Hopping up on my soapbox for a minute…
I just have to say how sick I am of seeing photographers post photos like this:
And call it ART!
Because they do! They make it sound all dreamy and amazing that they got this shot. And I am FOR SURE not naming names but it kinda disappoints me that photographers I love are jumping on this bandwagon. Like this is the new cool technique or something. Like selective color used to be (don’t even get me started on how much I HATE selective color… you know when the photo is b/w except a flower or something!) or sepia or cyborg eyes. It’s a fad but that’s the worst part… it’s just bad photography if you ask me.
Because I am here to tell you, they just screwed up. They lost their focus and are making people think they are brilliant or something. But DUDE, I took this photo and it was a SCREW UP!
It drives me insane BUT I’m putting it out there to ask all of you… do you buy into this like this and call it artistic work? Or just bad photography?
Thoughts?
Am I the crazy one?
I personally don’t like it. It makes me feel that I need to get my eyes checked!
bad photography all the way:)s
Nope, don’t like it. Will it invalidate my opinion, though, to tell you that one of my favorite wedding photos of B and me has selective color? It’s even hanging in our house…;)
I’ve not seen this, but then I’m not really in the photography loop. But if the photo above is what they would actually try to put out there as quality or “art”, I’d be marking them off my list. I agree with the comment about needing eyes checked. If I want a blurry picture, I can probably take it myself.
But I will say, selective color…I have seen it overused in major ways but some of the most moving pics I’ve seen have used it properly. Guess it depends on alot of variables for me.
That’s awful photography… I would never put that on my wall! Nor would I try and sell it to anyone!
Me? I like something in focus. The bride blurry behind her beautiful flowers. A child infront of his mother and father. This? Hot mess. I don’t think it’s art at all.
ITs a bad shot.. period. I hate to be a whiner but I would love to tell anyone putting this in their house to STOP IT..
i cannot believe someone would consider that print worthy.
if i have an image like that on my card it is immediately deleted.
Kind of gives me a headache…bad photography fo sho!
I have not seen a ton of these but I have seen one out of focus picture that I know was taken on accident and I did understand the magical quality the photog felt she achieved. It did look great, for that particular picture. But to regularly take out of focus shots is pure crap, if you ask me. At least not to sell to customers as a professional photographer!
If I was given this shot in a stack of proofs from a session, I would not choose this photo as one to order or include. It would likely go into a box or the trash because it is clearly out of focus. Everyone can appreciate the fact that photographers take many many photos in a session and all of the photos are not going to be perfect – that is why they take so many. It is frustrating that your fellow colleagues are trying to pass this along as art when it is clearly a mistake.
I am a believer in ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. However, I peruse a lot of blogs, and saw this type of image a month or so ago on a very respected blog. Cool, I thought. And now, it is everwhere. Not so cool I am thinking!
i saw one of my favorite photogs do this for the first time, maybe she was the one that started the trend, and that first photo did look cool, the couple kind of melted together. but a trend? bad idea!
Just looks like an “oops” to me,not art. But, I get photographs to capture the moment, the details, the beauty of how my kids looked at that moment in time. Blurry “artsy” photos don’t allow me to see Maeve’s amazing freckles, or Braden’s super-long super-black eyelashes. That’s what I want to remember, the smiles and missing teeth, the bruises on knees, all that good stuff. (However, I must admit, I do occassionally like sepia photos-call me crazy)!
no- i could not agree with you more and feel like i could have written this post myself! i hate selective color more than i hate spiders and this out of focus hocus pocus makes my eyes hurt.
THANK YOU for posting this! I’ve been unimpressed (to say the least) with this “technique” and annoyed that respected photographers are, like you said, claiming to be brilliant for doing this. But, art is subjective — to each his own, I suppose!
I think I know of one of the “respected photogs” who does this, and I have to say…it *can* be done in a way that looks dreamy or magical. I’ve seen some intentionally-out-of-focus pictures that actually really do work. But the majority of them are just plain bad.
I personally wouldn’t try selling them to my clients because people around here aren’t very adventurous with what they like…we’re always a little behind the times. ;c) lol
Good discussion, though!
I just kept scrolling down the photo waiting for the tack-sharpt foreground element! I haven’t seen this trend – so glad I missed it! Yuck!
I saw TONS of wedding/bridal photos like this when I was looking for a wedding photographer– and this is including so-called arty NYC photographers and photographers in Chicagoland, as well. Similarly, in wedding photos, the light is blown out, so all you see is the white of the dress, and no details at all, but even the dress isn’t detailed.
I have only seen one well known photographer post an image like this. Whether or not it was done intentional or by mistake that photographer discovered she created something that was beautiful ‘to her’ (and the image she posted was beautiful) I don’t think she was claiming to be brilliant by doing it. Just like beauty, art is in the eye of the beholder.
you mean like the one in THIS post? http://betsykingphoto.com/blog/?p=4301
yea, total crap. I hate it that sometimes it WOULD be a great shot, but it’s just not in focus. It’s a bummer if it would be a great image, but you have to draw a line somewhere, and I do think SOMETHING in the shot needs to be in focus, or your client just feels like they are suffering from vision deterioration. Not cool.