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04/07/2005 11:56:14 AM · #1 |
Hello all!
I would be very interested in definitions for the following terms:
Snapshot
Candid
Portrait
I've read the words used here alot to define an image (I am leaving out digital art because that has been discussed elsewhere).
When does a 'snapshot' become a candid? When does a 'snapshot' become a portrait? What differentiates a snapshot from a photograph?
Is it cropping? Composition? Pre-work or effort? Post-work or effort?
I honestly just want a better understanding of how these terms are used here and what defines different types of images.
Thanks in advance for any response!
dahkota
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04/07/2005 12:03:59 PM · #2 |
| I'm afraid you won't find definitions, only opinions : ) |
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04/07/2005 12:08:20 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
I'm afraid you won't find definitions, only opinions : ) |
Eh, you spoke too soon ;)
Main Entry: can•did
Pronunciation: 'kan-d&d
Function: adjective
Etymology: French & Latin; French candide, from Latin candidus bright, white, from candEre to shine, glow; akin to Welsh can white, Sanskrit candati it shines
1 : WHITE
2 : free from bias, prejudice, or malice : FAIR
3 a : marked by honest sincere expression b : indicating or suggesting sincere honesty and absence of deception c : disposed to criticize severely : BLUNT
4 : relating to photography of subjects acting naturally or spontaneously without being posed
synonym see FRANK
- can•did•ly adverb
- can•did•ness noun
Main Entry: snap•shot
Pronunciation: 'snap-"shät
Function: noun
1 : a casual photograph made typically by an amateur with a small handheld camera
2 : an impression or view of something brief or transitory
Main Entry: por•trait
Pronunciation: 'pOr-tr&t, 'por-, -"trAt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from past participle of portraire
1 : PICTURE; especially : a pictorial representation (as a painting) of a person usually showing the face
2 : a sculptured figure : BUST, STATUE
3 : a graphic portrayal in words
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04/07/2005 12:11:28 PM · #4 |
| Those are the opinions of your chosen lexicographer ... I don't think they provide that useful an answer the implied question of "what is considered a ____ at DPC?" But if it does, great! It would likely be a first around here ... : ) |
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04/07/2005 12:15:31 PM · #5 |
Oh, boy.... Good luck in your quest for any sort of general agreement on these terms...
I can tell you roughly how I feel, for what it's worth. Snapshots can be anything, of course, not just pictures of people, but restricting it to photographs of people, it would go something like this;
1. A "portrait" is done with the awareness of the person be portrayed and their active participation in the result. In other words, a portrait is "posed" to achieve a desired portrayal.
2. A "candid" is done without the awareness of the person portrayed, and strictly speaking should communicate something of the essence or quality of that person through the immediacy or "emotional" weight of the moment captured.
3. A "snapshot" by definition is a shot "snapped", as it were, which implies haste or lack of forethought. Many, but not all, candids are snapshots. It is possible to set up for a candid and wait for the moment to present itself, and this would not be a snapshot.
4. In DPC-speak "snapshot" is a vaguely perjorative term applied to any image that appears to have been made with little or no attention paid to aesthetics or technical issues.
5. By extension, an image can begin life as a "snapshot", an image captured on the fly, and end up as anything but when the the photographer recognizes some unique value to the image and brings this out with careful cropping and other post-processing, at which point the image ceases to be "accidental" and becomes "intentional". Cartier-Bresson, for example, turned snapshots into enduring, even iconic, images. Ansel Adams, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of snapshots.
I am sure there will be a lot of disagreement with me on this, and that's fine :-)
Robt.
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04/07/2005 12:21:05 PM · #6 |
As stated b4, this is just an opinion, but personally I find the term "snapshot" offensive when directed toward a shot that I put an effort into. It sounds kind of amaturish... and though not professional, I would like to think that I am not an amateur either.
As far as portrait and candid... portrait seems to me that it is a staged single subject photo, and candid is taken without (or seemingly without) the knowledge of the subject.
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04/07/2005 12:24:11 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Those are the opinions of your chosen lexicographer ... I don't think they provide that useful an answer the implied question of "what is considered a ____ at DPC?" But if it does, great! It would likely be a first around here ... : ) |
Dang. Okay, got me there too ahah. Now, I don't particularly agree with these definitions, but I wanted to be a smartass. |
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04/07/2005 12:31:37 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Those are the opinions of your chosen lexicographer ... I don't think they provide that useful an answer the implied question of "what is considered a ____ at DPC?" But if it does, great! It would likely be a first around here ... : ) |
Off topic, I know, but how often do you get to use the word "lexicographer"?! Well done! You should be proud! ;") |
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04/07/2005 12:38:02 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by mischff:
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Those are the opinions of your chosen lexicographer ... I don't think they provide that useful an answer the implied question of "what is considered a ____ at DPC?" But if it does, great! It would likely be a first around here ... : ) |
Off topic, I know, but how often do you get to use the word "lexicographer"?! Well done! You should be proud! ;") |
I agree! I've never ever used that word in my life. At least now I know HOW to use it...if the need arises.
