Chicago Sun-Times Fires Photo Staff, Will Train Reporters to Use iPhones For Photos

[S.B.G]

Geez, photographers are so full of themselves. People who read newspapers don't give a crap what the photos look like. Nobody cares about your "art".

How can you make a broad statement like that? Are you the spokesman for every human?

Professional photographers are serious people with a serious work. There are plenty of people who admire their work, even if for a newspaper.

Now if you want to speak for yourself, that's fine as it's your opinion. But to make a sweeping, all-encompassing statement such as you did, that's a disservice to everyone because it isn't, cannot, be true.

 

[iGrip]

You're never more than a few feet away from the story so no need to splurge on the iphone telephoto lens. Idiots.

Why do they need reporters? they should just have citizens write the stories and use iChat to submit them!

/s

 

[jakebot]

This seems impossible if you don't have a zoom lens. Guess digital zoom will have to do lol.

 

[iGrip]

Also, there are TONS of camera lens accessories for the iPhone and they produce DSLR (if not BETTER than DSLR) quality.

That's quite a bold claim. It is very very hard to believe that.

Got any proof?

Like 1:1 comparison shots? Reviews by any trusted photography reviewers? Anything at all that might be credible?

 

[iMacian]

The first guy who should have gotten the axe is Mr. "Apple is boring and Samsung is innovative" Andy Ihnatko.

He has turned into an insufferable bloke over the last year or so.

 

[needfx]

That's quite a bold claim. It is very very hard to believe that.

Got any proof?

Like 1:1 comparison shots? Reviews by any trusted photography reviewers? Anything at all that might be credible?

dlharris382 is absolutely right

I don't need my dslr body anymore, nor my expensive lenses.
I'll just use the tiny lens with it's tiny sensor on a darn iphone

 

[nStyle]

An iPhone won't replace professional photography equipment... but reporting photography? Why not? The quality is definitely good enough for a newspaper. The pictures cover at most half a page, which may be about 10 x 6 inches... It's not like they are printing huge.

 

[Kissaragi]

So I presume this paper will no longer be covering sporting events or any news that happens indoors under bad lighting conditions?

As long as they stick to stories that move slowly out in bright daylight, less than 10 feet away from the camera it will be fine.

 

[Terrin]

Sounds more like they are cutting costs.

I assume they pay for the iphones already, so double duty for those guys. Why pay for another group who's only job is to take photos.

Side comment: If this takes off and other papers adopt this policy what will Peter Parker do for a job?

I would have instead fired the reporters and had the photographers do double duty.

 

[otismotive77]

If this is so "idiotic," the Sun-Times will regret the decision, and lose tons of money. We'll see just how idiotic it ends up being.

hahaha...agreed. smartphones dont have a true camera, they are only used for some casual photos, the true camera is a DSLR that's why every magazine and newspaper use them. chicago sun-times are gonna go down if they keep on doing this.

 

[NomadicTy]

Speed. That's probably the most important thing that any point and shoot, including the iPhone, does not have over DSLR. I'm not talking just about shots per second, but the ability to focus quickly, as well as take the shoot at a shutter speed that it takes to capture a fleeting moment. It's all about the amount of light that can be put on the sensor. Physics make dslr's win this one.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Wow. Stupidity has a new definition: (n) The Chicago Sun-Times.

 

[HiRez]

Hey, why not just have the guys who sweep the floors write the articles while you're at it? They can probably run the printing presses and do IT for the website too.

 

[amack]

I dont know why the Suntimes needs photographers anyway, have you seen their website? They have a whole page devoted to murder - "homocide watch". So most of their photographs come the police mugshots - which actually look like they were taken with an iPhone

That Chicago is a scary place.

 

[Robb Montgomery]

What was lost . . .

To see what was lost by this action:

http://j.mp/sun-times-photos

 

[beaniemyman]

i can't believe they are doing this, this will definitely make their sales decline.

 

[hleewell]

You can fire a few to cut costs but to shut down the whole department is an over-reaction. The best, award-worthy & artistic images are taken by freelancers and amateurs who get paid for their work, you know like Peter Parker

 

[maestrokev]

Breaking news ... Chicago Firefighters are being let go as news reporters are being issued fire extinguishers

 

[Will do good]

Photographers are pissed! lol

Gotta embrace the tech fellas. Reminds me of how audio engineers hated the move from analog to digital and then talked down about mp3's.

It's a new world we live in. Roll with it or get rolled over.

Embrace new technology, do you understand photography at all? How the hell they are going to shoot sports and capture the action, speed and from a distant? Is everything going to be a master shot? How about Maybe your job get replace as easy and you'll understand "Gotta embrace the tech fellas"

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Geez, photographers are so full of themselves. People who read newspapers don't give a crap what the photos look like. Nobody cares about your "art". iPhone pictures are more than good enough for most things. If I want to experience art, I'll go to a museum, not look in a newspaper.

