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Why are there so many bad photographers?

Browsing social photography websites like Flickr and 500px is a frustrating experience. Overall the quality of photography is horrible.

Home truths. Straight from the horse's mouth
Nobody dares say anything negative. Often votes and comments are motivated by a desire for reciprocation rather than because the viewer actually likes the image. Many people spend less than a second viewing an image. It's so easy to click the fave icon on a page of thumbnails.

People that receive a lot of votes/likes/favs are either good photographers or just good at playing the social game.

This has all been said before and I really am not bothered by the social side. The thing that bothers me is the lack of interest, effort and passion for their images among so many photographers.

Do they not see that when they push the saturation slider out near the maximum that the colours look awful, unnatural and garish?

Do they not see that when they over-sharpen or over-use the clarity tool that the images develop spots and artifacts that make it look horrible?

The list goes on, with cartoonish HDR and many more aberrations caused by filters and effects.

Sadly, under all the manipulation there's often a good image. But no, the photographer just could not resist adding a sun flare filter and putting some awful frame around the image. Why? Is reality not good enough?

Here are some truths to take away:


  • A poor composition can't be fixed with a filter.
  • An unsharp image will never be properly sharp, no matter how much sharpening you apply.
  • Without real interest, care and passion for your images they will never be good. 
  • Software will never make you a better photographer, one who engages and connects with their subject and produces beautiful work that stands up to serious scrutiny from people who know what good photography should look like.
  • Likes and favs are not a measure of photographic skill.
I'm not claiming to be the world's greatest photographer but I certainly know what good photography looks like, and it's really scarce.

What do I want to achieve? I'd like photographers out there to take a long, hard and honest look at the images they produce and aim to be better without trying to rely on tricks and gimmicks. 

My strongest plea is to those photographers who do make good compositions, to not add all sorts of filters and to go easy on the sliders in Photoshop, Lightroom etc. Camera manufacturers spend millions on research to make cameras that produce an excellent quality jpeg right out of the camera. Usually you have to do very little these days to get a decent quality image. 

Focus on taking great pictures, not on trying to produce them after you've pushed the shutter.

Thanks for your time.

Paul




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