camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

"For me a snapshot is when you do not put a lot of thought into it."

I could have not said it better.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

All snapshots are photographs. Some people seem to think a photograph has to meet some standard to be a photograph, but there's nothing in any definition of photograph I've seen that says that.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

When I visit my two granddaughters in Pittsburgh I try to take lots of photos. My 19 month granddaughter runs around like a little monkey sometimes and so her photos are planned but since she moves around all the time they end up being snapshots. That does not mean that the thought process of composition and exposure are not there. But it means that the time to get a quality photograph is fleeting at best. Her sister, 10 years old is somewhat easier but doesn't always like having her picture taken. Again, the photograph is thought out but the time of getting the good photo is fleeting as well. I call their photos snapshots because when I was a kid and used and/or my parents used an old Kodak box camera, ALL photographs were snapshots. Nobody we knew took artistic photos.

Times have changed though. These days everyone has a professional STYLE camera. Some people simply have to have a DSLR when their phone, for them, will forever take better photos, again, for them. DSLR's are sold by the hundreds of thousands if not millions to people who will only use it for snapshots. How many times do we see right here on UHH, newbies writing their introductory post saying they have a new DSLR, hope to get better and become a professional photographer. Quite a few I think. Not that we don't have a good number of professionals and photographers that should be professionals. This forum has some fantastic photographers. But I suspect that even those people sometimes take snapshots.

For the original post, might I suggest that the difference between a snapshot and an artful photo is that the artful photo has some thought beforehand of exposure and composition prior to pressing the shutter button while the snapshot is just seeing a scene and pressing the button to get the shot. Both can be satisfying.

Dennis

bbrowner Loc: Chapel Hill, NC

A snapshot is an image created by the action of a mechanical device...aka camera.

A photograph is an image created by the action of a mechanical device...aka camera.

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

This made me think of the that famous line about pornography: I know it when I see it.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

A snapshot and photograph are one and the same, look up the definition if you don't believe me.

aflundi Loc: Albuquerque, NM

This is an interesting question that might be worth continually asking, and perhaps having on-going threads about.

The best answer I've heard so far was a judge a few years ago looking at a picture of a beautiful scene of a Swiss village and grassy hillside sparsely populated with resting and grazing sheep. He suggested to the owner that it was a shame the closest sheep wasn't looking back to the camera. He admitted it was a beautiful scene, but non-the-less, just a snapshot. Anyone could go there and record a similar image. The judge said that to him, what elevates a photograph from a snapshot is a "twist" or something to make it unique.

I'm not quite sure how to quantify uniqueness or twistiness, but there's no question in my mind that some photos have something about them that you can instantly see and make you want to look at it, and others, that might even be very similar, just do nothing to grab the eye or viewer's attention. It might be multiple things happening simultaneously -- like characters interacting in an unusual way, or an interesting spread or color of light on a beautiful landscape. Or it might be something funny or ironic happening in the frame.

I heard another judge who owned a gallery suggest that the only thing that mattered to him anymore was "impact." He noted that technical excellence and composition had almost nothing to do with what people bought. The thing that sold almost all his pictures was impact. I'm not any more sure how to set something up for impact in advance as opposed to realizing it in the final image, but I might ask the question of whether it's impact that separates snapshots from something better.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Snap shots come from whipper snappers.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

People who boast or post SOOC images. are posting snapshots. People who spend time processing the image and producing a vision of what they saw or felt while making the exposure are making photographs. I guess when those photographs are printed, framed, and displayed, they become art.

As Ansel Adams stated, "The negative is the score. The print is the performance".
--Bob

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

SkyKing Loc: Thompson Ridge, NY

....I’m back in...all snapshots are photographs but not all photographs are snapshots...

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

I just call them all visual recordings. Truth be known I am happier with what most probably call snapshots. Going over some old photographs I sometimes learn more from what is in the background than what the main subject is.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

For many of us who take photographs there are years of training behind those photographs. Even when we don't give it a thought when we hit the shutter or back-button all of those years go into the resultant image. Our brain quickly processes all of the art training we have, all of the technical training we have, and our thoughts and goals as we take that specific shot. Sometimes we can even see the image as we want it to be in the end. The resultant image is generally one that is well-thought out, has a purpose, and meets a goal that we, the photographer, have set. Even when we, as trained photographers, take a snapshot image (an image that we take to remember a place or person by or a specific event by) it would most likely be somewhat better than than one taken by most untrained photographers (no trees coming out of heads or feet cut off). A trained photographer looks at the image edges, at the colors, at the light, at the art element placement, at the message of the subject, thinks about the f/stop and the shutter speed to produce a specific effect. The end goal for this type of photographer is generally a work of art, which we may, or may not, reach. But, we most often continue to aspire to being a better photographer, the best photographer we can be, and to create art. How long you have been taking photographs and creating images has nothing to do with your ability to create an artistic image in the end. Many photographers that I know are, 20 years later, still creating the same type of image that they created in the first six months as they were learning. Art and snapshots are very different types of photography, but both are important in their own way and there is no shame in taking a snapshot for your personal use. However, I would not recommend that anyone put a snapshot quality photo into a serious photography competition. Keep them close to your heart and treasure them for what they are.

crapshooter Loc: Fox, Alaska

I like Crap Shots