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04/07/2005 12:44:46 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by mischff:
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Those are the opinions of your chosen lexicographer ... I don't think they provide that useful an answer the implied question of "what is considered a ____ at DPC?" But if it does, great! It would likely be a first around here ... : ) |
Off topic, I know, but how often do you get to use the word "lexicographer"?! Well done! You should be proud! ;") |
Actually, I use it fairly frequently ... : )
Probably my favorite citation:
LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written his dictionary, comes to be considered "as one having authority," whereas his function is only to make a record, not to give a law. The natural servility of the human understanding having invested him with judicial power, surrenders its right of reason and submits itself to a chronicle as if it were a statue. Let the dictionary (for example) mark a good word as "obsolete" or "obsolescent" and few men thereafter venture to use it, whatever their need of it and however desirable its restoration to favor -- whereby the process of improverishment is accelerated and speech decays. On the contrary, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense, has no following and is tartly reminded that "it isn't in the dictionary" -- although down to the time of the first lexicographer (Heaven forgive him!) no author ever had used a word that _was_ in the dictionary. In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; when from the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their own meaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakespeare and a Bacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one end and slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardy preservation -- sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion -- the lexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation which his Creator had not created him to create.
God said: "Let Spirit perish into Form,"
And lexicographers arose, a swarm!
Thought fled and left her clothing, which they took,
And catalogued each garment in a book.
Now, from her leafy covert when she cries:
"Give me my clothes and I'll return," they rise
And scan the list, and say without compassion:
"Excuse us -- they are mostly out of fashion."
Sigismund Smith
--Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary |
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04/07/2005 01:24:34 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by mischff:
As stated b4, this is just an opinion, but personally I find the term "snapshot" offensive when directed toward a shot that I put an effort into. It sounds kind of amaturish... and though not professional, I would like to think that I am not an amateur either.
As far as portrait and candid... portrait seems to me that it is a staged single subject photo, and candid is taken without (or seemingly without) the knowledge of the subject.
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You hear the term "snapshot" used alot by people on this site who seem very much like snobs. ("Ouuuw, it's just a snap shot" or "I won't lower myself to submit a photo to the "pets" challenge, after all, only people who take snapshots will be submitting to that. Those gastly animals never hold a proper pose." Well, the "Pets" challenge was alot of fun and the "better-than-thou" crowd who wouldn't lower themselves to participate in this challenge missed out! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! :) |
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04/07/2005 01:56:17 PM · #12 |
Plenty of formal portraits in Pet challenge, including my entry...
Robt.
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04/08/2005 12:42:04 AM · #13 |
| I stand firmly against snobs! Here here! ;") |
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04/08/2005 12:53:35 AM · #14 |
Originally posted by dahkota:
Hello all!
I would be very interested in definitions for the following terms:
Snapshot
Candid
Portrait
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I would like to take a stab at these before I read the rest of the thread...
Snapshot:
A photograph that is made without consideration of composition or any other rule/guideline of good photographic technique. A snapshot may have good composition and technique, but it was accidental rather than intentional. Snapshots are made by all levels of photographers, not just beginners.
Candid:
Candid photos generally are photos of a person or group of people that are made without the subject(s) 'posing' for the shots. The photos are made while the subject(s) are going about their normal business. The subject isn't necessarily 'unaware' they are being photographed, but the resulting photo won't normally show a posed feel. Some candids, may look posed even when they are not. In these cases, the photographer will be the only one who knows that its a true candid.
Portrait:
A portrait is generally a photograph of a person or group of people where the subject(s) are carefully posed and lit (if in a studio) for the purpose of a photograph. The differentiation between a candid and a portrait is that the subject is posing and the photo will appear to be posed. In a case where a subject is posing and the photo doesn't appear to be posed, the photographers will be the only one who knows its a true candid. |
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04/08/2005 12:56:52 AM · #15 |
Well you and I are pretty much in alignment, setzler...
Robt.
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04/08/2005 01:03:39 AM · #16 |
Snapshot - bad, avoid like the plague, do not submit them to challenges
Candid - has the potential to be really good or really bad. should be black and white or toned for more impact and present and interesting scene, and should not feel staged.
Portrait - You know you've got a winner if your model wears a veil and has green eyes. Otherwise go for the all clothes off approach. If these first two fail get them to sit in a 'studio' with a one colored backdrop, a couple of lights, umbrellas to deflect light everywhich way and a really expensive camera on a tripod.
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04/08/2005 02:31:44 AM · #17 |
Here are a few glossaries I have found (in no particular order):
DP Review
Windows Digital Photography
Kodak
DUMC Media Guide
MIR
About.com
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04/08/2005 05:24:46 AM · #18 |
Robt. - Very well done on the definitions.
Except for that middle part. Just kidding.
Very tough territory handled very well.
Cheers! |
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04/08/2005 05:48:04 AM · #19 |
Wow.
Thanks everyone. I think I got the gist.
The dividing line between portrait and candid is that the portrait SUBJECT is posed and a candid subject is not. However, a portrait session may result in some candids that are better than the portraits because the person may have stopped posing long enough to get in a good SNAPSHOT. And, those candids may have been snapshots but, because either the photographer managed to compose well or crop well, becomes a candid.
Hmmmm....
So, the essense is that, to avoid "snapshot" looking pictures, either compose well or crop well.
With that in mind, I believe most (but not all) of the pets portraits are candids rather than portraits. Some of them are amazing.
And I believe that in the Extreme Action challenge, you will see mostly candids or snapshots if people are involved, yes?
Anyway, This question actually started because I have been reading a lot about Paul Fusco in order to get a better understanding of taking images of people. Some of his most famous prints he referred to as snapshots. After reading in the forums about how bad some people regarded snapshots, I wanted to get a reality check.
He used amazing amounts of Dodge and Burn BTW.
Again, thank you all for your help!
d
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