The Trap of Technical Perfection in Photography
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2024
- Today I'm finally stepping outdoors and chatting about anxiety when taking a photo - You know, when you overthink everything instead of just pressing the shutter
The next cohort starts on 14th August - Signup is now open: www.thephotographiceye.info/f... - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Nice video. Thanks.
As I have gotten older, I worry less about absolute technical perfection, what is more important to me is whether the photo convey what I thought was interesting about the composition. This is to say that technical competence isn't important in photography (or other arts) but what is more important is want the work conveys to others.
Great video Alex, perfection = Faultless, does it truly exist? I’m not so sure. I create images for myself, every now and again I create something I’m very proud of. I measure this by how many times I go back to view the image and how it makes me feel. I have no concerns whether or not it receives any outside recognition or approval. I don’t pick it apart technically, I just enjoy it for what it is. I think we spend too much time worrying about what others think when instead we should just enjoy the process of creating an image😊
Criticism of an photographic image is something photographers need to move past. Sure there are terrible images that are of historical importance.
Thank you for bringing up such a sensitive subject/observation that too many "experts" are scared to talk about. Photography is an art that somehow has become dominated by technical perfection, composition rules, bokeh, sharpness, "pop" (whatever that is), colour accuracy, edge sharpness, chromatic aberration, etc etc. No wonder so many new photographers are intimidated by all these and simply give up within a couple of years. I keep telling my friends, nephews and nieces to start with a simple old camera or phone, forget about composition, sharpness, etc and just enjoy taking photos. If they like them, that is good enough as the photos are simply an expression of what they see and feel.
I started with the kodak instamatic... not sure which model, but it was film + flashcube. Such simpler times.
Hello Alex, so many truths in your approach of this topic. Starting photography in my early twenties, I quickly moved from my father’s old 35mm to a Contax with Zeiss lens then adding some medium format cameras in 6x6 and a 6X9 only to be followed by the acquisition of an old Crown Graphic to enter the realm of the mighty large format. Then photography had to take a backseat to family and career but I still tried to take that elusive perfect shot during those family vacation trips. Recently retired now, I have all the time I want to go hunt that perfect shot but that’s not me anymore. I stuck with macular degeneration so I bought a new camera with a good autofocus to help. My photos are far from being perfect but I’m fine with that , the big grin on my face after every outing is proof enough. Thank for those great videos and inspiration.
I like how emotionally real you are. Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts with us!
Thanks, I'm really pleased it's connecting with you
Well done! So hard to break the shackles of perfection in a world that is in fact so imperfect.
I really like your new format. It brings a certain ease in the video which makes the message stronger. It makes your video even more a conversation.
Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it
Around 2008 I joined a photo critique site so I could get some creative advice and be part of a creative group. Unfortunately, it was very clique-y. Every one of my photos were torn apart and some quite average photos submitted by others were praised to death. Horizons would be measured to the 0.5 degree and colour casts were taboo. I felt I was such a bad photographer that I put my cameras away for ten years. Eventually, I just said “screw it” and started back into the hobby. In hindsight it was a good experience, and I don’t really care what others think of my photography anymore. (But my horizons are perfect)
My very first camera was a Polaroid Joycam and I still own it :)
My original spiderman camera was lost to history, so I bought this replacement. It makes me happy
I really like this new format were you change locations. I would love to see you take your camera with you somewhere and shoot something related to the topic.
You've brought up what should be the number 1 lesson in photography, or any form of art in fact. Knowing the technicalities down to the smallest detail does not make a great and unique art work. Thanks for sharing, and the variety of interesting photos.
Alex, you are spot on with everything in this video! Very well done!
You are SO right.
Did I see an emotional moment there at 3:35? Thank you Alex for this moving quote, that (visibly) moved you. And surely some of your viewers. Including me. :-)
I'm loving this new style of video. Keep it up Alex! You are getting so much more comfortable and finding a style that'll essentially force me to never unsubscribe. But who would even think about doing that? Thank you
Great to hear you're enjoying the new approach! Thanks for being here
I enjoyed this a great deal. Thank you. ‘A great reminder.
