Irrational dislikes?

Doylem · Dec 29, 2010

It’s not very often I start a new thread. So which is better... Canon or Nikon? Just kidding...

There are lots of good photographs on the ‘Pic of the Day’ thread, but what subjects make you glaze over with indifference?

Here are a few of my (no doubt irrational) photographic prejudices...

Photos of a Mac keyboard (taking the Mac/photo theme rather too literally)...

Glorious sunsets shot through a bedroom window, with the foreground taken up with three trees and some telephone wires...

One yellow flower, with or without bee...

HDR shots taken of well-lit scenes, where the HDR process makes the shot look worse, not better (and that’s 99% of them)...

So what are your irrational prejudices (just a bit of fun... no hate mail, please)?...

acearchie · Dec 29, 2010

Nice idea for a topic! As long as it stays friendly.

I know exactly what you mean with pictures that can be irritating.

Couldn't think of any off the top of my head that you hadn't already mentioned (basic flowers with *insert insect* can be fairly dull!) so I looked through the photo of the day for december and I couldn't see one that I didn't like! I think it must be a good month for photography as normally there are a couple that I just breeze past!

Interesting idea for a topic and I would like to see what other people dislike or think is over-photographed. Equally it might enable us to see topics that people always like to see photos of.

Phrasikleia · Dec 29, 2010

Ah, a chance to flog some demons! Here's what comes to mind for me:

Color photos with black skies.

The ubiquitous shot of the tarted-up girl striking the come-hither, arms-over-the-head pose.

Just as bad: girl on back with legs in the air (she'll invariably be wearing high heels and will often have her arms over her head in addition). UGH.

Shots converted to black-and-white for no good reason.

The ubiquitous subject-less sunset shot.

Anything with selective coloring. Sorry folks; it's been overdone.

RHVC59 · Dec 29, 2010

What comes to mind immediately with me, Large watermarks , I just want the see the image. If one must be used, small and subtle are something I would encourage.

Cliff3 · Dec 29, 2010

Not irrational at all. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that.

HDR and specifically tone mapping is way over done. Most of the compositions are lacking much in the way of dynamic range to begin with, and the tone mapping just gives them an artificial feel.

(With regard to watermarks, I have on occasion found my photos on sites with other people claiming credit for taking them. If I take a truly interesting photo, then I watermark the heck out of it or I don't share it at all.)

El Cabong · Dec 29, 2010

Pretty much anytime the subject is the photog's family/significant other. We get it. You like them. Congratulations. Keep it on Facebook.

Pet pics sometimes fall into this category, but I don't usually find them to be nearly as annoying.

Keleko · Dec 29, 2010

Other people's pictures.

Mostly I'm somewhat turned off by intentionally out of focus lights and nothing else (and I even took one myself once). There has been lots of that during the Christmas season. I've probably seen more on Flickr than here, though. I've learned that if there isn't something in focus, the picture isn't really worth anything.

And, it appears I'm going to have to flood the Picture of the Day thread with pictures of my kids! Actually, I don't mind seeing that myself. To me they're usually just random people anyway. I do try not to make my kids and pets the subject too often.

I'm going to add some positive feelings that I really like seeing beautiful landscapes (and envious of them because there's not much of that here). I also find myself drawn to black and white people images. Many of those really give a sense of timelessness that I like.

Designer Dale · Dec 29, 2010

In no particular order...

Photographers who make excuses for themselves because they are new.
My advice: Join the fray. Post your pics and learn from the comments.
mtbdudex gets five gold stars for growing his talent by posting.

HDR
My advice: Revive the Post your HDR thread. HDR can be cool if done with a light touch and displayed with HDR photos. It can really blare next to properly exposed landscapes.

Super Wide/Fish Eye shots just because someone can.
My Advice: If you really like making stuff look odd, learn HDR. See above.

Large Watermarks
My advice: If you really need to advertise yourself, learn what 10 point type is and where the lower corners are. The top five photographers posting to POTD don't use watermarks at all.
Caveat: Place a copyright in your EXIF data.

Photos of camera gear
My Advice: Use it, please.
Kallisti is excused from this one. His "Fool and his Money" was, um...priceless.

Dale

compuwar · Dec 29, 2010

Doylem said:
One yellow flower, with or without bee...

