Photography Art Annoys Me

[DJBeasties]

It's ridiculous that photography art annoys me.


I shouldn't care, but when you tweak up the sun for me or draw in some extra shadows I feel cheated. That was not your picture. Plus, I have to wonder every time if you are just trying to touch up a ****ty photo.

[Judge Jude]

and magicians?

I'm not a fan.....

[GwynnInTheHall]

Seriously?

[Controller Jacobs]

Here's a heavily edited photo from flickr (not mine, obviously, it's in my favorites list) link
(safe for work))

I don't think you'd hold that edit against him.

[johnnya24]

I prefer to get upset by war, greed, pestilence, famine, injustice, tardy vintage drafters etc.

Life's too short ...

[onejayhawk]

I prefer to get upset by war, greed, pestilence, famine, injustice, tardy vintage drafters etc.

Life's too short ...

Glad you have your priorities in order.

J

[DJBeasties]

That's a cool photo controller jacobs. I probably should clarify that art or photos which are clearly enhanced and exagerrated are pretty cool, but it's the photographers who take a photo of the sun setting over the water with boats in the foreground and they feel obligated to brighten up the sun and its glorious rays. Make the water a little more mysterious with tinting and add shading and grey edges to the boat. It's not the photo you took. It just aggravates me because I see it done all the time and they will sit back and let admirers comment and praise their great camera work, but it was really some MacBook edits.

Then if you call them on it, they claim artistic freedom and liberty. "I'm an artist."


Whatever. You're a cheater is what you are.

[DJBeasties]

i like art, but art is such bullsh.t when you think of it. "Hey look at this clump of clay with a straw in it. That's art"

And you cannot argue it. It's the greatest rule in life -- call something art and it is.

This topic always makes me fired up up because I used to do snapshot contests with my friend. We would pick a theme such as winter day or people laughing and we would go out in our city for several hours and then meet up to compare what we came up with.

Then she started taking classes and suddenly she needed to edit everything because the apperature this and the shutter speed that. The camera just didn't capture the magic she saw with her eyes. The camera was so limited suddenly. Now the school bus is a little more orange and that cloudy sky is so much more ominous. It ruined simple picture taking. You got it or you didn't.

I don't know. I get tweaking things and removing red eye and all that. I also understand instagram, hipster, look-at-me, I Think it's 1987 and I have a Polaroid. I get it. It's kind of neat. It's just those sneaky bastard con artists who I know they are trying to fool me into thinking they just captured something otherwordly. "It's art bro. You wouldn't understand."

[Mithrandir]

I love when people get outraged about random stuff. Carry on, good sir!

F**K YEAH!! Let's break some Sh!t!!!!!!!

[Mithrandir]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3svrV_Yf5kQ/TGfXAE9wZuI/AAAAAAAAGB8/g5FNWElyRko/s1600/Thomas_Kinkade24.jpg

[Controller Jacobs]

Some photo collections can be ruined by repeatedly going to the same photoshop tricks, but I've never heard of the use of shutter speed and aperture described as cheating. It's full use of the camera itself, and can actually mimic what you see more realistically.

Case in point (again, not mine, I'm a flickr junkie):

[Cobain's Ghost]

i am annoyed by child characters in shows and ads who talk like adults.

[ironfist]

i am annoyed by child characters in shows and ads who talk like adults.

Like that damned E-Trade Baby - I bet it's not even his real voice...

[DJBeasties]

Some photo collections can be ruined by repeatedly going to the same photoshop tricks, but I've never heard of the use of shutter speed and aperture described as cheating. It's full use of the camera itself, and can actually mimic what you see more realistically.

Case in point (again, not mine, I'm a flickr junkie):

Sorry, yeah. No, what I mean is the excuses I hear are all that the camera just couldn't capture what these Visionaries have seen. People adjust camera settings all the time so that's whatever. It's just the "hey look this was so magical it looks like it was painted, but it was my camera that did it, but really it was my editing software that I am not disclosing unless enough people call me on it, in which I'll label this all artistic integrity and liberties."


Me: Point, focus, push the button. There's the picture.
Viewer: Cool picture. I like the the way the sky looks.
Me: Thanks. It was a creepy storm coming in.


Them: Do a bunch of sh.t with their huge camera, take 300 shots of the same thing, go home and modify everything in Corel PaintShop Pro 4x. Upload photo to a Facebook page innocently pretending to be just sharing this photo of something in our town when it's really a soft serving of spam to promote their fledgling photography business.

Viewer #1: Oh my! Look at that sky. It doesn't even look real!
Viewer #2: That is gorgeous! Great job.
Viewer#3: Outstanding!!! The colors are unreal. I love stormy skies.
Viewer #4: What type of camera do you have?? This photo is amazing!!

Them: I use the Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital Camera With Ef-s 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 Is Autofocus Lens + Ef-s 55-250mm F/4-5.6 Is Autofocus Lens + 32gb Complete Professional Camera Bundle.

::No one responds for 20 minutes after that because no one knows what the kcuf that camera is anyway::

Viewer #5: This is amazing you are such a great photographer, __________.
Viewer #6: Our town is so beautiful. Thank you for capturing its magic. You are the best.

Me: This looks like you photoshopped it.

Them: It is not photoshopped.

Viewer #7: AH-MAY-ZING!!! LOVE IT.

Me: Maybe not photoshopped but it looks edited. There's no way it looked like an oil painting.

Them: Please understand that this is photography art. I am an artist. I do not need your approval and no one can say what it should look like but my own eyes. The camera is not flawless. It could not capture in full the seraphic and rapturous appearance the sky presented that day. I have only made the edits to full emphasize what I saw.

Me: All you did is make it look like what you wish you saw.

Them: You're a jerk. This is art.




Then everyone comes around to get mad at me for spoiling their fun, a few people who remark they thought it was real, others will say there's no way it's real and then all the 'artists' have a circle jerk to defend each other.

Now I'm way into this rant.

[heyelander]

Do you have the same thoughts on Ansel Adams and zone system exposure and developing of B&W pictures?