Some photography faux pas and very strange views!

I have been into photography for about 40 years and I would say it's true, current digital photography is comparitively easy and gets easier the more you spend.

Yes, you still need an eye and some expertise, but the camera and lens does so much more, and so much faster than it used to.

Photoshop is a learning curve but much easier and immediate than developing techniques.
 
yup. show me a member of the general public who has the ablilty to use their brain at short notice.rare breed.
and no matter what you do, theres always an "expert" around. had one a few days ago while backing 17 tones of lorry into a TIGHT gateway on a BUSY high street.."you should easily get in there youth" when i offered jim the keys and said" ok then, heres the keys , you do it"
he promptly buggered off.
 
I do sympathise with you Janice. I had one of the 'Camera's do everything for you these days' buy a Fuji 5600 from the store I work in.

Bought it back two days later saying it was faulty, all the shots were too dark. I asked him what aperture and shutter speed he was using and he replied, 'How the ^&%$ do I know, the ^%%%$ camera should sort all that out'. I switched it to Auto and took a few shots to prove it wasn't faulty and then tried to explain in brief how the various modes worked and that this is why the Customer Advisor suggested he buy a book on Digital Photography.
 
certainly sounds like your experience was demoralising and yes the general public will do that to you without even thinking about it. The problem with most of the public is that they can't tell the difference between a great photo and a snapshot. I don't know how many times I've seen people showing their snapshots and comparing them to quality photos, thinking there's no difference. This is why I now stick to magazine work, I only have to deal with editors....now there's another breed altogether lol.
 
Digital photography is much easier than working with film but a good eye for a shot is still 90% of process and always will be.

The craft fair crowd are not worthy of your efforts janice and you're right to turn your back on them. Perhaps you might think about finding a bar, restaurant or two that would like to display your prints with little price tags before sticking them in the loft though.
 
So guys, I've never sold landscape at fairs or anything, is it worth your while and do you sell?
 
Well, Ive done about 10, and have not done well at all.

LOADS of interest, lots of comments, even quite a lot saying how good they are, how clever I am........

BUT they just dont seem to want to BUY them... at £15 for an A4 framed. (hardly breaking the bank!) :D
 
Sorry to hear you have had to put up with peoples thoughtless comments. Have you tried approaching hospitals & Gp's surgeries to display & sell your work? The only reason I ask is that one of the surgeries I'm based at has artwork on the wall for sale, and a hospital I used to work at had a quick turnover of photography and artwork in the main entrance foyer for sale. It seemed quite popular, and if your work is of the local area, it may just be a hit. You don't have to listen to all the negative / stupid comments then!
 
Stratagem said:
I have been into photography for about 40 years and I would say it's true, current digital photography is comparitively easy and gets easier the more you spend.

Yes, you still need an eye and some expertise, but the camera and lens does so much more, and so much faster than it used to.

Photoshop is a learning curve but much easier and immediate than developing techniques.
Click to expand...

And to give you the flip side, most of us on this forum shoot in RAW, which as you know is basically the digital alternative to a negative, i do agree however that digital editing is easier than processing a film, but it still takes a lot of skill to get a RAW photograph to look 'inviting', and still has sort of the same fundamentals as film.
 
I'm going to share with you a motto that i keep at the forefront of my mind at all times.

"If you can't convince them, confuse them!"

The public can be so narrow minded it shouldn't be that hard.
 
wez130 said:
And to give you the flip side, most of us on this forum shoot in RAW, which as you know is basically the digital alternative to a negative, i do agree however that digital editing is easier than processing a film, but it still takes a lot of skill to get a RAW photograph to look 'inviting', and still has sort of the same fundamentals as film.
Click to expand...

I don't mean to discredit any of these skills, but to me RAW is rather like taking the shot backwards, in other words RAW stores all of the information the camera sees, and then you can set up the camera perfectly for the shot at your leasure afterwards.

Combine that with super fast and accurate multipoint light metering, very efficient auto focusing, selectable white balance, etc.

Try an action shot with one finger on the focus, another on the zoom, a third on the shutter speed, and one on the shutter, after of course fitting the right filter for the light conditions and bracketing in the hope of a good picture.

Or try adjusting the vertical lines of a building without photoshop.

There is always skill in digital photography, but the simple chances of finishing with a great picture is very much higher than it used to be. The tools are simply better, and the more you spend the better they get.
 
Janice,

PLEASE keep shooting!

Everything you have said is true about this god forsaken industry.

I have learnt so much more since I have been in retail. The things I have to listen to from people who call themselves photographers is amazing! Worst of all, it seems some people have to randomly list the kit they have to validate themselves as snappers. I find it quite tiresome and irksome and it really makes me laugh.

As I said on PM to you the other day, your doing great, keep going.

Loads a love,

Diego.
 
Stratagem said:
I don't mean to discredit any of these skills, but to me RAW is rather like taking the shot backwards, in other words RAW stores all of the information the camera sees, and then you can set up the camera perfectly for the shot at your leasure afterwards.

Combine that with super fast and accurate multipoint light metering, very efficient auto focusing, selectable white balance, etc.

Try an action shot with one finger on the focus, another on the zoom, a third on the shutter speed, and one on the shutter, after of course fitting the right filter for the light conditions and bracketing in the hope of a good picture.

Or try adjusting the vertical lines of a building without photoshop.

There is always skill in digital photography, but the simple chances of finishing with a great picture is very much higher than it used to be. The tools are simply better, and the more you spend the better they get.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with it being a lazy way of shooting, but i personally am used to shooting jpeg and have recently converted to RAW finally, i always try to set my shots perfectly as you can lose details in your shots if they aren't set up correctly, particularly exposure. I still find photoshop very overwhelming, i don't know what most of it does, i only know the basics still so can only process a shot using levels, contrast and saturation, i understand colour selection but don't use it and i can only very basically work with layers, thats how crap i am lol. Infact, i only learned today how to edit a single part of an image using masking :D
 
wez130 said:
I completely agree with it being a lazy way of shooting, but i personally am used to shooting jpeg and have recently converted to RAW finally, i always try to set my shots perfectly as you can lose details in your shots if they aren't set up correctly, particularly exposure. I still find photoshop very overwhelming, i don't know what most of it does, i only know the basics still so can only process a shot using levels, contrast and saturation, i understand colour selection but don't use it and i can only very basically work with layers, thats how crap i am lol. Infact, i only learned today how to edit a single part of an image using masking :D
Click to expand...

Yes, don't get me wrong, it's a powerful process using RAW, just perservere with photoshop, a bit at a time, I must have been using it about 8 years now and still keep discovering better ways of doing things. I find it's useful just to google for tips when I need to do something new.
 
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