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Camera snobbery and the difficult questions
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I’m sorry I gave such serious answers now…I should have waited to see how this thread would have developed first……
Well, at least it has a snappy title! :D
FrankC wrote:
2. Your photos are great – you must have a really good camera
This just reminded me actually:
“That sounds great – you must have a really good violin”
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Seriously though, this stuff about what’s “perceived” as a good photo. Take a portrait. Simplest thing in the world right? Get the punter in the frame, let the autofocus do its thing then snap! The several things (only the ones I can mention, there will be loads of others) that Joe Average snapper probably doesn’t realise are:
You probably need to take several to get a great expression (unless your surname is Cartier Bresson).
You want a fast lens to fluff the background to blur, but still select your aperture to keep enough DoF to get all the relevant features sharp (eyes, nose, hair etc).
You need light, definitely some catchlight in the eyes, which can come from flash or daylight if angled right, and some definition in the facial bone structure.
You want detail, to catch the person’s character, but maybe not too much if their face is really “interesting” (unless you want a brutally realistic portrait).
You want that other “something”, the thing that makes it tell a story rather than being just a mugshot.Just those few things are not so much related to the gear as to the photographer’s experience and frame of mind while shooting. You can’t buy that in Argos (or even Conn’s) at any price ;)
Do use use you camera on “manual”? No, red diesel.
I never use my camera on red diesel – being a fluid i find that the camera sinks to the bottom and wrecks the electronics. It does however give a nice red oily filter effect in my pictures.
Do you manipulate your photographs? Yes – to get rid of the red oily effect in my pictures.
Do you use autofocus or manual focus? I’m so blind that I can never see the difference – Auto to fool everyone into thinking that I can see.
Do use use a professional camera? I use a ‘prosumer’ camera
Do use use you camera on “manual”? Mostly Yes ( Most my cameras do not have anything that says “auto” in them. Im too poor to have things with anykinda automode in them)
Do you manipulate your photographs? Digital images, mostly yes. Otherwise I try not to manipulate them.
Do you use autofocus or manual focus? I like too much all kinda vintakge things to have anything auto… in my cameras.
Do you photoshop your images? If I do any digital work, absolutely Yes. (real world is just too ugly to stand, have to make things a bit unrealistic)
Do use use a professional camera? Well, one of them use to be pro, ages ago. Now that is just too old to be anything other than my toy. And other cameras are indeed mostly my toys.
stasber wrote:
FrankC wrote:
2. Your photos are great – you must have a really good camera
This just reminded me actually:
“That sounds great – you must have a really good violin”
:lol: :lol: :lol:
There’s a line somewhere about this with Weston talking to Hemmingway..
Hem:”Great photo, what camera do you use?”
West:”Great novel, what typewriter do you use?”hehe
Si
Don’t know if that’s true, but makes the point well.
Given that this thread was about bizarre question I thought I would give you guys doozy.
I was taken some sample shots for a couple whose wedding I am doing in May.
The usual kinda stuff. the bride to just wanted to see herself in the standard poses. Don’t ask.
I was showing them the shots on the MAC afterward and brought one shot into PS to remove a stray hair
on one of the bride shots. She was impressed with the ease ( yeah right you try it honey ).She waited unitl her husband to be had left the room to make coffee and then hit me with the question.
” If we pay extra can you get rid of my husbands stomach, he refuses to exersise”
Simple anwser – NO
A friends wife who was taking photographs with a small compact recently turned to my wife and said “I’d love to have one as big as your husbands”
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