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RAW makes obsolete all your skill
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  • This has been my favorite topic this year hands down!

    I believe RAW photography has paved the way for some many enthusiasts to proclaim themselves 'Photographers'. I only have to look at my own small town and there are countless Photogs and they all take so so pictures. Only one or two have the proper skill.

    Visually pleasing, enticing, dramatic, awe-inspiring and emotional photography is a skill, no question about it. Being able to conceive an image in the mind and translate it onto a camera and then be able to get a reaction from your intended audience is what sets you apart.

    We have worked with some amazing photographers and some that if we could help it we would never work with again. The difference? Usually personality, but also ability to interact with their subjects, bring out the best in them, manipulate them into a position or emotion that when they see the photo they go "wow... i look alright". I'm speaking about Wedding Photography here obviously but similar principles apply to other photographers that deal with people.

    Wildlife photographers, or landscape? no idea......

  • @manstok

    Exactly right, manstok! The challenge for us is to somehow confidently stay atop the fast-moving "technology surfboard" while new and improved waves incessantly crash in around us! In all seriousness, our aggregate level of technological achievement in the visual arts sector is simply astonishing these days, as well as exciting and addicting!

    Knowledge is power and takes time and perseverance to achieve -- at least for a feeble-minded person such as myself. It's the increasing pace of product obsolescence that has me dazed. That's why I usually try to avoid being an early adopter because it's also known that fools rush in where angels fear to tread!

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev; great graph, now I understand the dip I'm in. :-)

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev I really really like your graph find there. I'm going to use it in a presentation; its exactly how I feel about the area's I'm working in.

    To add to this debate, here's a couple of images from our youngest child's homework:

    Alt text

    and the basis:

    Alt text

    Of course it was done on a 5D. The girls came up with the idea and it was only 1C outside so it had to be done in the garage. Its not the 5D that makes these pictures, its the lights, which came from P-V deals (the DN900 and AS312). The lights help to lose the scruffy background and the low DOF reduces the background yet further.

    20 years ago I used to compete in amateur photographic competitions. These days I'm getting about 1 week every month employment on video and photographic work. From my semi-pro viewpoint, I believe the professional learns how to give the customer what they want in the time and cost they want.

    I'm finding that I visualise great shots and interesting angles; but keep my mouth shut if they'll blow the time or cost budget.

    To be slightly provocative I would say that learning to shout loud-and-politely makes obsolete most skill that you'd like to believe you need. (Does anyone know of a good shouting tutorial ???)

  • For on the fly capture, I can see where GMG is coming from. You just capture moments as they are happening. However, I still believe with a certain vision it changes those perspectives for the clients. Most importantly, those moments shine for a photog when they are allowed to compose and light a certain shot which then, I feel separate a DSLR owner and the Pros. Because essentially, you are the DP of your shots. You can especially tell the difference by looking at their Engagement shoots where they have a full day one-on-one with the couple. I'm not even an amateur photographer, so take that with a grain of salt.

  • image

    :-)

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  • @GravitateMediaGroup You are so missing the point. Your photo composition and framing is atrocious. You may want to get a quad core chip in your camera to fix that. RAW by itself will not cut it.

  • You can have quite decent latitude in exposure with traditional negative film too. B&W especially. Caj Bremer, a famous finnish photojournalist active between the 50's and 80's, used to ballpark estimate his exposures a lot. Set and forget. His images are astonishing.

    You lose dynamic range if you don't nail the exposure and that's the same with digital exposure as well. Reversal film is another beast. Sort of like jpg you have to get the exposure right or you will blow highlights very easily.

    Getting the exposure right is just one part of photographic technique. Raw and autoexposure won't help you with the rest: framing and focus. End of the day, the thing that counts the most is timing and content. How is raw-format making this obsolete?

  • I just had another thought, could it be possible.....JUST POSSIBLE, that the fact that pretty much every cellphone in the world now has a camera attached, and it's possibly making a large % of people in general better photographers, from gradual experience, and learning to know what works and what doesn't as far as angles, distance, and lighting, and so on?

    Or it could possibly strike peoples interest to own a better camera and learn how to take a nicer picture than their cellphone. I'm a firm believer that life is about learning, and that it is NOT impossible for an individual to "learn" something new, especially with the help of online tutorials and youtube videos lol just a though...

    can we reach and agreement here? lol

  • other than the first photo, they look fine to me...

    Ahhhh, you can't fool me! Now who's trolling who?

