What If: You couldnt post pictures for sharing anymore?

[Rev]

I feel CS is basically a ego trip, people do share helpful hints but it's a ladder where people try to out-do each other, eg. the formula for portraiture (70-200, f2.8, medium format, good bokeh, sharpness) remains the same, there is no further exploration in portraiture, only a handful might try eg. wide-angle portraiture, intriguing nude-abstracts or a funky destructive film-negative post-process... Sometimes, even imitation of style is unconciously done, maybe because mathematically, the odds of producing similar photographs with 10 CSers & 1 model are quite high or advice is taken immediately at face-value. If there was no photography internet forums to share photos, would your photos improve, stay the same or truly be ground-breaking?

Also, now that photography is in a digital age (I know it's inevitable but...), dslrs are more of a 'point&shoot&upload' process (compared to the darkroom...) which sorta aggravates the ladder-imitation-effect... we all know those types of camera hobbyists (cant even call them photographers) who only look at histogram (overexposed or underexposed) and solely believe in the specs of 'superior' equipment that their ignorance only produces sh*tty photos

Maybe this topic has been long discussed before, if it has, pls let me know to delete this thread =)

 

[Rev]

heh, either CSers have no imagination or no opinion... 48 views and no replies.
prove me wrong?

 

[espn]

No leh, I don't feel withdrawal from CS downtime. There are a lot of forums out there. CS is just one that I visit. There's still many others from HK, US, SG.

 

[jOhO]

i actually managed to watch some long overdue DVDs while CS was down. :thumbsup:

 

[Hexlord]

Didn't even realise that it was down lor.. anyway, my photos I just upload to my photo albums.

 

[nightwolf75]

48 views and no reply till now?

mebbe most of us have a life. ever consider it?

 

[espn]

48 views and no reply till now?

mebbe most of us have a life. ever consider it?

Or we're busy elsewhere :bsmilie:

 

[forward]

Don’t be too attached to a single photography forum or of anything else. The more you want to adhere to the activities or adopt the non say the less you gain.

You may have forgotton that the more you continue to work out the opportunities that are coming to you which sometimes are brilliantly disguised in “down time” the wiser you are as a photographer. Why not try this?

If you are seriously interested in portraiture PM me. :thumbsup:

----------------------------
Once there was a saying that if a photographer
wish to experience life in a newer dimension he got to examine
that what he believes in.

 

[blive]

Well, I was indeed away for 1 month, and I don't really miss not having access CS, except I now got a reminder/suggestion message to post in CS.

My photos are more for private enjoyment and as such, I have not really post much here. Anyway, i think that they are not good enough for viewing publicly, although they are available in public domain. My recent taiwan trip is already on the net cause some of my friends are asking for them.

As for creativity, sometimes it depends on situation and your purpose. The good old protrait shoots are good too, if you can get it right, at the right moment.

As "forward" says, CS is only one of many of such photographic forums, and many of us do have a life outside and can be too busy to respond.

 

[Rev]

48 views and no reply till now?

mebbe most of us have a life. ever consider it?

for someone who has 6000+ posts, you have repeated a valid but common point about asking others to consider getting a life. Maybe you need some education to read the thread properly & think of some new & original comments.

 

[Rev]

Don’t be too attached to a single photography forum or of anything else. The more you want to adhere to the activities or adopt the non say the less you gain.

You may have forgotton that the more you continue to work out the opportunities that are coming to you which sometimes are brilliantly disguised in “down time” the wiser you are as a photographer. Why not try this?

If you are seriously interested in portraiture PM me. :thumbsup:

thanks foward & others... rephrased the title & question...

That's what I'm asking, would working your own opportunities by yourself without internet sharing of photos help you or make you a mediocre photographer?

And appreciate the invitiation to learn portraiture, I am keen to learn it at some point in time...

 

[zcwnfx]

for me, i visit CS to learn from the more experience as they post their photos and comments. also to ask questions as well.

of cos, to look at the 2nd equipment being posted here.

all in all, i enjoy taking photos. and it doesnt matter to me if i am able to outdo the next person. rather i should outshine myself everytime!

 

[Patryk]

If there was no photography internet forums to share photos, would your photos improve, stay the same or truly be ground-breaking?

That point is very interesting Rev...

