I'm guessing this person is a fauxtographer

[bananaslugs]

http://postsecretdaily.tumblr.com/post/27570573804

I think a lot of fauxtogs suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. Those who don’t know, don’t know how much they don’t know. It’s annoying. I’m not a good photographer but at least I KNOW that. I belong to a photography group on facebook. Some group members post some pretty good shots while others post bad ones. I always wonder what is wrong with these fauxs when they see the good pics. How can they not notice the difference in quality? Sure I’ll admit that when I first got my Rebel and started shooting for fun my friends would say that my pics were “amazing” (I guess everyone is used to cell phone pics these days) and I kind of allowed it to get to my head at first. But then as I started to delve more deeply into it and connecting with other photographers and looking at their photos I quickly realized, “Wow!!!!! My pictures are terrible and I have a LOT to learn! I don’t understand the people who see good photographs and don’t notice that their photos are mediocre or downright terrible. Are they that blinded by their egos?

[picstop]

I don’t know what that link is.  It seems to be one post of artwork of many and whether the blogger takes it seriously or not or even is a photographer, I don’t know.  If it’s a statement that someone who doesn’t know what iso, f-stops and so on are, can take a decent shot, that’s possible.  However, I would suspect most professionals do know what those all are and care about it on a regular basis as they do mean something if you want good results.

That all aside, fauxtogs are a curious bunch.  There are a number of reasons in my opinion as to why they both suck and blow with such regularity and damned determination.  And by that I mean that month after month and year after year, many will continue to “s and b” in spite of the fact that there is so much free information out there that can help your pics to look better.  Maybe not $20k per wedding stunning great but at least better.  Even faux gear can be used to take decent shots…if you know what you’re doing so not being able to afford 5D3s, D800s and so on is not an excuse.

So, what’s up with the fauxs?  I suspect some aren’t cut out for photography.  I have friends (that I don’t call a faux cause they know their limitations and the difference between good and bad photos but are using my friends to prove a point), who aren’t stupid but, bless them, just don’t get the relationship between iso and aperture and shutter speed and “what it’s all about”.  Aperture priority vs. Manual and so forth is like reading Greek.  And it’s fine for them because they know just enough to get the shots they need most of the time but then, they aren’t fauxs claiming to be pros.  Some fauxs though, I suspect, just don’t get it all and go on with being a “pro” anyway.

Then there are the ones who just don’t care.  They might have in the beginning.  I don’t know.  But it’s easy to imagine that taking crap shots and being “liked” and, WOW, actually getting paid could cause some people to not want to improve.  Well, why bother?  Dozens of people line up to get pics of their kids, babies, weddings and seniors so hell, you must be pretty good so what’s the motivation to waste time pouring over tutorials about strobing or photoshop?  “They pay me so I must rock”, is the mentality some probably adopt.  Us real pros though usually follow that with “but maybe I can do better or there is something else I can do to improve on what I did, even if it’s just a fraction of a percent better”.

Do fauxs actually look at other photogs stuff?  From personal experience, I can say yes.  So, they’ve actually seen what the shot can be and should be.  One example comes to mind and that’s of a church I’ve often shot weddings.  The carpet is blue.  So?  Well, when I shoot a wedding, the bride coming up the aisle has a white dress (or ivory or whichever colour it is in real life) and the carpet is blue.  Well, does the carpet colour matter?  Not really, but seeing a faux’s pics where the carpet was green was the first clue that this person had no idea what white balance was.  So you can imagine that the carpet being green instead of blue, what the colour of the dress might have been, not to mention the bride’s skin.  Ugh.  And did the faux think there was something wrong with the pics?  Did people not “like” them?  Of course not.  So why did this faux not care?  Fairly similar pics were hers to see so that the difference between bad and good should make her think, “ooh, I suck, so what can I do so these look like those other ones”?  Ego?  Lack of caring?  Denial?  Refusal to admit that she doesn’t get it and probably won’t so what does it matter as long as people give me money?

Of course, the clients share some responsibility.  Today, more than ever, people are inundated with photos.  They sit down to lunch and take a pic of their sandwich for fb for cripes sake.  People take hundreds of pics a week of their kids and dogs in their first few years of life.  Terabytes of hd space are full of pic after pic of many times pretty much any time their kid spit up.  Which is fine.  But the value of a photo is diminished.  Or at least, the value it holds today is.  Twenty years from now, those pics will be priceless.  So will quality photos of , say, their wedding.  But just as they have a clogged hd of pics, they see them as “just another pic” so don’t understand that twenty years from now, when they truly care about them and will really look a them, not just share them on fb, they’ll then realize too late that they sorta suck.  Too late.  Don’t support your local faux.  Invest in your own future and give yourself the quality pics your deserve twenty years from now.  The faux is counting on your to not think past next Tuesday.

Oy, don’t get me started…..

[EyeDocPhotog]

It’s a teen’s Tumblr page – it’ll be gone when the next beer-goggle idea is hatched. About a week.

[bananaslugs]

It’s someone sharing a postsecret submission (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostSecret), which is VERY popular among teens and twenty-somethings, on a tumblr blog. Anyway, my post was focused not on the website itself but on the mentality that all you need to do to be  a photographer is just push a button and not even bother to learn the basics. Even if that specific tumblr site is gone in a week, fauxtography is sadly here to stay.

[IHF]

I have a good friend who’s a faux. She has no idea. She’s in business, and the whole nine. She has seen YANAP and other pages like it, and can see fault with other people’s photos, just not her own I guess? She also has seen plenty of wonderful photographs that I sure leave her in awe just like the rest of us, but… She can’t see her own? She enrolled in an online for profit scam school, and has been going for well over a year. She’s passing with flying colors (of course! It keeps the money rolling in) She, honestly, and with all her heart thinks she’s doing everything right. She cannot see it any other way. Eventually (she has told me of her interest) she may even have enough confidence in herself and her skills to actually attempt to teach others what she has “learned”, thus, completing the faux circle of life.
I honestly thought I would see some improvement over time, but unfortunately she doesn’t accept or ask for any criticism, and is just happily at a standstill. Still not nailing focus or exposure, still having a wonked out time with color, still letting people pose themselves, and don’t get me started on her misuse of light. It’s painful to watch really.
Just one example of many:
She posted one of her school assignments with the caption “I finally found my subjects!” (It was to be a still life character study of fruit or vegetables. Humanizing inanimate objects)
It was a blurry, what looked to be cell phone shot of three pears. So I commented “Oh yay! Pears make great characters! I can’t wait to see what you do with them!”
Only to be told that what I was looking at was already turned in as a complete assignment. (She received an A for her out of focus sloppy still life)

Even though, I know her very well and love her dearly… I still don’t get it. How can she not see? It’s a very strange phenomenon/enigma.

I think there are several different types of fauxs, and my friend is just one type of many, but I find all of them…even the ones just out to scam money and don’t even use their own photos in their port, just out right bewildering.

[Author]

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