I've never sold a photo in my life and don't intend to ever try. That said, I do pay attention.Some people sell pictures. A lot of commercial photography is selling pictures. Pictures of the client, pictures of the client's products, pictures of the Grand Canyon, pictures of the wedding.At the other end of the spectrum you're selling yourself, and a vision. Ansel Adams wasn't selling pictures of Half Dome, he was selling Adams' Idea of Half Dome.High end wedding photographers are not selling a better version of the same old photos, they're selling their own vision of your wedding. Their market is much smaller than the commodity wedding photo market, but they can make a heck of a lot more money. And so on.So even if you're purely out for the money, consider going up market and selling a vision.This is not to denigrate commodity photography. Those folks are like rice farmers: hard workers, skilled, serving a recognized need. I eat a lot of rice. I love rice. I don't want to be a rice farmer, though. That's hard work!
Stefan,From the article:"...almost everything has already been photographed in the best light."False."...yet, after having seen the slideshow roll around three or four times, I was disgusted and wanted to throw my jug of beer at the screen"The eye quickly becomes fatigued with the kind of images the author describes.When the author asks "Will the Real Landscape Photography Please Stand Up?", what he means is: Please will landscape photographers start making their photos look realistic?
My specialty is photographing in the worst light...and still making something of it.
... Please will landscape photographers start making their photos look realistic?
Ugo Cei: My dislike actually stems from the fact that the processing is done to appeal to the most obvious and common taste, maybe.
Ugo Cei: What this is is a call for help: Now that I’ve decided to move away from what I don’t like anymore, what do I do?
'You see, the extraordinary thing about photography is that it's a truly popular medium... But this has nothing to do with the art of photography even though the same materials and the same mechanical devices are used. Thoreau said years ago, "You can't say more than you see." No matter what lens you use, no matter what the speed of the film is, no matter how you develop it, no matter how you print it, you cannot say more than you see. That's what that means, and that's the truth.' Paul Strand, Aperture 19(1), 1974.
iluvmycam,A photo with a strong composition and poor light will be a compelling photo...it just wont be the best it can be. Conversely, great light and a weak composition will only ever return a poor photo with nice light.
Why? Reality is overrated. Anybody can see reality, few can see "what else is there." Reality is, more often than not, chaotic, banal, mediocre, or outright butt-ugly. It is the beauty that we seek to find or, if necessary, to extract from that. Been doing it from the dawn of the mankind (searching for beauty, that is).
Images that are liked by many people, are liked by many people because they show what is liked by many people.
... I wrote "realistic", not "reality"...
Would it be totally unrealistic to expect that "looking realistic" would have anything to do with reality?
Perhaps "believable" better describes what I meant.
Quote from: Isaac on February 01, 2015, 02:18:59 pmImages that are liked by many people, are liked by many people because they show what is liked by many people. This tells us nothing about the longevity of such photos, in terms of how long their owners will hang them.
Suspension of disbelief.
Indeed, it doesn't tell us that they won't continue to like those images year-after-year.
Would those be the non-photographers who've grown-up with Instagram?
... No. Non-photographers tend to expect what is portrayed in a landscape photo to be a representation of what they would have seen with their own eyes had they taken the place of the camera, hence the furore over 'photoshopped' images.
No. Once again, what general public expects from a landscape photography (or photography in general, bar documentary) is escape from that dreaded reality in front of "their own eyes." They want ART (hence the success of Instagram). "Furor" over photoshopped images!? Among non-photographers!? The only furor comes from "purist" photographers. General public considers it art and loves it. Has it occurred to anyone that ART is a crucial ingredient in ARTIFICIAL? Art is the opposite of reality.
Apparently we will have to agree to disagree.
