I've met a few people like this. One of the hired for me a job and then stiffed me on payment claiming I didn't know my equipment and too many faces were out of focus. The photos in question were in a dark room and people were sitting around 10 ft diameter circular tables. I was shooting with a Canon 35mm f/1.4L. I eventually went on his website and was horrified at how garbage his work is. Also, who names your photo business "Insync"?
this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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Photography
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This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.
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The difference between an amateur and a pro is that the pro gets paid.
I was an amatuer photographer while managing a photolab at an upscale camera store... And it blew my f'ing mind how shitty some of the photos were coming out of wedding photographers that regularly got paid >5K per wedding on a regular basis.
I'd say the more-likely thing is that some people have bad imposter syndrome, myself included... I've done weddings and the most I've ever gotten paid was $2k... but most I did as a gift to the bride and groom, as an alternate photog for candids, primarily at the reception while the paid photog handled the ceremony and portraits. I've been told they liked mine better on multiple occasions, but I could just never bring myself to asking $5k for a wedding shoot or persuing it as a career.
Those shitty photogs have no such compunctions.
It pissy me off that ppl are taking better pictures than me, whenever I see a picture better than mine, I'm already thinking about how they did it and how I can make a better picture
JK I don't get mad, but I do feel the competitive drive
Dunning-Kruger is all over the place in Reddit photography communities!!
have a gander at the Fujifilm subreddits.
hey!
I will suggest a lesson from the story:
In the photography business, many decision-makers value business skills over photography skills.
I am not saying that's a pleasant thought, but it might be true.
I think this is pretty accurate
the older I get, the more photos of cats and flowers I take :/
The same. The circle is complete. Cats and flowers are perfection.
Get used to it there are plenty of them out there
"Theres a difference between 20 years of experience and one year of experience 20 years over." -William Deming
Why does McDonalds always have a line? After all they don't have amazing food. What they do have is consistent food that is served quickly. McDonalds is good at business. Knows how to market, knows the best location to attract the most people. People are looking for different things. McDonalds customers are different than steakhouse customers, Dunking Donuts has different clients than Starbucks and people who buy BMWs are not buying Fords. Photography is similar people are looking for different things.
Hmm
The thing here is that you are equating technical photography skill with commercial success. This happens very often and you won’t be surprised to find that some of the greatest charting music artists have the least technical ability.
You may be obsessed with colour banding and correcting highlights, but I can guarantee you that 90+% of the general public don’t care. Get the composition right, capture an important moment, add some bokeh and filters - most people are really happy.
You want to be a commercial success as a photographer? Learn how to market yourself and become an expert in managing relationship with your clients.
I’m not a professional, but I do gigs for friends and family because it’s fun. I do them free because I can’t guarantee I’ll get anything good.
But what is the bare minimum quality a professional photographer needs to provide? Arguably, portraiture should be in focus to the point that you don’t think the photographer is visually impaired. Whether the photo is as sharp as it could be, well…I think customers can forgive slightly out of focus photos if they’re sold as “soft” or “dreamy.”
As far as composition/framing/lighting, most customers won’t really pay attention or notice. Or, they’ll think it was a style choice. After all, they have paid a “professional” and he selected the “best” photos that he took.
I’m not doubting that his work may not be up to your standards, but it sounds like it may meet the bare minimum expectations of his clients.
I’ve been hobbying for 4-ish years and just had the absolute worst “shoot” of my life a couple of weeks ago. I still got some amazing photos, but I was fighting against my skill level the whole time. It’s possible with this dude he’s just phoning it in. He gets good enough photos and doesn’t think twice about it.
Lastly, I’ll say that I’ve seen some professional photos that I just don’t get but they’re praised anyway because the photographer is highly esteemed.
Yeah i think that's it. He's just good enough for the jobs he goes after. Photography is a wide genre too. He's a generalist at a certain price point. As i said I believe most of his customers are happy. I've seen some terrible photography in my time and alot of it in my own camera. We're not all perfect all the time. We have off days. Average customers look at subject matter and won't get hung up on colour, contrast or exposure like we do. I started oit studying photography in college. It was all fine art photography. I loved it. Alot of technically imperfect photography in art but alot of emotion and depth. That's subjective. I now work in a commercial setting where technical perfection is very important.
I’ve been a full time photographer for about 8 years, make decent money at it too…..at no point did I ever have the slightest bit of confidence. Instagram is a bitch, makes me hate myself all the time.
Never shot raw professionally, not once, ever. Just because someone doesn’t do what you expected doesn’t make it bad nor them unprofessional. There’s lots of different paid types of photographers and some workflows you seem call substandard are actually the standard in certain forms of photography. As a newspaper photographer our role was fast, small file size and unedited other than minor exposure adjustments and cropping. Newsprint color sucks and BW wasn’t much better. Jpeg was perfect, most of us got it right when the finger hit the shutter not hours later on a computer. All of us were paid with full benefits.
The DK effect is fully apparent in thinking there is only one way to do something and only one acceptable output that works for everyone and every style of professional photography even those one has never experienced
Journalistic photography is a beast all of its own. Him not shooting RAW is such a small aspect of this story. It wasn't a problem until I had to recover highlights. I often shoot jpeg when the situation calls for it. This particular shoot was a planned commercial shoot with a client brief and budget. Not a journalistic fast turnaround job. He was recommended to me ny a colleague who knows him personally and he fit the project budget for a second shooter. It was only after his images were an issue I discovered it's his entire portfolio. He has found his niche and his customer base. But it's not compatible with the specific commercial work I do. We are different photographers of different skill levels and specialities. That's what's so wonderful about photography. But there is a basic standard you should meet.
banding in the skies
I wouldn't even know how to achieve this with a modern camera without editing. I am somewhat impressed. Is he using a 15 year old camera?
This isnt the Dunning-Kruger effect in action to me.
I've noticed something similar, but from a different angle.
I've been sorting though and tagging 15 years worth of photography ever since getting my NAS, and I'm noticing so many instances when I first started where I was so excited that I got something tricky in-focus, I didn't notice the composition was awful, the lighting was bland, the image told no stories, etc. I was just happy to have a picture of a thing.
I also had cheaper gear, but I wanted sharper, clearer pictures so I over-sharpened the crap out of everything and abused that clarity slider.
At the time, I honestly didn't see it and thought I was doing good work, but now it's all I can notice when I see those old images.