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  • @bannedindv what on earth did you come up with my thinking i'm a master cinematographer?

    you are WAY out in left field with the rest of your post.

    if anything, the point that I'M making is RAW and Color Grading HELP to making a finished product look great.

    I have shot jpeg and made edit with no grade. Beck when I did it looked great, but now that technology has improved...why would I?

  • So, now that you have a bmcc that can shoot raw are you a master cinematographer?

    Shooting raw is more like shooting film - now that we have more control did the whole world suddenly become child's play? Did you ever dodge and burn when printing a negative on an enlarger?

    You still have to put time in to shoot it right even with Raw.

    There is a huge gap between an amateur with good tools and a master.

    Maybe there are no known masters in your area, I don't know - but there are plenty of masters on the east coast, west coast and Chicago.

    Normally I don't let such vapid rants annoy me - but this set me off.

    If you feel the need to be a purist - go shoot only jpeg and do video with no color correction - or try shooting slide film - that's a challenge in itself. Maybe you will discover more about the most important medium of the 20th century (my blowhard opinion).

    Please - get out a little more and explore the world for what it is. The fact that no one wants to pay shit for your work does not mean you can't still make art - or make money for that matter if you are clever.

  • @spacewig they may not be "good" writers, but I would says blogs are at an all time high. lol

    they may not be good photographs, but I would say photographers are at an all time high as well. insert card, turn on camera, snap snap snap, put card in PC, do what you want "I'm a photographer!" thank you RAW, once again.

  • "Looks like everyone is a photographer now days, when RAW reaches smart devices, game over. lol"

    That's right, just like the web's made everyone a writer. When INTELLIGENCE reaches the masses, roll over Plato...

  • @yoclay yeah, but at the end of the the ability to shoot RAW helps to create a nicer finished product.

    i'm not disagreeing with anything you said btw. I'm making the claim that RAW has had a major impact in the photography world, and has made it much easier for anybody to jump in, and for some reason folks are finding a hard time to agree with me, but a quick search of the internet will show that the world is full of amateur photographers that are actually taking some pretty nice pictures.

    i'm sure 40 years ago there was damn good telephone operators, but now everyone has a smart phone and are pretty good at making calls with them.

  • @BurnetRhoades Nice pics. I like the kid in the green shorts. Gotta admit I'm jealous...he's got a SWEET boom box resting on that ladder...it has DOUBLE cassette decks! Mine only has a single.

  • Being a photographer has almost nothing to do with the camera. It has to do with how you look at the world, your vision and viewpoint and your ability not only to facilitate the kind of situations that make your visual style happen but also your human skills. Not to mention your business skills as an agent, producer, accountant, and bill collector.

    In fact as far as I am concerned there is nothing more amateur than believing that you are a photographer based on the camera you shoot or the kind of format you choose.

    People don't hire me for my camera, they hire me for my style and the kind of work they think they can get from me that they cannot get elsewhere. This includes my lighting, choice of talent, the way in which I interact with my subjects and my capacity to make choices in art direction as well as later in post production.

    There is so much more to being a professional photographer/filmmaker than equipment or technology. Taste and vision count more than Canon or Nikon. Getting the right picture might only take 1/50th of a second, but sometimes 20 years and a million shot frames are needed to recognize it.

  • @burnetrhoades other than the first photo, they look fine to me. RAW could have REALLY helped on the first one though. Its very possible the family picture with white backdrop, the pic with the chick in the black dress may have had the help of raw.

    my next movie will be a biography called "Sean C Cunningham: hollywood graphics guru turned troll"

    animated pics and excessive amounts of "argument material" pics puts you in the troll boat as far as I'm concerned.

    my opinion on the whole matter still stands. RAW was a game changer for the good and the bad for multiple reasons. It caused the old schoolers to appear as "just another photographer" and it's caused "just another photographer" to be able to fool the average person that doesn't know much about photography into making them think they are a photographer, thanks to the help of technology.

  • It's so tragic...if only these poor souls had gone to a photographer with a RAW camera...

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  • @burnetrhoades the story of a girl that has developed a new hobby? she never said she was going to be the next best thing, she simply said she was "getting into photography" you never know if you don't try....try again.

  • @ahbleza bet you weren't expecting that response.

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  • and as I further my photography research, it looks like there is no such thing as a "perfect" photo according to people among the photography world. but with the help of RAW, you can get it pretttyyyy close ; )

  • @ahbleza so is she a photographer or not? i'm a little confused. either way, I give her credit for having passion in something, even if she doesn't know everything their is to know about photography,.