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 10/15/2004 10:32:05 PM · #1

I was just curious, to me there are two types of photographer the technical( Focus, lighting etc) and the artistic (message, emotion etc) i know a lot of people are both but the question is, to you what is more important?
 10/15/2004 10:43:06 PM · #2
oufcourse artistic
you can taka technically perfect photo that is very boring
but you can take artistic photo with impact that has grain, out of focus, or some overexpose and it works great :D
 10/15/2004 10:43:07 PM · #3
The latter for me -- you can tell from my average score : )
 10/15/2004 10:46:26 PM · #4
i know that i was just wondering about other people here because i was starting to think otherwise
10/15/2004 10:46:48 PM · #5
Artistic ofcourse, that might explain my lack of technical expertise ;)
 10/15/2004 11:02:55 PM · #6
Artistic sounds so artsy fartsy, so I'll go with technical.
10/15/2004 11:09:20 PM · #7
I've always been faaaar to the "technical" side. Since joining DPC I have been striving to achieve some of the "eye" that I feel is an absolute necessity to achieve overall excellence. Heida's point is right on target; the technical side alone will not ensure a great, or even good, image. Truly great images are a combination of technical competency and artistic vision.
 10/15/2004 11:12:05 PM · #8
I think most people here (try to) take pictures with a more artistic intent, but they seem to vote on pictures giving more weight to the technical quality.
 10/15/2004 11:13:16 PM · #9
I've been trying to combine both into one happy medium, but with the new camera (OK so I've had the Rebel since April) I'm finding that I really need to work on the technical.

A good example in my work is my Parts entry. My (IMHO) best ever shot from a technical aspect, but didn't score to well. (Which reminds me, I gotta start one of those annoying why didn't this score well threads...)
 10/15/2004 11:14:32 PM · #10
I always try to be artistic and creative and different but usually end up being totally crap... hence my scores...LOL.. oh yeh, its joke of cause, but i feel artistic is the way to go we do of cause need to include certain technique and technical too or every pic would be too dark/too light/ no focus etc.

10/15/2004 11:15:55 PM · #11
OK, keep in mind that I went to art school & engineering school. I can't pick one over the other, the two sides of my brain are equally dominant.
 10/15/2004 11:17:30 PM · #12
thats what i thought because i've seen pictures that really hit me(in that "artsy fartsy" way) but got very low scores.
10/15/2004 11:19:31 PM · #13
A great artistic concept....poorly shot...will not make for a great piece of work...There is a need for proper balance between artistic vision and technical expertise.
 10/15/2004 11:20:08 PM · #14
I think the culture of dpc places a higher priority on celebrating the technical side of photography, which is great in helping me develop the skills I need to take a technically sound photograph.

But I find that I need to balance my dosage of dpc with many other sites or books/magazines which celebrate what I call the 'moment' or 'emotion' of photography. Great photojournalistic images and candid photography are what first seduced me back into photography a few months ago.

When I found this site, I wasn't immediately impressed with any of the top photos because I didn't see any of the emotion that I so loved to see in photographs. They basically looked like advertisements to me, which had never been appealing.

Now, after getting used to this, I credit this site with helping broaden my photographic horizons and introducing me to the highly 'technical' studio-esque side of photography. As for the 'artistic' side, I find that I have to be mentored through other resources.

Message edited by author 2004-10-15 23:21:38.
 10/15/2004 11:26:06 PM · #15
same here i go back and forth between photo.net(artistic) and dpc(technical) all the time. don't get me wrong i love dpc but it drives me crazy sometimes


Message edited by author 2004-10-15 23:27:37.
 10/15/2004 11:29:05 PM · #16
Artistic photography has always been more important to me. I'm the type, however, that has lots of ideas for artistic photos but often doesn't have the technical maturity to properly express them. I hope to learn some more of that here.
 10/15/2004 11:41:35 PM · #17
you can't create something artistically pleasing without understanding the technical aspects behind making it.
A purely artistic photograph is an idea in your head that stays there because you don't know how to work a camera.
 10/15/2004 11:52:53 PM · #18
Originally posted by lousy_beatnik:
you can't create something artistically pleasing without understanding the technical aspects behind making it.
A purely artistic photograph is an idea in your head that stays there because you don't know how to work a camera.


Don't tell that to a "lomographer" :P
 10/16/2004 12:03:03 AM · #19
I'm more tenhnical, and my comments often reflect this. I think most people are more comfortable commenting on technical aspects of a photograph. They don't have to get out of their comfort zone to discuss techniques. It can be uncomfortable to try and convey what we "feel" about a picture no matter if it's positive or negative.
I don't agree with the statement on knowing the technical points before you can take an artistic picture. I have seen some very good pictures where the photgrapher later asks such simple questions such as "what's dof?". They have a good eye for composition and know when to click the shutter to produce a pleasing and sometimes very emotional picture. That's one of the advantages of digital. You don't have to know a lot about how the picture is taken. You just need to know what you want to state with the picture you take.
 10/16/2004 12:09:20 AM · #20
...but pcody, I believe a great photograph is usually a marriage of a 'moment' and the technical skills used to capture it well.
 10/16/2004 01:30:59 AM · #21
I remember reading on John Setzler's website something to the effect of if you think about the images in the past that really moved you, was it the technical value of the shot that you remember or was it the emotional quality of the image? (Including images in news papers, books etc.)

A highly powerfully charged emotional image can survive a higher degree of technical imperfections than a technically correct image can survive a boring or uninteresting subject/composition.

I think the reason that voters often go for the technical aspects is because its a quantifiable area. You know if the focus is soft or if the lighting is too low.

How do you measure or compare the emotional/artistic value of one piece of art compared to another? Its more of an appreciation than a critique when it comes to this aspect of the art.

I believe this is why occasionally a "killer" image will rank high even though there may be lots of arguments about whether or not it meets the challenge. Sometimes the rules get bent or fall a bit by the wayside because the beauty or impact of an image is so strong. You don't often see this happen for an image because it was so technically correct.
10/16/2004 01:37:40 AM · #22
Originally posted by GeneralE:
The latter for me -- you can tell from my average score : )


LOL, same here! I'm only averaging 5.3 something. Not bad but could be a lot better, I think. I see my photos from an artistic view first and I definitely need to work on my skills to communicate what I see in my mind and/or wish to accomplish.
 10/16/2004 01:47:35 AM · #23
I tend to agree with lousy beatnik otherwise you could pass off any technically poor shot as artistic or any boring shot as technically perfect. You can't have one without the other.
Unfortunately, I don't have much of either.
10/16/2004 02:46:31 AM · #24
I'm trying to be artistic, but I'm here to learn more about technical side of it. I use photography to convey emotions and moods, do it for my own pleasure mainly, but no one can ignore techniques.
 10/16/2004 02:48:30 AM · #25
overall the latter for me, i prefer the artsy and the clever
however i find that when it comes to voting an image is considered artsy is highly personal... and the only way we can explain that we arent all that happy with an image is through technical errors because its something that we can both understand...

no two ppl read and watch movies and feel exactly the same and i guess thats where alot of ppl tend to fall through on DPC because they are trying to create something they feel highly passionate about but others dont and dont see the gr8 big idea behind it...

i find that voting as a result is more technical until you get to the top percentile (10-20 etc) of photos because overall they managed to appeal to everyone and as a result generally must have had a bit of both in the right balance...

just my thoughts on it though i hope it helps
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