Ah, here's my frustration- I've got a great shot of a bee on a sunflower, probably 3/4ths of the flower, sunlight glistening on the wings...

When I framed it, it looked like one of those pictures you get when you buy the frame.

Paul

Designer Dale · Dec 29, 2010

compuwar said:
Ah, here's my frustration- I've got a great shot of a bee on a sunflower, probably 3/4ths of the flower, sunlight glistening on the wings...

When I framed it, it looked like one of those pictures you get when you buy the frame.

Paul

^^ My landscapes suffer in the same way. I sent my Mom a framed mountain trail photo. She thanked me for the frame and put a photo of the great grand kids in it...

Dale

MattSepeta · Dec 29, 2010

most of these have been pretty rational, hardly irrational.

my pet peeves-

- snap shots of family members (kids, mostly) clearly taken with a blinding dead-on flash, not even bounced or anything

- snap shots of flowers, plants, anything, with minimal thought of exposure, composition, etc.

- Macro snapshots of household things (I'm a little guilty of this one

)

See these all over POTD thread. I understand that kids are cute, especially yours, and flowers are cool, and macro is neat, etc, but it just gets a bit old.

Compuwar: LOL! I have gotten the "Cool! That could be the picture that comes with a frame!" line a few times too. Don't know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult

pdxflint · Dec 29, 2010

I don't really have a pet peeve or irrational dislike... but perhaps it's more of an indifference to shots that don't seem to have a purpose, or subject... where the poster admits as much, including saying they're not sure why they took it or like it, but felt compelled to post it. My reaction is mostly to shrug, although I will look at many of them to see if I can find something there positive, but failing that... meh. I guess they have as much right to post as I do, and I often hesitate to post myself for the 'fear' of boring people to death.

The thing I've noticed over the months (and years) is that if a certain type of photo doesn't do anything for me, it usually will have a lot of people saying it's absolutely amazing or beautiful.... so I clearly am not the arbiter of good taste on this forum. So... bring 'em all on! That's what it's about, right?

Doylem · Dec 29, 2010

pdxflint said:
The thing I've noticed over the months (and years) is that if a certain type of photo doesn't do anything for me, it usually will have a lot of people saying it's absolutely amazing or beautiful....

I get worried when someone says "Awesome!!!!"... It usually means I cranked up the colour saturation too much...

MattSepeta said:
I understand that kids are cute, especially yours

Yeah, "Wow, that's one funny-looking kid" is a thought best left unsaid...

Edge100 · Dec 29, 2010

1. Piss-yellow skies (often combined with lame cross-processing)
2. Crooked horizons on landscapes (unless the slant is part of the composition)
3. OOF eyes in portraits (seriously...if the eyes are not tack sharp, bin the photo)
4. HDR of overcast days where the total DR in the scene is like 4 stops, max

Watermarks are a personal choice; I have no issue with them, though some are worse than others.

macrumormonger · Dec 29, 2010

"bokeh". How is that a picture?

H2Ockey · Dec 29, 2010

Doylem said:
So which is better... Canon or Nikon?

Saw the thread title and this came to mind right away.

Edge100 said:
2. Crooked horizons on landscapes (unless the slant is part of the composition)

Crooked shots have become an increasing irritant to me. Not sure why but I really get turned off by the entire shot if it is slanted, even a bit.

Doylem · Dec 29, 2010

H2Ockey said:
Crooked shots have become an increasing irritant to me. Not sure why but I really get turned off by the entire shot if it is slanted, even a bit.

Me too, I see the slanted horizon and, no matter how hard I try to appreciate the rest of the pic, my eye keeps going back to it...

fcortese · Dec 29, 2010

Designer Dale said:
^^ My landscapes suffer in the same way. I sent my Mom a framed mountain trail photo. She thanked me for the frame and put a photo of the great grand kids in it...

^^^LMAO. So true!
OK, so no more pix of my grandkids. No real peeves, for the most part I try to look at a picture that is posted and see if I can learn something about what makes the photo interesting or in some cases not-so-interesting to my eye-composition, subject positioning, coloring, etc.There are so many talented people contributing here and even those relatively new have something to offer.

CrackedButter · Dec 29, 2010

This kind of irrationality is here to stay.

