Ten Silly Myths of Photography That Deserve to Be Forgotten. Soon.
They may be your truths, but they are absolutely worthless to me.
I love photography. I have been a photographer for over 55 years and am out making photographs today.
But because I have been in the world of professional photography for so long, I have become bored and, frankly, a bit pissed off that the same tired garbage that has been going around since the day I picked up a camera is still out there circulating like waste material in a porcelain bowl.
Some on this list are new, though, and they have to be examined in the same cold, harsh light that we use for the ancient and decrepit creative inhibitors we have been suffering under for decades.
Shooting on Manual makes you special.
Aww… geezzz. Give us a break here. Since the Nikon F3, cameras have had sophisticated metering and excellent automatic features. And they have become better every year. (That’s every 9 weeks in Sony lives.)
I learned a long time ago that you use the appropriate tool for the appropriate result. If auto gives it to you, fine. You don’t owe anyone an apology for shooting the camera using all of the tech it has to give you. And if it doesn’t deliver the result you wanted, I believe you are smart enough to change the settings to get what you want.
There are absolutely no prizes given out for shooting in manual. And nobody but wannabes on the internet cares.
Rule of Thirds Rule.
Yeah. Unfortunately, this one has been around for quite some time.
Composition is not so simply explained. It shouldn’t be that one-dimensional. When you struggle to fit your image into that so-called ‘rule’ you miss the entire point of the process.
Make the viewer feel something, see something, and be intrigued by the photograph. Lots of great photographers have made photos that were not ‘rule-of-third’ centric.
Compositional approaches include figure-ground, negative space, isolated subjects, high or low contrast, and other approaches to making images that connect emotionally to the viewer.
And, really, do you want to compose all of your images according to a formula developed for beginning painters back in the 1700s?
The fibonacci-motoguzzi spiral
Give it a rest. You can take that thing and put it over nearly every photograph made. It’s a fun subject to study and talk about. But so are aliens who built the Pyramids, and whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza. (Spoiler: no, no it doesn’t.)
Too many people spend too much time trying to figure out how to apply it before they make the image. Here’s the secret… if the composition looks good, feels good, and seems right to you, click the shutter. You can drop that spiral thingy in later and be gratified that it fits.
It probably will, but if the image works, does it really matter?
But remember, throughout history, we rarely remember the rule-followers; we celebrate those who broke them with style and panache.
Full Frame matters.
No. No, it doesn’t.
Maybe it once did, but that was a while ago. Now what matters is the image. And in a world of mostly digital use, almost any camera format will work if it fits the aesthetic of the photographer.
Whether it is a small sensor or a behemoth of pixel-gathering goodness, nothing matters but the image.
Pixel peepers are becoming the humorless scolds of the ancients, proclaiming science supreme over the desires of the great unwashed to simply enjoy the photographs before them.
You shot it on film so it’s great.
Everyone’s favorite Youtube fantasy. “Walk with me and my giant-ass old Mamiya while I take boring and bland photographs on Ektar 100 so you can see how amazing making bland and boring photographs (on Ektar) are from a camera weighing 300 pounds!”
And you would be disappointed if that were the only criteria. Of course, wonderful photographs are made on old film cameras. I love and shoot them as well. But the expectation that simply making it on film makes it something… more… more interesting or artier, or simply ‘more’, is silly and demonstrably not true. (It is more expensive — ed.)
Everybody wants to see your photographs
Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Bucky. Here’s an experiment for ya. Stop posting for a month. Let me know how many emails you got from all of those ‘fans’ and followers wondering why you stopped dishing those perfectly made images up on the interwebs.
You may be surprised. Truth is that the noise of the bazillion photos uploaded is far too loud to hear your little pizzicato notes in the overwhelming din.
I am not saying to stop sharing, only that it is something you do for yourself. And that’s fine. Just be aware of that fact.
Using natural light means you are afraid of flash
Actually, I think it means that the photographer prefers natural light. There is no inherent excellence in the use of flash.
Believing you have accomplished something akin to the moon landing because you can fire up a Godox on the beach for some fill on Gloria as she romps in the waves in high heels and caution tape may not be the actual truth. It’s not that hard to do, ya know.
And it should be a choice based on the aesthetic of the photographer and not on the assumptions of people who are not actually making that photographer’s images.
The opinions of strangers on the internet are important
Well, this one is sort of correct. If there is one thing we need more of it’s Morty from Indiana telling us how to make better images, although all Morty does is take kitty snapshots, bad ‘glamour’ photos when he can talk the downstairs neighbor into posing for a couple of bucks, and rant incessantly online.
Oh, wait. We really don’t. Opinions of people not vested or engaged with your work are as valuable as extra toilet paper on the Titanic.
Everyone is dying to know when you change camera systems.
Well, see… here’s the thing. We don’t really care. We are sometimes fascinated by watching them clear the highway after an 18-wheeler careened off the ramp and plowed into an empty donut shop, but only in a very weird way and is soon forgotten.
If you are announcing your next camera switch from this kit to that kit, perhaps it has nothing to do with the kit. If you want to let everyone know that it is the camera while writing about how it's not about the camera, then forge on, my fuzzy-thinking friend.
Just know that very few people care. At all.
AI is going to kill photography
Really? Is that the reason you are a photographer now? Because there wasn’t any AI when you started? You woke up one day and said, “I love to make photographs because AI doesn’t exist yet, but when it does, I’m out”.
AI will be AI and photography will be photography. I am not a fan of AI-created output. Looks mostly generic, sci-fi, and boring to me, but maybe that will change. But that has absolutely nothing to do with me.
I do not care what you do to make art, or that guy over there, or even that cold, wet girl over there shivering in the heels and caution tape. I make my work, you make yours, and they make theirs.
The market will decide, not some tech weenies who have dollar signs burned into their retinas like the Anthem of Stupid.
(Bonus) Nobody cares how much you have invested in being a photographer.
Damn! I get tired of seeing that meme that goes up on social media sounding sort of like this: “The reason professional photography costs so much is because I had to buy really expensive lights and cameras and I spent a lot of time learning how to use them."
Umm… do you ever ask how much a pizza oven set Papa Fibonacci back when ordering a gorgeous Hawaiian Pizza (hold the pineapple, add sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, and olives)?
Of course not.
It’s because you don’t care. They just want a pizza that is priced at what they value a pizza to be.
NO ONE CARES about your personal decision to become a photographer or how much you spent to do so. They just want a good photograph that they feel is worth what you are charging. (Actually, if you are whining about how hard it has been to do something like make art, you may not be cut out for all the pain coming your way.)
Photography is a skill, an art, a pastime, a passion, a therapeutic activity, and for me, a way of life and livelihood.
It is hard enough to mine our souls for inspiration, we don’t need more chaff along the way.
Now somebody get Gloria a towel, it’s cold out here and her photographer forgot to get batteries for his light.
All photographs are mine.
(Except for the music score.)
I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System (enrollment begins January 6, 2023) where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
Check out my newsletter and community at Substack. We are new, but growing.
You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.
