authenticity - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

12/01/2008 10:14:28 AM · #1

How often do you feel you are taking pictures you want to take, versus making pictures you've seen before? Do you ever feel you've tapped into something inside and are making pictures that genuinely reflect your own feelings for the subject or scene? Or is a lot of it making images for other people to like, or that you are emulating from other photographers?

That can swing too far the other way too, and just make images that only you could like, but I'm curious about where you typically would find yourself and is it where you want to be?

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

12/01/2008 10:23:40 AM · #2

I shoot for myself 95% of the time, and my low scores generally reflect that. Every once in a while I get lucky and people will like a shot, but it's pretty rare. The only time I ever tried on purpose to copy someone else was for a Deja Vu challenge. But I do photography to make myself happy.

Message edited by author 2008-12-01 10:23:59.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

12/01/2008 10:25:12 AM · #3

As time goes on I find I am taking pictures that I like, and my scores reflect it. On the other hand, my worst shots are often the ones I took for a challenge I was not inspired by. Some of my favorites are also my lowest scoring.

I think eventually I will improve my eye enough that what I like will also do well here. Putting a sunset behind it or water drops on it always helps.

Message edited by author 2008-12-01 10:26:49.

aKiwi

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

12/01/2008 10:55:02 AM · #4

That is difficult to say. It is definitely a mixture.

Recently I was in Prague, and took a bunch of post card photos. Everyone who looks at them says WOW! Great pictures. When I look at them I see a bunch of photos that have been taken before. Not really anything original in them.

In studio shoots, I often look through other peoples images and print out a bunch of ideas that I want to copy. Normally I use it as a starting point and try to add my touch to it. E.g. other lighting, or other poses. I am not original enough to do everything myself. Occasionally I have original ideas. Somehow they look great in my head, but somehow I just can't pull them off how I imagine them.

I guess in this day and age of 1000ds of photos and photo sites it is difficult to say you are doing something unique.

Also sometimes you might think you are doing something unique and original only to find it has been done before. I think my best original idea was the technique I used for this image.

. I developed the technique over a longer period of time starting in 2005. It was of course inspired by other images but not done how I did it. Totally satisfying.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

12/01/2008 10:59:47 AM · #5

I tried to avoid using the words unique or original - to me they have a different tone than authentic does. I'd agree that it is very hard to be unique or original with the images you take. But you can more easily strive towards authenticity, or being true to yourself.

NikonJeb

Nikon D850

12/01/2008 11:34:09 AM · #6

Originally posted by Gordon:

Do you ever feel you've tapped into something inside and are making pictures that genuinely reflect your own feelings for the subject or scene?

I've learned here that I need to make sure there's a part of what I want in every image to remain what I want to be.

posthumous

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

12/01/2008 11:39:47 AM · #7

If it's impossible to know one's self, how does one shoot for it?

It's a trick question. You shoot for yourself in order to seek yourself.

MAK

Leica M Monochrom

Leica 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 Vario Elmar-T ASPH

12/01/2008 11:50:31 AM · #8

I shoot what I like that is why I go from 7.3 to 4.3 .. However I have taken a LIBRODOESQUE shot because I wanted to.

Basically I shoot for ME.

Spork99

OM System OM-1

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

12/01/2008 01:31:08 PM · #9

Originally posted by Gordon:

Hmmm... On the other hand, can you think of any totally original photographs being made today?

Almost every photograph owes some debt to work that has come before, be it a photograph or work in some other media. I'd be willing to bet that even if it's not on a concious level, every photographer who is making photographs is making work that, to some extent, stands on the shoulders of other artwork. It's influence filtered by the impression made, by those works, on the photographer.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

12/01/2008 01:37:04 PM · #10

Originally posted by Spazmo99:

Hmmm... On the other hand, can you think of any totally original photographs being made today?

Almost every photograph owes some debt to work that has come before, be it a photograph or work in some other media. I'd be willing to bet that even if it's not on a conscious level, every photographer who is making photographs is making work that, to some extent, stands on the shoulders of other artwork. It's influence filtered by the impression made, by those works, on the photographer.