Even if tomorrow we all logged online and saw only new types of pictures, we're going to get bored soon enough that another thread like this will be created.

What has happened before, will happen again.

emorydunn · Dec 29, 2010

I'm going to jump on the HDR bandwagon here. Very rarely is HDR done in good taste. I'm really not too concerned with wether the scene needs it or not, but if I need to put my head in a black bag to get the colour out of my eyes you're doing it wrong.

Now, something new: cliché photos passed off with a 'deep' meaning that people eat up. My Artists' Statement BS meeter has been fine tuned during my last few photo classes.

Although this is more of a dislike of the viewer, not the photographer. The fact that during an open critique no one comments saying that the photos are cliché annoys me a bit.

Artful Dodger · Dec 29, 2010

Pet Peeve as others have mentioned… I'll start with myself, not learning quick enough darn it, okay I feel better now… 1) Straighten your photo, really! Not much bothers me but also the once in awhile 2) a photo which is turned at 45º to give an artistic look, thanks I'll look at something else and not your photo so I'll help your artistic side another time. 3) Tilt/Shift, I know it seems cool a few times but it looks like a 1970's model cityscape from when HBO first started and shot there opening movie night intro. 4) I have less than a good back but I wish more people would get photo's of either plants, animals, kids or an object, subject on it's level and not looking like it's from on top of the barn (no disrespect to barns or owners of them

). Pixar studied subjects from their level and lower/underneath and created some great views in Bug's Life so why not in real life? Now see that could be fun until my list ends up on someone else's as a peeve for listing it

It's all good and I'm still learning so this thread does help.

Xander562 · Dec 29, 2010

Watermarks

That's really it. I don't get annoyed by crappy HDRs or cliche's or anything like that. I see them as phases, and every photographer has to work through them. I have some god-awful HDRs that I thought were awesome when I took them. I think everyone needs to take the stereotypical photos to get them out of the way and get to the good stuff.

Watermarks on the other hand, I cannot effing stand! Honestly, you think someone's going to steal your picture of an escalator? Take a moment, step back, and realize you're not God's gift to photography. It ruins the picture anyways! I think it is incredibly pretentious.

H2Ockey · Dec 29, 2010

Xander562 said:
That's really it. I don't get annoyed by crappy HDRs or cliche's or anything like that. I see them as phases, and every photographer has to work through them. I have some god-awful HDRs that I thought were awesome when I took them. I think everyone needs to take the stereotypical photos to get them out of the way and get to the good stuff.

The other day I was reading some things on another photog forum, people wanting to publish their work, and TBH almost all of it was sub-par or just bad. And it got me thinking, most people wouldn't just randomly go buy a Guitar and without any experience start randomly picking at the strings and then start asking how they can get paid gigs. Why does spending a bunch of $$ on a camera suddenly make one think their snapshots are worthy of National Geographic? So many of use are now mostly self taught, like learning guitar by watching youtube videos of others playing a certain song.
HDR would simply be Stairway to Heaven in that analogy I guess.

Ruahrc · Dec 29, 2010

Xander562 said:
Watermarks on the other hand, I cannot effing stand! Honestly, you think someone's going to steal your picture of an escalator? Take a moment, step back, and realize you're not God's gift to photography. It ruins the picture anyways! I think it is incredibly pretentious.

I think it's also a bit naive to think that nobody will steal your photo just because it is not great, or because a copyright is stored in the EXIF (easily removed btw). I agree watermarks can go too far, but if you do it properly it should not interfere with the impact of the image and help protect your work online.

Honestly most watermarks are pretty easily removed as well by an offender if they wanted to.

Ruahrc

Edge100 · Dec 29, 2010

Xander562 said:
Watermarks on the other hand, I cannot effing stand! Honestly, you think someone's going to steal your picture of an escalator? Take a moment, step back, and realize you're not God's gift to photography. It ruins the picture anyways! I think it is incredibly pretentious.

I think it's a personal choice.

For instance, I don't watermark small images that I contribute to these types of forums, which are fairly anonymous (even though my website is right there in my signature) and really just about sharing images.

On the other hand, when I post images to a forum that may be seen by potential clients or that are about posting a body of professional work, I definitely watermark. It's not about image theft; it's about branding. Oh, and any time that full-sized images are available, I watermark (though that's not very common).

Irrational dislikes?

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