canerino wrote:
Should we adjust our styles to fit the market or define our styles to create a market? I hope I'm doing the latter.
Okay not to sound offending to anyone. But when people talk about "style" what exactly it is ? Apart from capturing moments that are unique and captures essence of the day rest all is done in post processing. When you are capturing moments, its more about composition and exposure. Adding color correction, effects, filters, actions, B&W, film grain etc. People posting here post processed images should also sometime post SOOC image to figure out how much is actually capture and how much is post processing. People saying photojournalistic images never put anything photo journalistic in idealistic form.
"I think what bothers me the most is the lack of integrity about it all"
"What has become a relatively minor expense in the whole scheme of things has now turned into something that can consume 10% or more of the entire wedding budget."
mjoshi wrote:
People posting here post processed images should also sometime post SOOC image to figure out how much is actually capture and how much is post processing.
I'd love to see that. A set by the some of the Big Names here straight out of camera.
D. Diggler wrote:
I'd love to see that. A set by the some of the Big Names here straight out of camera.
I don't know why the "Big Names" would need to do that. I'm pretty sure the Emperor has clothes on.
I would be willing to hazard a guess that the style and behavior he's mentioning is regionally exclusive. In the photos I know, and people on here, this just doesn't seem like a criticism that holds much water over here. Any Malaysian/South-East Asian photographers around here that could confirm this?
For the most part he had a lot of good points, but a few things.
As someone else mentioned in this thread, some of the things he mentioned are so obvious that one shouldn't be doing weddings if they don't understand those basics.
Another is that as someone who is shooting in South Asia full-time, it's inaccurate to lump every photographer into the same category.
I appreciate his sentiment, but the more I read the more he comes off as someone who was 'burned' by a bad photographer/one he didn't like.
My friend asked me to photograph his 25 year anniversary and re-dedication wedding and pay me. I said that I would only do it if he hired a pro to cover the job. Then I would shoot whatever I wanted and that my goal was to capture two shots-the one on the mantle and in their wallets-for free.
I was extremely mindful that I was not a wedding pro and that I didn't want to take money from a working pro. He found a nice couple that certainly needed the work and who shot both the wedding and reception. And like the previous poster, I was intimidated with the scope and rigidity of the wedding format. Without a lot of analysis I went for, my concept of, the iconic moment leaving the pros to do the tough stuff.
I shot only the wedding, trying to stay out of everyones way, and after some PP TLC (the available light wouldn't support the DOF-200mm F2.0-needed for two people so I composited two alternate focus images). My friend and his wife selected my two photos for mantle and wallet. A win, win for all.
"What has become a relatively minor expense in the whole scheme of things has now turned into something that can consume 10% or more of the entire wedding budget."
Really 10% is not too much, actually I think it is very low, that 10% is the only thing that will last a lifetime.
I think the sooc exercise is useless to be honest. "style" isn't PP to me, it may be a small part of the basic aesthetics, but for me style is about how you act personally, how you approach it, how you see things, how you compose, how you use light, how you use colour, how you work with people... Numerous other things. Then how these all work together. Perhaps as photographers we focus on the technical elements too much, like processing, but unless it's 'extreme' this isn't what people 'see'.
10% is not too much, actually I think it is very low, that 10% is the only thing that will last a lifetime.