"Photographers: you’re being replaced by software"

[Fred Berg]

Our civilisation seems to be in decline.....

 

[orljustin]

Images have been able to be rendered "photoreal" for a while. There is nothing suddenly "disruptive" about this, and as illustrated, it is really limited to hard, physical objects.

 

[Buckster]

As it said in the article, documentary type photos of real people and events will still be the realm of photography. Weddings, seniors, portraits, babies, corporate headshots, news events, sports events, etc., all fall into that.

It's the product photographers and fantasy landscape photographers that will have to bear the brunt of most of the competition spoken of in the article, but that's been coming on stronger and stronger for quite a while already - hardly Earth-shaking news there.

 

[Fred Berg]

When digital cameras first hit the shops, the images were very pixely and most serious photographers wouldn't have touched one with a barge pole. Nowadays, unless you are a film enthusiast or need the extra mile a medium or large format film can deliver, who uses analogue?

These things start slowly but then tend to snowball in a hurry....

 

[Buckster]

When digital cameras first hit the shops, the images were very pixely and most serious photographers wouldn't have touched one with a barge pole. Nowadays, unless you are a film enthusiast or need the extra mile a medium or large format film can deliver, who uses analogue?

These things start slowly but then tend to snowball in a hurry....

I don't see how this has anything to do with what was actually written in the article. Did you READ the article?

 

[jake337]

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.

Yup and processing power is getting twice as fast and twice as small every two years.

 

[jake337]

Just wanted to add that image making devices will evolve, just as fast, right along side CGI. So who knows what kinds of cameras we'll be using but I think they will still be there.

 

[imagemaker46]

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

Professional photographers in all areas of photography are...that's the difference between being an amateur and enjoying the hobby, and being a professional and having to work harder every year just to stay in the business.

 

[imagemaker46]

Software has made it easier for average photographers to fix the images they are producing, and passing it off as great work.

 

[JohnTeigh]

photography is changing but so is the world, of course you need to adapt to the changes that are occurring around us. Like the article says fantasy photography is being eaten up by software but real life still needs someone to capture the moments.

 

[Buckster]

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

Professional photographers in all areas of photography are...that's the difference between being an amateur and enjoying the hobby, and being a professional and having to work harder every year just to stay in the business.

So, you're worried that 3D modeling and rendering is going to take away portraiture work? Wedding photography? School photos? Senior photo work? News coverage photos? Sports plays photos?

HOW is it going to do that?

 

[Buckster]

Software has made it easier for average photographers to fix the images they are producing, and passing it off as great work.

1. That has NOTHING to do with this article. (Did you read it?)

2. It's about the end result from a client's point of view. Either it IS great, or it is NOT. They don't CARE how you got to the final product. They don't care what, if any, software you used, or how good you are with it, any more than they care what camera and lens you used. It just flat out doesn't matter. All that matters is whether or not you can deliver the goods. If you CAN, you get PAID. If you CAN'T, you shuffle off with your empty pockets muttering about how more talented people stole your job.

 

[imagemaker46]

You're right, a lot of clients don't care anymore about how they end up with pictures, but it is at the expence of the photographers that have worked for years at perfecting their skills. What used to be done in camera, is now being done by software technicians on a computer.

Everything software related does have an impact on photography.

 

[Buckster]

You're right, a lot of clients don't care anymore about how they end up with pictures,

They never did.

but it is at the expence of the photographers that have worked for years at perfecting their skills. What used to be done in camera, is now being done by software technicians on a computer.

Not all of it, and that's the point.

Everything software related does have an impact on photography.

No, it doesn't, and that's the point. It's not worth the time and effort to model and render a family of four for the family photo they're going to hang over the mantle. It's not practical. You have to start with an actual image of them for it to look like them. It's not like you can make up 4 fictional characters in a 3D modeling program and sell it to them as the family photo.

Same thing with sports plays and weddings and events and all the rest of the stuff I mentioned.

3D rendering works great for some things, like product photography and fictional scenes and characters. But for real-life type documentation of what little Billy looked like at 7 years old with that big grin and the missing tooth, it doesn't work - it can't - because you have to START with an actual image of little Billy - a kid in India on a computer can't just make up an image of a 7 year old kid with a missing tooth on the fly and make anyone believe THAT really is little Billy.

 

[Josh66]

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

Professional photographers in all areas of photography are...that's the difference between being an amateur and enjoying the hobby, and being a professional and having to work harder every year just to stay in the business.

So, you're worried that 3D modeling and rendering is going to take away portraiture work? Wedding photography? School photos? Senior photo work? News coverage photos? Sports plays photos?

HOW is it going to do that?

Photographers of the future will just be required to have a really good memory - so they can watch the wedding, then go to their office afterwards and spend a couple days modeling it. Hope they don't get any important details wrong...