Photography ruined by techyness

Mozina

Mozina

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Neil
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Have to say that reading some comments and critiques on the internet is showing that photography is steadily being infiltrated by geeky techy folk who want to show their technical knowledge rather than their pictures!

In an ideal world someone would post their shots and get a few suggestions and then a few shots posted by the person replying, to give examples of what is meant

Instead theres loads of flapping lips by people who have never posted or shown one of their own shots.

This raises suspicion that these folk are trying to stay up on the 'theory' but arent putting it into practice as much as they could or should?

Photography is an excellent hobby or profession - where much enjoyment can get gained through art and creativity.

Lets not spoil it TOO much by arguing technicalities and specifications

Good togs can get good results from an Iphone or point and shoot - so instead of ripping into tech specs, get posting your photos and show the world WHY you take photographs and not WHAT WITH !

(ps I realise Im on my own here but needed a Monday morning rant after reading some of the discussions on here, none of which contained any photography!)
 
PS - I am myself a very technical person who knows specs and functions of my cameras - but prefer to shoot and enjoy.
 
Mozina said:
Have to say that reading some comments and critiques on the internet is showing that photography is steadily being infiltrated by geeky techy folk who want to show their technical knowledge rather than their pictures!

In an ideal world someone would post their shots and get a few suggestions and then a few shots posted by the person replying, to give examples of what is meant

Instead theres loads of flapping lips by people who have never posted or shown one of their own shots.

This raises suspicion that these folk are trying to stay up on the 'theory' but arent putting it into practice as much as they could or should?

Photography is an excellent hobby or profession - where much enjoyment can get gained through art and creativity.

Lets not spoil it TOO much by arguing technicalities and specifications

Good togs can get good results from an Iphone or point and shoot - so instead of ripping into tech specs, get posting your photos and show the world WHY you take photographs and not WHAT WITH !

(ps I realise Im on my own here but needed a Monday morning rant after reading some of the discussions on here, none of which contained any photography!)
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Or, they are Pro's and they dont want to expose their clients work to critique
 
Or just offering technical advice where needed to improve an image? I don't tend to put my images in someone else's threads, but I always have a link to my work in my sig...

Also, how do you know they have never taken a shot or shown an image? Quite a sweeping statement...

As mentioned by Richard, many pros on here offer advice and help, but might not show their client work. Also, many others may have their pictures displayed elsewhere rather than here.
 
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I did a ten week course a few years back where the tutor showed us one of his photographs, and that was because I'd browsed his work and brought it up in conversation.

It didn't affect his excellant teaching, or his knowledge on the subject. Why should I expect any different from enthusiasts.

DSLR's these days have so many features sometimes you need to be techy to get the best out of them. Examples:

Just check out the early reviews of the Canon 50D as an example, everyone slated it as worse than the 40D but as soon as you turn a couple of the 'noddy' modes off, it's brilliant.

Same with the 7D AF system, needs a good reading of the manual to get the best out of it, but how many people bother to do that?

We've had similar discussions on here about iPads, where users are unaware of certain features etc.
 
whoa there horse, that's a bit heavy for a monday morning!

digital photography is very tech heavy these days, as each new generation of camera adds more and more features and adds to the spec list available to consumers. it's a fact of life that people will want the latest gadgets and technologies and will inevitably talk about them with other like minded people. add to that mix then the need for editing the images taken with these fancy digital cameras and you have a seemingly simple hobby which can become more complicated than you ever imagined.

i have a brother who works as a sound technician and he could talk all day about sound boards, mixers and that kind of stuff when all i want to do is listen to music. we all have to accept that art and creativity is married to technology these days.

i've learnt a lot about the technical side of taking photographs from some of the more experienced members of this site, who were kind enough to take the time to answer my questions. many of these people are working pros who, like richard and james had already said, don't wish to post work done for a paying client.

some people just want to take pictures to put on facebook with their camera on 'auto' the whole time, others want to delve deeper and become more creative. this is where i see forums like this fitting in for me personally. i enjoy reading about the technical aspects but i also enjoy looking at pictures purely for enjoyment. i look at flickr's explore page on a regular basis and when i see a shot i like the first thing in my head is 'i wonder how they did that?', so again back to the technical side of things.

i should add that i'm am a child of the digital generation and only shot film after i had been shooting digital for a while. perhaps people coming from film to digital have a different mindset to myself (i'm assuming that you are originally a film user rather than just angry with the world on a monday morning ;))
 
There's being a collector, being a tech fan, being an image fan, being a trading fan and being a nature/people/location fan. All those can bring you to photography and change the way you look at things.

Some people like to buy and sell gear, changing their eqipment like they do shoes, so their total invested stays the same but they get to trade and try stuff out. Some people like the technology and mechanics involved, like to keep up with how AF systems and sensor and lens tech evolves. Some like collecting gear - well crafted bits of metal and glass from recent times to nearly 200 years ago. Some like the craft - they want to learn how to make an image have a certain look or a certain impact. Some like the things or places they shoot - they want to collect moments in time or pictures of things. Some want to emulate what they see as great, and do things the way old and new masters do. And some want to make a message.

All of those things are things that can be done within photography, and most people want to do a mixture of those things. Your best bet is to figure out first what the person you're reading is interested in before you get annoyed at them not sharing an interest in the aspects you're chasing. You'll fruitlessly argue past each other otherwise.