With the advent of digital, sharing and posting of images for display to the public is as easy as it can get now.. In a sense, this has raised a very formulaic approach to taking good photographs in the respective areas (like as you said with portraiture).
Rarely have I seen ootb images (out-of-the-box), probably because everyone has generalized that a certain way or style to apporach portraiture would most likely lead to results that others would find pleasing...which in my opinion is a side-effect of such forums.

Let's say in an alternate universe where the internet or forums to share photos did not materialize, but with photography still growing increasingly popular, I believe that we would find more interesting and diverse works. I say this because photographers would be isolated from each others' works, and since each would define a good or creative photograph different from each other, many styles and approaches to photography would spawn.. However if that was the case, there would be no suitable guideline to define what makes a photograph good and creative..so many loopholes there..

Anyways, my general stand is that internet, with the easy sharing of images have in some way impeded creativity. People post images, others find it great, others try to follow..and the cycle continues..

 

[billpepsi]

At least save my PUB bills while CS was down.

 

[blive]

That point is very interesting Rev...

With the advent of digital, sharing and posting of images for display to the public is as easy as it can get now.. In a sense, this has raised a very formulaic approach to taking good photographs in the respective areas (like as you said with portraiture).
Rarely have I seen ootb images (out-of-the-box), probably because everyone has generalized that a certain way or style to apporach portraiture would most likely lead to results that others would find pleasing...which in my opinion is a side-effect of such forums.

Let's say in an alternate universe where the internet or forums to share photos did not materialize, but with photography still growing increasingly popular, I believe that we would find more interesting and diverse works. I say this because photographers would be isolated from each others' works, and since each would define a good or creative photograph different from each other, many styles and approaches to photography would spawn.. However if that was the case, there would be no suitable guideline to define what makes a photograph good and creative..so many loopholes there..

Quite true, but in the past when there was no internet or Digital cameras, we all use film and shared the printed photographs/slides with our circle of friends/family or with other photographer/hobbyist. That's why there are photographic clubs around for sharing. With the internet, it just makes it easier to share photos without being physically there. Of course, its much faster too. So your alternate unvierse happened in the past. Photographers will still finds ways to interact with like minded photographers...

Creativity is not about being the first one to be doing things differently. Its about achieving an objectives with whatever means you have. So learning from others and adapting it for your use is also creative.

 

[Pablo]

I feel CS is basically a ego trip, people do share helpful hints but it's a ladder where people try to out-do each other, eg. the formula for portraiture (70-200, f2.8, medium format, good bokeh, sharpness) remains the same, there is no further exploration in portraiture, only a handful might try eg. wide-angle portraiture, intriguing nude-abstracts or a funky destructive film-negative post-process... Sometimes, even imitation of style is unconciously done, maybe because mathematically, the odds of producing similar photographs with 10 CSers & 1 model are quite high or advice is taken immediately at face-value. If there was no photography internet forums to share photos, would your photos improve, stay the same or truly be ground-breaking?

Also, now that photography is in a digital age (I know it's inevitable but...), dslrs are more of a 'point&shoot&upload' process (compared to the darkroom...) which sorta aggravates the ladder-imitation-effect... we all know those types of camera hobbyists (cant even call them photographers) who only look at histogram (overexposed or underexposed) and solely believe in the specs of 'superior' equipment that their ignorance only produces sh*tty photos

Maybe this topic has been long discussed before, if it has, pls let me know to delete this thread =)

Personally, I don't feel that I have that ego trip you are speaking of.
Actually, I don't think the majority of others do either.

There is much admiration, much critisism, much (OK but what do you think of this).

None of which I find egotistic. There is often competition.... from this grows creativness and some great results.

If CS shut down; my life as all life, will go on. I would just miss many friends here and hope that I might meet them somewhere else in my travels.

 

[Rev]

Thanks for your honest constructive opinions guys. Cant change the title of the original thread but I have an additional question...

"Personal style, originality & creativity changes over time, are you concerned what influences it?"

Pablo, I dont believe none are egotistic, (unfortunately I'm unable to provide accurate statistic) but what's baffling to me is how 1 CSer can post photos of a model/event and 9 others follow suit to post their photos which look similar, some are better (better equipment? more experience), some are worse (entry-level equipment? newbie?), but overall, nothing unique. Isnt that action a need to fulfill & reaffirm one's ego?