Face it. As these small cameras get better and better, the need for an expensive SLR, and a dedicated person to operate it, goes down and down.

You have no taste do you? Why watch Hollywood films when there's youtube, why drive a BMW when there's a Yugo. It's people like you who think go enough is good enough that's killing quality. BTW, why are you in a MacRumor site? Should you use and buy cheap plastic toys for your phone, computers?

 

[blitzer09x87]

used to read their articles because of the high quality photos, looks like i'll have to switch to another website.

 

[charlituna]

It's that way now but it wasn't always that way. Also, even if the photos that ultimately end up in the newspaper aren't the most artistic, quite often the photographer takes many more on the scene and it's one of those that you see in a museum later.

With no staff of press photographers you have fewer pro photographers at these important events.

Can't really say that. They won't be there affiliated with a newspaper, certainty not this one. But there are other papers, etc. or they can start their own.

 

[threesixty360]

is this story blown out of proportion?

I can see that everyone has jumped on the iphone angle which admittidely sexes up the whole thing, but is this really whats happening?

You can buy a Sony Nex, Panasonic GX-1 or Olympus Pen micro four thirds camera, set it on auto and take amazing pictures without even trying nowadays. Surely it is more economical to send 1 reporter to a story who can take great high quality pictures with those type of camera's rather than 2 people?

The iphone cant do low light photography very well and cant zoom and cant be blown up a huge amount so I think its a red herring. You can only take quality pics on phones if you have great light. Thats something that you just dont have most of the time hence real SLR's.

But these compact camera's dont need a full time photographer to do the job. The way the newspaper is thinking is if bloggers can writes stories and use these cameras then why cant their writers?

Just like lots of artistry alot of the things that made it so special was how technical it was to achieve a basic thing. It was a big deal to shoot a decent picture in 1971, and then get it processed. Now I can shoot 100's of shots with perfect clarity, fix them in snap seed or pixelmator and print them on my own at home. No messy chemicals, no big deal. Thats how it is right now. Everyone just has to deal with reality.

 

[PureEntropy]

Changing Times

It's an interesting story for sure and it makes a good headline... but the simple justification might be that the Chicago Sun-Times decided that their photo staff weren't getting pictures worth their payroll. For every important, well taken photo which appears in the paper, there have to be dozens of mundane ones that an iPhone could capture just as well.

Maybe the paper realized that they were using freelancers for the vast majority of their sensational photos anyway and that their photography staff were little more than glorified point and shoot photographers.

 

[Droid13]

http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2011-Local-Reporting

Reading through the comments I felt I had to link to the Pulitzer Prize the CST won in 2011 for their combination of professional photography and story writing. It's worth looking around the site at other examples by other news firms. Having the right people to do the job makes a huge difference.

As to laying off the entire photography staff, I feel it's a bad idea but not a surprising one given recent trends in the quality of media (and consumer expectations) in general over the last two decades.

I'm a keen amateur photographer and I am more than a little familiar with the controls on my D300. I wouldn't attempt to cover a friend's wedding, never mind a sports event or breaking news - I couldn't guarantee a result. A professional could. And they'll be doing it with the best equipment for the scenario (which might be a camera phone, or might be a DSLR and 1400mm telephoto).

 

[snberk103]

I suspect a fair number of those 28 photographers are simply going to go freelance. The CS-T is still going to need photos that only pros can take. Basically, it seems that the CS-T has 'outsourced' the photo department to 3rd party contractors. While I may not agree with the decision, I can sorta see the logic - paying a bunch of senior staff whether or not news is happening can get expensive. You really only need the really good stuff for major stories.

I predict a couple of more things. A couple of reporters are going to get nailed for stealing photos to illustrate their story. They will be desperate to get a photo for their story, and won't have the time and/or skill to take a good photo if the conditions are challenging. I believe that 90% of the time they will get competent shots (not great - but most newspaper photos are merely competent in any case, regardless of who took them. Yes, I do know what I'm talking about). However, it is that 10% of the really compelling stories that we expect really compelling photos. A reporter with a compelling front page story, but without a photo to anchor it is going to be very tempted.

Some of those 28 staffers are going to go competing outlets, who are going to make sure that any award winning photos are splashed everywhere, noting that this photo was not in the CS-T - though it could have been.

Some of those 28 staffers are going to go freelance, and will be able to sell their photos to CS-T's competition as well as the CS-T. See point above.

Some of the 28 staffers are simply going to retire, and will make fun of their former colleagues stress levels... before buying them a beer.

I'm more interested in how many photo editors they laid off. That may have a much larger effect on the quality of the photos.