All good points. I seem to either walk around the woods and leave my camera in the bag or if I have it out then I am snapping at so many cool images that disappoint when I look at them on the computer. I think I need to keep my camera out and take a little more time with even the simplest snaps and take more angles or views.
Perfection in photography has been ingrained in us so much: be it fear; technique…whatever. It’s time to move past this anxiety and create for the joy of it.
Ansel said there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy idea. Bambi Cantrell said expression trumps perfection but Jerry Ghionis added that expression PLUS perfection trumps expression alone.
Enjoyed viewing your photographs and the evolution of your approach. Thanks for sharing them and your thoughts. I have accumulated many thousand photos over the last 60 years. Would be very interested in learning how are you archive and publish your analog and digital work.
I think the less said about my archive techniques the better :D
One day I might get round to scanning all my negs, but life keeps getting in the way!
Thanks for watching
@@ThePhotographicEye I'm supposed to be organizing my photos this summer, but I'm putting it off and off...and I don't have nearly as many y'all probably have.
Maybe those of us who normally use manual mode or aperture or shutter priority on our digital cameras should occasionally switch to program or automatic mode and let the camera make all the technical decisions as we could then simply focus on the composition in the frame - a bit like your Holga or Spider-Man cameras.
At the end of the day, it’s the composition that determines whether a photo is good or bad, interesting or boring.
I’d not thought of this until I watched this video but I’m going to try this the next time I pick up a camera so, once again, thanks for providing me with a little light bulb moment.
You're welcome.
However I do slightly disagree about composition being the determining factor in a good or bad image. Depends on what you're trying to acheive in your photo. But no matter, I'm glad you found some inspiration in this video
I got a small disposable camera style lens for my full frame and I always set it to auto when I’m using it. It’s like you described.
Great video. I loved the lego analogy! Very practical and relatable to how many people (includng myself) think about how we should take pictures.
Changing the location between cuts works great as well. I found it engaging, and a good change of pace.
Thanks James! I'm pleased the analogy worked :D
Hi Alex, I really enjoyed this video. I used to be an Anxious Photographer but since I started watching your channel I focus more on the creative side and telling a story. Photography is more enjoyable now with less pressure. Thanks Alex 😊
My pleasure. I'm glad that they are helping you :D
Thanks Alex 😊
Preconceived ideas are a lot like algorithms that feed social media and AI. Creativity is a cauldron in our subconscious.
Some of the images that I am fond of were formed with paint applied with brushes. Some would be abject failures of photography like the paintings of Turner where things like focus, sharpness and colour were chosen with a completely different set of rules. The paintings of people like Millais and Leighton are often described as photographic but of course no-one is going to mistake them for photos. Then years ago I was struck by a painting by Raphael - a small circular image of Mary, Jesus and John the Baptist with strange proportions. This are striking images loved for many generations.
Painters have a great deal more scope than photographers, and they don't seem to worry about the technical perfections expected of cameras. I think Turner would be perplexed by the images produced by a modern camera, as our search for perfection filters out the artistic possibilities. And perhaps we should face the fact that most painters don't have the skill to produce something as good as Leighton did, and most photographer aren't going to create fine art either. But at least we should try.
Great video and I really enjoy your vlogs like these. BUT, therein lies the challenge. Technical perfection can be measured against an objective standard - is the subject in focus, is the DoF correct for the key elements, expoure correct etc etc, whereas there is no objective standard for creativity, or what makes a great photograph. By definition I guess there can't be or it wouldn't be creative and would just be formulaic...
For me the challenge is actually HOW to express that emotion, feeling, experience in the image? You can do it technically through various devices but again, is that really creative or just 'by the book'? Is it enough that it simply caught your eye as you walked past or does it need to be deeper than that? Then you probably need to dig much deeper into why you take photographs in the first place, why THAT specific phot etc etc. Maybe it all starts there.
I'd love to join ine of your cohorts later this year perhaps when I'm actually around for 4 weeks to do the work. BTW your link above goes to a May cohort and dates.
