Is the photography scene saturated? a bit boring..

lemonade

lemonade

lemonade

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I was thinking the other day whilst browsing flickr randomly so many pictures that are the same, or have the same effects, you know...just a bit repetitive boring.

Everyone has a camera these days with it being so cheap including DSLR's, before it was like a rich man's hobby, now every tom, dick and harry is on the game, it's a good thing in one way as more people can enjoy it with it being affordable.

With the advent of camera phones everyone is taking pictures these days then adding some instagram filter on it and posting them up. I don't see any creative flair or stories behind pictures, it's just become a fad, and in some ways killed the "wow" factor when I used to see in 'properly' taken photos.

Anyone catch my drift or am I talking nonsense? I guess in a way my gripe is really with camera phones and apps like instagram. I really do despise stuff like instagram.
 
Talking nonsense :p Kind of

Properly taken photos processed in LR4.3 will always beat anything out of a phone and instagram.

My friend told me the other day when reviewing my photos that they 'looked so professional', by which she meant the apperture was correct, and it was in focus.

Camera phones don't have anywhere neat the same capability. Yes, they might be able to take a nice picture of a well lit scene. But give them a hard scene, and they're going to fail. Not to mention the fact that most camera phone officionados don't know much about composition, and it means whilst, by all means some people can take some great photos with great lighting, I suspect the hit rate is much lower.

kd
 
There has been a MASSIVE flood of photos. When I started taking up photography again about 9 years ago, it was still a relatively expensive arena with the cheaper cameras popping up like the 300D I started with.

The only thing that does bug me about it is that on forums you get someone that goes out and takes 300 photos of one thing and gets 1 or 2 decent ones, posts them and gets raves about how good they are at photography. They sometimes admit they took 3-4000 photos that day and yet they only have 20 keepers, yet people still rave about them being a good photographer. That really annoys me :D

The only other thing that used to bug me is that there used to be a lot of students or kids with rich parents that were buying them the best kit out there, and they then proceed to do the previous thing I mentioned but not mentioning how many photos they took to achieve this, and then start talking down to people on the forums within 2 months of owning this kit they've done nothing to earn!

I'm not too concerned about the flood of images online, what I am concerned about is that people are less likely to be spotted amongst the chaff when there's so much out there now. Some people have talent, but don't have the time at all due to work to publicise themselves or to do paid work. Sadly due to the volume of spam photos out there, they might never get to dabble their toes in something they dream of doing.
 
ElDude said:
The only thing that does bug me about it is that on forums you get someone that goes out and takes 300 photos of one thing and gets 1 or 2 decent ones, posts them and gets raves about how good they are at photography. They sometimes admit they took 3-4000 photos that day and yet they only have 20 keepers, yet people still rave about them being a good photographer. That really annoys me :D.
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That is no different to the working Pro's.
They take hundred of GB's of photos at an event yet you'll see only a handful of photos from the shoot.
 
Damn those rich people and their money! :P lol


As far as photos, there are a lot flying around and there's no doubt about it. A lot of them suck but there's also a lot of pictures out there that are technically proficient and of high quality but despite this, I still come across a pic sometimes and think 'wow'. Until that wow factor disappears then I think photography will continue quite happily no matter what we think.
 
This isn't the reason photography's saturated. Amateurs still outnumber pros at least 20 times. There's no problem in people sharing their work and people learning from each other, even if it means the same ideas get repeated. The actual problematic part is that there are too many professionals in comparison to actual market demand, because too many people enjoyed it as a hobby and thought "hey, let's make this a career.". As a result supply far outstrips demand and it becomes very hard for any photographer to really make a career of it as there are always 25 cheaper, if not quite as good, photographers, begging to do a job for less or even for free. As a result a lot of would be pros have to turn elsewhere to make their living and less top-quality work gets put out.
 
Ksanti said:
This isn't the reason photography's saturated. Amateurs still outnumber pros at least 20 times. There's no problem in people sharing their work and people learning from each other, even if it means the same ideas get repeated. The actual problematic part is that there are too many professionals in comparison to actual market demand, because too many people enjoyed it as a hobby and thought "hey, let's make this a career.". As a result supply far outstrips demand and it becomes very hard for any photographer to really make a career of it as there are always 25 cheaper, if not quite as good, photographers, begging to do a job for less or even for free. As a result a lot of would be pros have to turn elsewhere to make their living and less top-quality work gets put out.
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This! As a budding amateur, I am glad to say that I do not have the potential to become a full-time pro. However, I do learn by trial & error, studying from resources and recently participating on a one-day class.

What I have learned is that there is A LOT of pictures now available for viewing on the internet, many of the same scene, same angle and same style (Menai Bridge in North Wales is classic example). But knowing this pushes me to do something different so that my photos are unique, interesting and trademark my own style. This I have learned from you guys on this forum. Each and everyone has their own 'brand' of style which stands out from many photographers.

Yes there are too many pro photographers out there and really good amateurs too, but to survive, you need to evolve your skills and since photography is an art, you have to inspire creativeness that is above and beyond all others.
 
