radiomantom Loc: Plymouth Indiana

I certainly have to agree on the amount of ridiculously oversharpened images that I see posted. I can't say from where these are from actually, but when I read comments as to "what a great image", "beautiful job of post processing ect." I am in awe. These photos entered into a juried photo competition would be rejected without giving them a second thought. It is a shame however because many of them are actually outstanding images.

no12mo

jeffhendy Loc: El Dorado Hills, CA

As a former Brit (from Southampton!) who has lived in the US since 1970 (in Texas and California), and have also lived and worked for extended periods in France and Japan, I have to say that while every country is different from the other and that within countries there are major differences, it's hard to say that one is better than the other. They all have good points and not so good points, and the trick is to find the balance that suits oneself. Since I have spent more than half my life as an American, you can tell what suits me.
To each his own, including Photoshop!

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Everyone views their 'Kodak Moment' from a different perspective (and to each his/her own)!

As for "two nations separated by a common language", considering I had a hard time understanding the various dialects of 'English' spoken in the UK I'm not too sure this even applies (and this coming from a Canadian perspective)!?

bwa

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I’m in NC and agree with your observations. Too many “pros” deliver over-cooked images.

I used to work for a pro portrait lab. Our aim was neutral color balance, clothing, and skin tone renditions. It had to be — our clients and retail photographers did school portraits of every skin color, hair color, and clothing color imaginable.

Stylized portraits are one thing, but when every image is off-color, over-saturated, or fill-flashed to death, it distracts from the subject.

Most customers want simulated reality, not a garish mess.

Tinkwmobile

I rarely comment on pictures posted here because so many of them are art renditions of a real scene, losing the meaning of photography, IMO. I do some changes in post processing, but try real hard not to let the picture look unnatural. I see the same thing in photos posted in our local camera club. Scenes I am very familiar with don't look real.
I don't have a clue why, just glad to know that others might feel the same way. Not about to try and solve something about taste. I will just avoid posting pictures, it's easier that way. I don't really care if anyone likes the photos I take, it's just taste.
Have a great week.

Bill P

[quote=dave.m]
And for this thread, the rhetorical question: is wedding photography reporting, documentary or fine art? !!

and the answer is plain> It's whatever you want it to be. When i was (regrettably) married, there was no photographer, and I'm not a bit sorry. I have seen some that qualified as reporting or documentary (sery much the same thing given the subject) and a very few that were artistic. But there are a lot that qualify as artistic if you call Thomas Kindaide artistic.

Bill_de Loc: US

But posting your pictures might show some folks a way to improve their photography. Hiding them because you thing somebody might not like them seems childish. Why belong to a group just to look at pictures that portray a different view than your own?

--

Bill P

P-J, I generally agree with you that many photos here are way way over photoshopped. but i will agree to this, I'll let your photos be what they are if you don't expect me to love your food.

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

Your restoration work is very impressive--and I suspect much appreciated by your clients.

davidf_logan Loc: Logan, Utah

This is interesting but could you supply some examples. Something to take into account is the difference in light between the UK and the USA. I am not disagreeing with you but would like to see examples (I am from the UK but now live in the Western USA where the light is so different).

Great post btw!

davidf_logan Loc: Logan, Utah

Southampton beat Leicester yesterday so congrats. I also am from the UK but have lived in the USA since 1980. Agree with your comments.

Acountry330 Loc: Dothan,Ala USA

Amazing words of description . Is any one going to show a visual difference? Happy Shooting.

gessman Loc: Colorado

First, I will acquiesce to your contention that we have some folks who just cannot saturate, sharpen, and add enough contrast to their shots to suit them but I will also suggest to you that those people are in the minority overall and that you may not appreciate the full diversity of how our natural assets appear under all kinds of light whereas much of the UK stays in a perpetual state of dullness, a kind of beauty unto itself. The UK is a beautiful place with a unique beauty of its own as does the U. S. Beyond that, I have a couple of observations that may differ from our fellow uhh members. I mostly shoot wildlife and nature and try to do my best to ultimately represent what I see when I snap one off but having spent three years in UK, I can tell you that until that yellowish sulphur ladened coal smoke shroud that hovers over your country, settling on everything below it, clears from your atmosphere ceasing to create the overcast sky and dull appearance of everything on the ground a bulk of the time or until you have extensively visited most areas of the U.S. and had an opportunity to observe how things look in all different manners of light, you will probably continue to have little understanding of the differences in the way being out in nature is here as opposed to there. You cannot sit there in UK and understand the diversity of scenery we have here in all manner of lighting situations. If you have not traveled the U. S. at different times and observed what's here you don't have a clue how an image should appear in even the most usual light, let alone in special lighting situations. You have unique scenery and lighting situations there just as we do here but mostly you do not have anything close to the diversity of scenery and lighting scenarios that we do here. It's different, all good, so leave it be.

The age of most things there and building materials used, the buildings, for example, makes them inherently antiquated appearing and often dull in contrast to many of the newer buildings you find here, as well as your collective manner of dress, the colors you use to paint many things, a lot of which is expected to absorb rather than deflect heat which may be attributed to some of the differences in our way of life more so than what we do as photographers, not to say that we don't generally lean more to the flamboyant, bright, colorful, UPBEAT, if I may, creations within our environment. Our minority cultures enjoy bright colors and much of that has found its way into our mainstream blended manmade cultural appearance and it's probably here to stay.

As for you preserving the English language as it was intended to be, surprise, surprise - language, like most other things in our environment is subject to morph and you change with it or you get stamped with the word "archaic." It's your choice but unlike some of my U. S. compadres here, I've lived and blended into your way of life as well as mine and the differences aren't just imaginative - they are very real.

Now, one thing you always have to bear in mind is that we are derived from that lousy lot of misfits, religious freaks, and convicts you dumped over here in order to make your more perfect land devoid of ignorance and stupidity, or so you thought. Well, we haven't changed much in a lot of ways and probably won't so perhaps if you want to understand us better, you should come over, join in, spend a few years traveling over here and be prepared to see things beyond your imagination. Many of your fellow countrymen want to be all but invisible and often with good reason. Many from the U. S. choose to be just the opposite. It happens. We are much more culturally diverse than you which probably explains a lot.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Just curious, do you have all the sliders in your camera set to neutral?