Thanks for this new video Alex, I had really enjoyed it! This new informal/colloquial style is very engaging, please go ahead like this. In these days I am watching/studying William Eggleston photographs, and the more I like them, the more I can see they are technically wrong: there are portraits of people with feet outside the frame, tilted horizons, and so on. Nevertheless, they are great photographs and I love them. I cannot say why I like these pics, but I do. Still, at the same time I love the technical perfection in Ansel Adams photos. Is this a contradiction? Maybe, but, in my view, is also a signature of how great is photography, how wide it is. In this sense, photography is a metaphor of love.
I'm pleased you're enjoying the refreshed approach!
I don't think it's a contradiction at all
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent presentation Alex. I think if I were conducting a class or workshop on photographic creativity, I’d show this video. Secondly, I’d insist on using a pinhole camera or a Holga (which, incidentally, I own). Your videos inspire creativity and imagination. Thank you so much.
Sometimes, I am very much about the tech part. At that time I do get concerned about my ability to "get it right". Most of the time I seem to just float along and just make a picture. Then I get the roll processed. THEN the anxiety comes in because I missed something ( to much ) of the tech part.... and I am not pleased with my photo. I think I need to stay more in tune with the process and need of paying more attention to the part of control available in my camera. I also think shooting a bit more will help.
"Trigger anxiety"? - I always bear in mind that if my anticipated masterpiece turns out to be horrendous, No one else need ever know... 😁
Photography became so much more enjoyable when I discovered the sub-reddit r/analog.
So much beautiful imperfections allowed me to see a photograph as a piece of art rather rather than a surgical. technical exercise.
As always, it is a very interesting video. I agree with the conclusion, but I do think it shows an issue with current education. I recently graduated with my Master's degree with distinction, but I have been a photographer for many years before that.
Now, I have no problems with students being creative, but unfortunately, the pendulum has swung the other way. Students are leaving college and university without basic technical skills, and the quality of work is not up to a professional level. The education system has massively devalued technical ability, and everything is about creativity, and sadly the work that is coming out today and for many years before has been is substandard.
Learning techniques gives you a great basis for your photography and allows you to explore your creativity. The problem with so many students leaving college is that they don't have that basic technical knowledge, and their work looks dreadful.
For me, the important thing is what you said at the end is to have that balance of technical skills and creativity. If you have the knowledge you don't have to use it (and that is a skill in itself).
The whole of the educational system needs looking at. For me, up until A level standard everything should be about getting technique right and those educating should have a great technical knowledge. Students should be leaving college, with the knowledge of framing, composition, camera setup, lighting, editing in Lightroom/photoshop/capture one. They should know the great photographers, but the most important thing is they should be employable, and speaking to so many professionals, the portfolios they get and the people they get on work experience, do not have the basic knowledge they need to work in the industry.
Then, at University or in their personal lives, they should have more freedom to be creative, explore who they are, and become the kind of photographer they want to be.
Looking back at my own experience, from what I recall, there was very little in the way of practical 'creative' education - it was more focussed on techincal skills across the three years (Theory, Techniques, Practical and Visual Communication were the modules)
From what I understood, and time may have clouded this a bit, the role of the school was to give us the technincal skills to go on and then work as an assistant where the 'creative' would be discovered.
I did once talk with an A level student from West Suffolk and was quite shocked to discover she didn't know how to use studio heads or a light meter despite all her work being shot in a studio! Not sure if that's because she was a poor student, or the teachers were lacking.
@@ThePhotographicEye I don't know when the change occured. Speaking to various photographers back in the 80's/90's education was very much taught from a technical perspective, particularly at college, with the aim of getting students ready to go out into the world and work.
Really, it needs the industry to get together and start saying, this needs to change. That would involve all the professional bodies coming together and take their ego's out of the room (which is the hard part), to start pressuring government and college/unversities to do better, whether that will happen depends on will and effort, which seems to be lacking.
I am a stickler for perfection, kinda.
I took a photo recently, and when I looked at the image at home I noticed there was some pigeon dung within the frame.
So, I went back to the place, armed with a bottle of cleaning fluid and a stiff brush, and scrubbed the stuff off.
Nowadays, I have cleaning equipment in the boot of the car, just in case.