SDK^ said:
That is no different to the working Pro's.
They take hundred of GB's of photos at an event yet you'll see only a handful of photos from the shoot.
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A professional photographer needs a certain success rate, but I do know what you mean.

Although on the other hand what constitutes a professional photographer? If you take 500,000 photos per year, 499,999 of which are garbage but sell one for £100,000, then who is to say? Are you a bad photographer? A bad camera operator, maybe.

Who knows. The volume to keeper ratio is a bit of a crude indicator though I would say.
 
Some interesting comments and some that I was trying to articulate (and not very well).

What I have learned is that there is A LOT of pictures now available for viewing on the internet, many of the same scene, same angle and same style (Menai Bridge in North Wales is classic example).
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This was one aspect I was trying to highlight, there are so many photos that are just the same and the "wow" factor is gone or the pics just ain't interesting anymore. Take beach shot or seasides or whatever you want to call it, there are so many, a lot of them might be technically brilliant and all that, but there's just so many of the same types or they've been done so many times that it doesn't seem interesting anymore.

Personally speaking I love raw shots that have a story or meaning behind, or something that makes you ponder or think and they make a much more compelling photo then a technically superior one when they have those characteristics. I recently went through a set on flickr about "neglected or abandoned old cars", most of the photos were just raw and from a technical perspective poop, but they were really fascinating and made me ponder. The subject of course makes up most of the interesting part.
 
shaggyd said:
What I have learned is that there is A LOT of pictures now available for viewing on the internet, many of the same scene, same angle and same style (Menai Bridge in North Wales is classic example).
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I picked up the D5100 I was recommended on here and went practising on the way home from work one night. Took a picture of Norwich market after hours and quite liked it so popped it up on Flikr (for family benefit) and tagged the location. A day or two later, I walked past a bunch of photographers setting up in the exact place I'd stood, tripods and all. Possibly coincidence but very strange nonetheless.

To be honest, I struggle to be creative with it at the moment so anything I'll share would likely be pretty mundane and adding to the noise of ordinary photographs. I don't think it's a problem with photography, I think it's a problem with the share everything society and it might be a passing fad. I'm certainly starting to become more private. When I have something I'd like to share past the Facebook friends crowd, I'll stick it up on here for people to peruse as I know it will be appreciated.

Perhaps limiting the sources you look at for photographs might help? The sheer quantity of content now available just dulls it all really; it's the same with music.

EDIT: I'm suffering from a feverish cold so this could just be the ramblings of those germs.
 
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shaggyd said:
What I have learned is that there is A LOT of pictures now available for viewing on the internet, many of the same scene, same angle and same style (Menai Bridge in North Wales is classic example).
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To be fair, you have a lay-by with one angle, unless you can fly/float :D
 
I see where you are coming from. With everyone sharing their content and everyone trying to process and compose like everyone else, its hard to get something different out of it.

Also agree with the sentiment that with a DSLR, you can keep shooting till you get it right, which is inevitable after 20 goes even for amateurs.
 
Photography is not about owning or even mastering a pro dSLR camera. Mastering your camera equipment is just a bare minimum, I'm afraid.

Photography is about mastering the light, light equipment and camera equipment. If you want to be a pro you also need good people skills, good business skills, determination and thick skin plus being creative and top of the game at all times, whether it is 5 in the afternoon, or 5 in the morning, whether it is after 15 minutes of work or 15 hours.

I'm afraid that not every Dick Tom and Harry has all of that.
 
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You took way too long in that list of necessary traits to get to creativity or anything to do with visual, aesthetic or even philosophical sense.
 
Ksanti said:
You took way too long in that list of necessary traits to get to creativity or anything to do with visual, aesthetic or even philosophical sense.
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75% of business skills, 25% of photography skills or something similar, I think is the maxime. To even be able to press that shutter button you need to spend countless hours on marketing, networking, negotiations, etc.

Yes, creativity, visual aesthetics and other photo and visual skills are very important, but without business skills nobody will ever hire you anyway.
 
I think the OP is refering to the types of photos that people take and processing styles and creativity saturation,

No one is saying, everyone can make a pro, that we all agree is a different skill set which doesn't necessarily overlap with photography.
 
To be honest I would consider the differences between someone regarded as "Pro" and someone who is Artistic.
A pro can still produce boring images but is paid for what they are asked to deliver. Photography (probably like all things) is constantly evolving.
I wont dis the industry being affordable as its by that means I was able to progress and become a photographer too. I used to walk the park and take pictures of plants and paths etc and say "oooh I am good at this" so I know exactly where you are coming from. Now I hardly ever pick up my camera but when I do I have just a hand full of things in mind to shoot and I come back with hardly anything and work on those. I have different interests when it comes to photography than when I was browsing and populating forums.
 
TallPaul_S said:
Have a look on http://500px.com/ - pretty much all of the photo's on there are truly amazing. A much, much higher level than Flickr.

A great site for inspiration and/or making you feeling inadequate :D
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I agree those are epic but looks like you effectively see the magnum opus from each person, which gives it that impression, rather than browsing sets per se.
 
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