Another puzzlement is do CSers with DSLRs realize it's odd to see someone else post photos similar to theirs? Worse, maybe they feel complimented that somebody followed their advice & style. And then they commend each other's work so it's like being with & talking with multiple clones of oneself. Some say shoot for fun, then what value does the 100+ photos of models have? To use that as a portfolio to hope for cash opportunities as motivation to recover equipment 'investment' instead?

I've heard of 'herd mentality' & 'factory country' but thought that applied mostly to trends eg. coffebean, bubble tea, engineering degrees. I dont expect CS to change nor improve, I just find the style of portraiture shooters morbidly interesting...

What really surprises me as well is that so far no-one is willing to simply admit CSers adore pretty (subjective) models and nothing else... but holy sh*t, there's just a sheer amount of simliar photos to view...

 

[student]

A I think there must be very few photographers who take pictures and just store them under the bed.

For whatever reasons, most will like to show their images. Some possible reasons I can think of off-hand are

Pure joy of sharing
"Show off/Need to satisfy one ego"
"Teaching"
"Learning"
Recognition as an "artist/photographer"
Recognition for commercial reasons - as a living/to get business and assignments

To each his own

B "Imitations"

I do not think that "imitations" are not desirable. "Imitations" is the foundation to learning. A child imitating the parents. Calligraphers imitating the brush strokes of the masters. Imitating to learn.

There are so very few that are truly original. Such are geniuses. And they are so few of them. For me, and I suspect, most others in this forum, our art will be based on the foundations laid down by photographers whose works we like and admire. I think nothing wrong with that.

I think that notwithstanding the importance of "imitations", the "disaster" would be that we just stop there. I think that life is varied enough that although we imitate the styles of some masters, we can still come up with something that is a little different. Afterall, we have different life experiences from the masters.

C "Styles" over time.

Styles will change over time because we "changed". Happiness, and sadness will have an impact on our imagery.

Style will change over time also because we we get to understand ourselves a little more. About what makes us tick.

And style will also change because we tire of similar imagery and long for something different.

Finally style might change because I now want to make money from photography. It is very difficult to make money from "fine art" photography. Much easier to do those commercial stuff. Yes there are those commercial photographers who succeed in their business and yet able to carve out a special imagery of his own. In this forum, I see Skye Tan as a good example of this.

D Regarding similar imageries in CS.

I agree that this is very apparent in CS, especially after a shoot. Within a day or two, one starts to see similar imageries, with of course differing standards.

I think this is inevitable if the mentality is to please the models or to get a pat from fellow photographers.

A question of mindset.

E And what if CS shuts down?

There is no question that the internet had made it possible for people to know each others work in a manner that was unprecedented. And the shut-down of such a system would have tremendous consequences.

Nonetheless, if one is focussed on making images, the process of image making will continue. Sharing is harder. But new avenues will come up for like-minded people to share.

 

[Sion]

I feel CS is basically a ego trip, people do share helpful hints but it's a ladder where people try to out-do each other....

I think there are better ways than a photo forum to have an ego trip. In the time that I have been in photo forums I don't see too much of people having ego trips.

Many come to CS because they enjoy to be here. I like in here because it is well-moderated. Possibilities of ugly confrontations are killed once they rare their ugly heads.

Fortunately or unfortunately photography is to be shown, published in the web or magazines or emailed or in my case sold to someone who needs to use it to fill an empty space. It's an exibition hobby which requires plenty of exposure. It makes us a bit of showman but many photographers we've met are shy, quiet and humble.

 

[forward]

Well said Sion! :thumbsup:

As long as we keep on moving we are making progress and not many like to be known as doing the act of coping. A better word is to imitate or follow... making the assumption that this act will be acceptable.

Thus we imitate to learn...
to adapt...
to analyse...
to search for further improvement...
to try to master or perfect the technique...
Imitation is the surest way to make one understand the whole process of a certain task. In so doing we sometimes forget about the act of integrity!

Is acting with integrity a thing of the unworldly?

Most of us including myself are hiding in some way from our own inner light, either through fear or just plain excuses. Some call it self-deception or going into the activity of frauds.

We heard of the worst frauds? Not yet but true. Not known to many that the first and worst of all frauds can be and no other is cheating one’s self. How many of us human can deny that?

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"When we know deep down that we’re acting with integrity despite impulses to do otherwise, we feel gates of higher energy and inspiration open inside of us." - Dan Millman