Lol - that's what real photographers do!
I feel for those people who are strict in their disciplines as they may achieve great knowledge in that one subject. I learned early in life in the saying " a Jack of all trades and master of none". I have learned many subjects over my many years of life. Experience weakens anxiety and grows confidence.
Experience does - that is true. I'm far more relaxed these days - but I think it's also because you learn to sift out the BS from the genuine IRT what people say about your work.
"Pop sock" = wind muff = dead cat. I love English, and your thoughts about creativity. I bet it would be fun to take your Spider-man camera and see what you can capture with it now. Kinda like that Holga.
Cheers John. I think the Spiderman takes 127 film - so it might be a challenge :D
@@ThePhotographicEyeyou can get 127 film
Bought my first camera 2 years ago. It's a hobby I keep going back too. Unfortunately I missed the submission time for your "Show me you best photographs" video. Maybe next time!
Not to worry, I there'll be some more
I'm just an ordinary guy who loves taking pictures in free time.
Structure and order is part of me, and that reflects in my photographs. At the same time, I was teached that creativity cannot be forced - only invited.
But what IS creativity even? I just take pictures of the things I see and sometimes that comes out really well. Is that a creative picture then?
Sometimes I see pictures that are called creative and the only thing I can think is: W.T.F. Thát is a path I certainly do not want to go.
Still wondering......
I like to think of creativity like a butterfly that drifts down and lands on your finger for a while
@@ThePhotographicEye ok, but when is a photo creative? Do you know instantly, do you feel it?
Great hair!
Be coming a grown up will kill your creativity in any art form Edit: children are free with their creations because it frees them
Is there any way to have a videochat with you where we go through portfolios and talk about photography, for payment?
Hi Johan, yes there is - I offer a 1-2-1 zoom call
You can find out more here: www.thephotographiceye.info/offers/FvP4aXzf/checkout
There may be a TPE effect. I just looked up your Spider Man camera and it's going for about $50 US right now! But seriously, you should shoot a roll in it again.
It very may well be!
It takes 127 film so it’s a bit tricky to get hold of I believe
@@ThePhotographicEyeit's not you can still buy it
@@Resgerr turns out it’s 126 film.. which you can’t unless it’s original stock. There is an adapter you can get though to use 35mm
@@ThePhotographicEye 126 is harder, 35 adapter would work
Technical knowledge has nothing to do with taking a great photo. Having a good eye along with a strong sense of awareness, timing and composition are 100x more important. There's also no such thing as perfection - photography is a massively subjective medium with so many different forms of expression within it. People who try to take "perfect" photos generally produce the boring and most forgettable work. ( these people usually ruin their images by adding some fancy signature on them )
+1 on the pop sock 😉
Plans are in place! :D
Then are there any bad photographs out there?
Photo school? You mean art college? I wish I did a photography degree instead of English.
I do not really see what the discussion is all about. Of course you have to expose in such a way that you get an image. And none the less, it is usually a good idea to have your motive in focus. And on today's cameras choosing A- or S-mode is not particularly difficult and actually an artistic decision. The same goes for over- or under-exposing, choosing an unusually long shutter speed or putting something deliberately out-of-focus . Yet again, artistic decisions.
The basics of photography as needed for modern cameras are so simple that I have no sympathy whatever for the argument "photography is technically complicated". It was, once. But not today.
Today's press of a button has nothing to do with DIY film development in two baths of chemicals plus a final dip into a water bath or exposing on-site with a spot meter to get each luminance value of the scene tucked into the appropriate light zone.
The only technical issue left for a photographer to attend to is exposure compensation to cover some unusually dark or unusually bright scenes. Apart from that, the AF system might need to be directed to a specific point within the frame.
Of course it can be advantageous to know what your camera is technically up to. Of course it can be useful to understand the Holy Trinity - i.e. shutter speed, aperture, ISO. Of course knowing that a 1000 mm telephoto lens is not a great help if the photographer is riding on the back of a donkey as opposed to screwing it onto a tripod.
Quite honestly, I do not see the problem ...
... any more.
But does the creation have to be technically perfect? Isn't the process also important