rate my assumption

[Battou]

On a scale of one to ten....rate my assumption

I just got done posting this on another forum and I am curious as to how accurate you guys....a group of Photoenthusiests find my assessment.

Photography: Women who think that just because they can take pictures, their photographists.

The word is Photographer, what you used isn't even a word.

Actually, I find the phrase somewhat appropriate, there are a growing number of people that seem to believe that the shere ability to take a picture makes them a photographer. More and more "Photographers" are displaying pictures on the internet, Pictures that are not only poorly composed but truthfully are nothing more than family picture album fodder.

I kinda gets to me a little to see "Professional Sample Galleries" Riddled with rookie mistakes in every image and they are making money off this crap. Mistakes like crooked horizons, OOF subjects, busy composition and stupid crap like that.

Hell, if my calculatuions are correct, almost seventy percent of todays professional pornography photographers can not focus on their subject with their Auto focusing lenses, almost ninty percent don't know a damn thing about lighting.....they are not photographers, they may as well be photographists.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

It all depends on how you define 'photographer'.
If you define it, as I do, as 'one who takes pictures with a camera' then anyone who takes pictures with a camera is a photographer.
It is because of this definition that we prefix the word with the qualifiers 'amateur', 'professional' and 'semi-professional'. These prefixes differentiate between people who do it for a living, people who would like to do it for a living but can't afford to give up the day job, and people who do it as a hobby for relaxation.
It does not follow that any one type is superior to, or better than, any other.
What differentiates the quality of the end product is not the reason why the person does it, but their vision, imagination, originality and their technical ability to pull it off.
You can therefore get people who have a visually stunning and original idea but lack the technical ability to do it, and people who have excellent technical skills but lack ideas and imagination.
It is a rare beast indeed who can combine the lot to produce a great image - but if it were easy we would all be Henri Cartier-Bresson.

I don't have a problem with anyone who wants to take pictures calling themselves a photographer. I don't have a problem with them calling themselves an artist if they want to, either. After all, names are just labels and don't mean much. But if they can get a fool to part with money for their work then jolly good luck to them.

 

[Alex_B]

almost seventy percent of todays professional pornography photographers can not focus on their subject with their Auto focusing lenses

But you are not referring to the David-Hamilton effect?

 

[Battou]

But you are not referring to the David-Hamilton effect?

I have some cases where it would apply but, ther are a lot that are just plain out of focus.

 

[Alex_B]

I have some cases where it would apply but, ther are a lot that are just plain out of focus.

Right, you find that with amateur internet porn it seems. OK, it is not really amateur since people sell it, but it is rather untrained photographers, so I never considered it seriously pro. However, by the strict definition it is pro photographers producing rubbish.

 

[Battou]

Right, you find that with amateur internet porn it seems. OK, it is not really amateur since people sell it, but it is rather untrained photographers, so I never considered it seriously pro. However, by the strict definition it is pro photographers producing rubbish.

Personally I do feel that professionals should hold them selves to a higher standard and I don't even browse the "Amature" sites because they really suck but that is beside the point really. Truthfully, I am not looking to deturmine wether I am right or wrong, I am just curious as to the what photographers would say to such a statement. As I was making it it was more of a creative way of dealing with a troll by countermanding the desires reply with the poler opposite and making some logical sence of his attempted derailer with actual observations. After posting it I began to wonder just how much validity it held, both the staement and terminology it was ment to make sence of.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I do feel that professionals should hold them selves to a higher standard

In theory they should, but we know from experience that there are professionals and professionals in all areas of life.
A professional builder should do a good job, as should professional plumbers, professional electricians, professional mechanics and all the rest. But who amongst us hasn't employed a cowboy at least once?
Even doctors, lawyers and teachers get disciplined for behaving unprofessionally.
Why should it be any different in Photography?
Being a 'professional' photographer can be almost a license to print your own money - certainly in the Wedding area. And as the average person can't tell the difference between a good photo and a pound of cheese if it comes in the right package, it's an area that is going to always attract a lot of get-rich-quick merchants. Especially if all you need is a camera and a suit. :lmao:

 

[Battou]

In theory they should, but we know from experience that there are professionals and professionals in all areas of life.
A professional builder should do a good job, as should professional plumbers, professional electricians, professional mechanics and all the rest. But who amongst us hasn't employed a cowboy at least once?
Even doctors, lawyers and teachers get disciplined for behaving unprofessionally.
Why should it be any different in Photography?
Being a 'professional' photographer can be almost a license to print your own money - certainly in the Wedding area. And as the average person can't tell the difference between a good photo and a pound of cheese if it comes in the right package, it's an area that is going to always attract a lot of get-rich-quick merchants. Especially if all you need is a camera and a suit. :lmao:

Yeah, I do understand the unprofessional professional do exist, be it art or zoology and that they are not going away. In fields like this one that is due more to the consumer giving the get-rich-quick merchants the power to succeed. It seems only fitting that those who don't take honor in their work have a fitting title. As you said why should it be any different in photography, when you have Quack Docters, Shadetree Mechanics and the like

 

[(Ghastly) Krueger]

Rate your ass? C'mon, Bat!
Oh, 'assumption', sorry 'bout that. Windows can play some silly games.

 

[Village Idiot]

I like pornogra...er...photography.

 

[Garbz]

Am I the only one who is questioning where this 70% figure came from? Careful market research no doubt.

 

[Battou]

Am I the only one who is questioning where this 70% figure came from? Careful market research no doubt.

I don't particularly see any reason to deny that I rummage around porn sites by the gig. I look at tons of it, I have seen every thing from misfocus to visable lighting rigs. Hell I have actually seen the camera and or photographer on a number of occations. I am particularly fond of the ones where the photographer has the noval idea to set everything up infront of a glass doored stove that shows everthing infront of the model.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I am particularly fond of the ones where the photographer has the noval idea to set everything up infront of a glass doored stove that shows everthing infront of the model.

Somehow I don't think the average person will be looking at the oven when they are watching the finished f*ck-flick

 

[Battou]

Somehow I don't think the average person will be looking at the oven when they are watching the finished f*ck-flick

:lmao: You do have a point....I guess I am not the average person

 

[Scurra]

I agree with Hertz on this one, I wouldn't consider myself a professional photographer, but I do consider myself a photographer. It's all about the prefix.

And as Hertz also said, if people are confident enough to post their images on the web and have people pay for them then good luck to them.