5 Ways to Not Be A Photographer
Over the courses of many of my articles, I have covered various do and do nots of photography, some obvious, and some less so. Over time however, I have begun to see a very disturbing trend not only in the general population, but in my photographer friends as well. This trend is the use of several new technologies designed to “replicate” the stylings and abilities of professional photographers. When I’m not working on photography, or writing here, I am a techno-geek. Because of this I pride myself on knowing and understanding new technologies as they emerge, whether I like them or not. A problem I have found with some new technologies is not the technologies themselves, but how people are using them. For that reason I’ve decided to layout several things that I have personally seen both non- and professional photographers do, that I will honestly say, if you do these and believe that it makes you a professional photographer (and in many cases a good one) you are an idiot.
There are many of these things to cover, too many in fact to cover here alone, so I will cover many of these more in depth later on.
1) You take pictures on your cell phone and think they are “professional quality”
These are not cameras. Images by Yutaka Tsutano.
This is single-handedly the most annoying of all things I’ve seen both non- and professional photographers do. Cell phones are definitely starting to house much better cameras than the first camera-phones did, but they will never be able to compare with a DSLR, or even a point-and-shoot camera. A cell phone camera is great for documenting minute events that you want to post to your Facebook, but it is far from professional quality.
2) You believe ALL images need to be filtered
Unnecessary filtering. Image by koalazymonkey
One of the stupidest statements I have ever heard from a colleague was “If you don’t add a filter to an image, that image is not worth showing a client”. Aside from the absolutely asinine and ridiculousness of this statement, the idea that every single image you are going to sell to a client should look like it was a Polaroid from 1960 is probably the fastest way to loose business and your reputation.
3)You believe the Bigger/More expensive the camera the better the photos are
A camera far better than your DSLR. Image by fotosiamo.
This is another common and asinine belief, that surprisingly isn’t as common among professionals. Typically this belief is held by people buying their first camera. Typically the bigger/more expensive a camera is, the higher the resolution, that much is usually true, but cost and size have virtually nothing to do with quality. A bad photo is going to look just as bad on a bigger camera.
4) You Believe the DSLR is the end all of cameras and can never be beat.
Again this statement is usually by non-professionals, and is very common of the cliche photographer who only takes pictures of their converse. I love my DSLRs, but I know they are not the best of the best, nor do they come close. As versatile as a DSLR is any experienced photography will tell you that medium format camera systems far surpass the capabilities of the DSLR.
These are just a few of the most common things I have personally seen. I may talk about more in future articles, as I delve into why these five things are so terrible.