What I don't get though is Internet Photographer Gorillahand Disease. Whether it's selection bias that means big handed people are more likely to post on photography forums because they don't want to go out with their flippers, or that their hands have only recently found keyboards they can comfortably use - arthritis aside, how can any DSLR be too small to use properly (bonus points when those same people then extol the virtues of a u4/3s or bridge camera :LOL:). I'm imagining legions of photographers who can't use a remote control or a pen or a mobile phone sighing in relief each time they get their hands on a D3/1D body. Educate me :shrug:
 
There's always been a technical side to photography. Knowing when you can or should push or pull a film by a couple of stops, how to adjust the development to cater for that, which chemicals and timings to use for different results, cross-processing and, of course, reciprocity, a word I struggle to pronounce, never mind understand!
 
Mozina said:
(ps I realise Im on my own here but needed a Monday morning rant after reading some of the discussions on here, none of which contained any photography!)
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The critique forums contain photos. Threads there without images are removed by mods.

The other sections deal with different areas, equipment, general phorography discussion etc.

In these other sections the content may not need a image.

Critique may sometimes seem "techy" but surely critique with no advice as to how to correct an issue is pretty useless, unless you just want

crit A. Nice shot
or
crit B. Sorry, don't like that.
 
What really gets me is how people can't take criticism. No one wants to tell someone that their photo isn't very good.

Let's not forget, it's easy to sit at a screen talking about a photo, sometimes we don't no what went in to getting it.
 
ausemmao said:
... how can any DSLR be too small to use properly ...
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Speaking as a sausage-fingered giant, it's not that it can't be used properly, it's more that it can't be used comfortably. For instance, I can't wrap my fingers around the grip on a D7000 properly, I end up holding it with the tips of three fingers on the body and that makes it more difficult to balance the camera and lens. I can still hit the shutter release, it's simply easier with a physically larger camera. The most comfortable camera I've ever used would be my T90 for that reason.

ausemmao said:
I'm imagining legions of photographers who can't use a remote control or a pen or a mobile phone sighing in relief each time they get their hands on a D3/1D body.
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Or, if you prefer, I'm happy to leave the toy cameras to those with child-like hands. ;)
 
Strappy said:
Speaking as a sausage-fingered giant, it's not that it can't be used properly, it's more that it can't be used comfortably. For instance, I can't wrap my fingers around the grip on a D7000 properly, I end up holding it with the tips of three fingers on the body and that makes it more difficult to balance the camera and lens. I can still hit the shutter release, it's simply easier with a physically larger camera. The most comfortable camera I've ever used would be my T90 for that reason.


Or, if you prefer, I'm happy to leave the toy cameras to those with child-like hands. ;)
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:LOL:

That's the thing - when I hold my D7000 I have index on shutter, middle and ring fingertips on grip and pinky hangs free. Trying to hold it with all my fingers feels silly. The same thing happens with a D300, and when I had the D3100, it was ring and pinky hanging free. With a bigger lens on (70-200) I pivot the combo in my left hand.

That said, the size on my hands is in my fingers so maybe it's my being a needle fingered giant that biases me :p
 
Mozina said:
Instead theres loads of flapping lips by people who have never posted or shown one of their own shots.
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Ironic eh?

or will you be posting some soon? :)
 
ausemmao said:
What I don't get though is Internet Photographer Gorillahand Disease. Whether it's selection bias that means big handed people are more likely to post on photography forums because they don't want to go out with their flippers, or that their hands have only recently found keyboards they can comfortably use - arthritis aside, how can any DSLR be too small to use properly (bonus points when those same people then extol the virtues of a u4/3s or bridge camera :LOL:). I'm imagining legions of photographers who can't use a remote control or a pen or a mobile phone sighing in relief each time they get their hands on a D3/1D body. Educate me :shrug:
Click to expand...


Speaking as a gorilla handed person, I'm much more comfortable with a larger body, the smaller ones don't feel comfortable to hold for me.

I struggle to use a normal mobile phone as the buttons are too close together. I regularly mis-dial or send gobbledegook text messages because I've pressed two or more buttons at once.
 
There is a saying in investment management that you shouldnt let the tax tail wag the investment dog, this can be applied to photography; you shouldnt let the tech-spec tail wag the photo dog (ok doesnt sound quite as good).

The point is you can take a technologically perfect photo and it could still be rubbish. The art/ capture/ composition is what really makes a photo, and that is sometimes overlooked.
 
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The Internet and forums like this provide a wealth of information for people, so it is quite possible to know the answers to questions 'second hand' rather than from direct experience.

I know, for example, that the Sony 70-400G is a great lens for the range, and own I would like to own - but I don't have the cash to buy one.

Should this stop me recommending it is a Sony shooter asks "What's a good lens up to 400mm?"

Likewise with C&C, I can like or dislike aspects of a photograph - and have an idea about how an image could have been taken differently, without actually having taken such an image (I might have tried to take a similar image, unsuccessfully, and have figured out what to try next time, for example).

Note: I haven't posted photos or C&C on TP, as I tend to use it as a 'experiences and tech' site, but on the forums I do post on I have certainly posted far more comments than photos, which is probably true for the vast majority of members.
 
OP. It can be disheartening when you post pictures and you get one reply if you're lucky. So, tend not to post many as a result. I'm no techy either but I do strive to better myself through reading and commenting on posts. :|
 
I don't think I've ever read anyone crit an image on the basis of the camera on here. From what I've seen, comments are always about the subject, composition, exposure etc.

(Heck, my camera model is over 5 years old (30D) and of the few images I've posed here for crit, not once has my camera been mentioned as a factor in any of the replies.)
 
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