So we no longer need to know how to calculate long exposures, use ND filters, bracket exposures, dodge and burn or really any photography fundamentals for that matter. I'm concerned that as an art form, we are diluting so much creativity to merely uploading an app in digital photography. Tone mapping, HDR, film effects, shallow DOF in iPhones etc. Creative effects in digital photography are reaching a saturation point imo, where inventiveness, imagination and innovation and are just a click away. Some compositions are uniquely wonderful, but in one incident where I read a certain photographer whose photo I liked used an app to create a long exposure effect, the value dropped and I was no longer interested or impressed. I'm speaking as a professional photographer only and its perceived value as an art form and not from a hobbyist point of view, but that too is getting harder to discern.
I was once at a sidewalk art show in New England, where a photographer was charging close to a $1000 for a photo with an unlimited run. It showed an amazing sunset with flocks of geese at the perfect moment in time - Classic New England! It was one of those "lucky" photographs we all would love to take. However, the photographer mentioned that it was a composite of different landscape images photoshopped together to create this final image. Don't get me wrong, PS has its merits too and the time it takes to do it is valuable to the artist and frankly, some people don't care. The incredibly gifted landscape painter next to him was asking considerably less for one of their beautiful paintings - a one and only painting that took weeks to create. I bought the painting. But for me, the intrinsic value of photography as an art form is in the individuality and skill to create something in the simplest most tangible form.
In astro physics the diminution in the intensity of light comes from absortion, reflection and scattering or extinction. I hope as professional photographers we can use our passion to be unique, to shine, where less does mean more sometimes. The significance of a moment cannot be understated. It just takes the desire and thankfully there's no app for that.
I was once at a sidewalk art show in New England, where a photographer was charging close to a $1000 for a photo with an unlimited run. It showed an amazing sunset with flocks of geese at the perfect moment in time - Classic New England! It was one of those "lucky" photographs we all would love to take. However, the photographer mentioned that it was a composite of different landscape images photoshopped together to create this final image. Don't get me wrong, PS has its merits too and the time it takes to do it is valuable to the artist and frankly, some people don't care. The incredibly gifted landscape painter next to him was asking considerably less for one of their beautiful paintings - a one and only painting that took weeks to create. I bought the painting. But for me, the intrinsic value of photography as an art form is in the individuality and skill to create something in the simplest most tangible form.
In astro physics the diminution in the intensity of light comes from absortion, reflection and scattering or extinction. I hope as professional photographers we can use our passion to be unique, to shine, where less does mean more sometimes. The significance of a moment cannot be understated. It just takes the desire and thankfully there's no app for that.