt samples draped on a human in that software.

I suspect if it can't be done yet it will be soon enough as technology evolves

 

[IByte]

I thought the fauxtographers were killing photographers like an incurable virus? OO

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I'm not buying it. There will always be a place for photography.

And that space isn't shrinking, it's simply changing. Just like it always has and always will.

 

[12sndsgood]

I think technolgy could get to that point down the line. but it seems like allot of guys with graphics programs and rederings are starting down the path allready. just seems like a change of the way you work. Im in the design field for construction. I started out on a board with pencil and eraser and now im doing the same thing on computer. It's just a change in how you put out your work.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

I think technolgy could get to that point down the line. but it seems like allot of guys with graphics programs and rederings are starting down the path allready. just seems like a change of the way you work. Im in the design field for construction. I started out on a board with pencil and eraser and now im doing the same thing on computer. It's just a change in how you put out your work.

Yeah i see guys marking up CAD programs onsite with iPads...incredible!

 

[IByte]

I already consider these people doing what's called matte painting and video compositing.

 

[Josh66]

Depends on the product. I'd like to see him make one of our t-shirt samples draped on a human in that software.

I suspect if it can't be done yet it will be soon enough as technology evolves

It can be done.

I've been using Blender for a while, but I wouldn't call myself good at it. I am very impressed by what people more skilled than myself can do with it though.

I don't consider it to be the same as photography, or even threatening photography in any way though...


The only real limit to what you can do in there (other than skill and experience) is how much processing power you have available.

 

[Steve5D]

I'm not all to concerned about it...

 

[Josh66]

If you haven't used software like Blender before, it'll take some time to learn it. But, it is actually very similar to photography - you set up your lights (including any modifiers you might want on them), set up the camera, then you just render the scene.

The hard part is designing it (the stuff in the scene). That's where processing power comes in. The more complex the scene, the more power you'll need. If you built a computer specifically for that, you could render just about anything.

 

[Josh66]

Check this out:


Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project

Short movie (15 minutes) made with Blender.

 

[fokker]

I'm not buying it. There will always be a place for photography.

And that space isn't shrinking, it's simply changing. Just like it always has and always will.

That's more or less what he said in the article, or did you only read the title?