Absolutely - that's why I avoided 'original' You could be making completely unoriginal images, that could be totally genuine expressions of your own peculiar take on the world. It's more a question of do you make images that you want to make or do you make images that you think others want to see.

Message edited by author 2008-12-01 13:39:30.

Spork99

OM System OM-1

12/01/2008 02:05:47 PM · #11

Originally posted by Gordon:

Originally posted by Spazmo99:

Hmmm... On the other hand, can you think of any totally original photographs being made today?

Almost every photograph owes some debt to work that has come before, be it a photograph or work in some other media. I'd be willing to bet that even if it's not on a conscious level, every photographer who is making photographs is making work that, to some extent, stands on the shoulders of other artwork. It's influence filtered by the impression made, by those works, on the photographer.

Absolutely - that's why I avoided 'original' You could be making completely unoriginal images, that could be totally genuine expressions of your own peculiar take on the world.

Then, my answer to the original question is absolutely "Yes, I do feel like almost every image is my own expression." I say almost because some images I make in attempts to emulate something I've seen elsewhere. Those techniques/effects/looks are simply another tool to use in my self expression. It's like a painter seeing the work of another painter, then learning the technique in order to apply it in their own interpretation of the world.

You can never make yourself into someone else better than you can just be yourself.

tnun

Ricoh GR III

Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6ED AL [IF] WR DC

12/01/2008 02:33:04 PM · #12

I like

posthumous's response. Possibly the question is more applicable to amateurs: I feel privileged to have the camera and the time to explore. Some of the time I'm just trying to see what the camera can do, and to learn more precisely how it does it; more often just to see what it can show me. If someone were to ask me to take a picture of something for them I would be in a complete miasmic panic - far worse the general lonely void that surrounds my camera ventures. But I do experience some of this panic when submitting for a challenge, and if I could rewrite eternity I would erase a great proportion of my entries.

My kindest take on this taking of images to please others is that it is a sort of learning, but I am not entirely convinced.

NikonJeb

Nikon D850

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

12/01/2008 02:37:49 PM · #13

Originally posted by tnun:

Some of the time I'm just trying to see what the camera can do, and to learn more precisely how it does it; more often just to see what it can show me.

Interesting....

What I want from my camera is for it to assist me in capturing my vision.

In order for it to be truly automatic, the d@mn thing should sense what I'm thinking when I take the shot......8>)

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

12/01/2008 02:41:11 PM · #14

Originally posted by posthumous:

You shoot for yourself in order to seek yourself.

There's always the danger you might shoot yourself in the foot.

posthumous

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

12/01/2008 02:59:59 PM · #15

Originally posted by Gordon:

Originally posted by posthumous:
You shoot for yourself in order to seek yourself.

There's always the danger you might shoot yourself in the foot.

Particularly upsetting if it's in your mouth at the time.

zeuszen

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

12/01/2008 04:41:31 PM · #16

Originally posted by posthumous:

If it's impossible to know one's self, how does one shoot for it?

It's a trick question. You shoot for yourself in order to seek yourself.

There are a few shots I recognize as authentic, as Gordon has it.
These are the ones I remember clearly, that is both the experience of process and the difficulty/serendipity to find my way back to this during post-process.
The way I see it, the authentic shots are precisely those in which I partook, as opposed to those which I consciously chose to take with some sort of preconceived intent.

I'm not sure, if you shoot for yourself in order to seek yourself. I rather think of it as loosing the self until something else, magically and sensibly, takes its place.

Message edited by author 2008-12-01 16:42:01.

12/01/2008 09:44:27 PM · #17

Originally posted by zeuszen:

The way I see it, the authentic shots are precisely those in which I partook, as opposed to those which I consciously chose to take with some sort of preconceived intent.

The interesting part of that is that those would be images that were a response to what was there, rather than some idea you already had in your mind that you were trying to impose. I suspect that's even more difficult when shooting to order, for a given theme.

posthumous

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

12/01/2008 09:55:04 PM · #18

Originally posted by zeuszen:

I'm not sure, if you shoot for yourself in order to seek yourself. I rather think of it as loosing the self until something else, magically and sensibly, takes its place.

That sounds like my idea of negative capability and it afflicts me when I write poetry. But I was trying to play by Gordon's rules. :)