In the world of photojournalism, there’s been a big controversy over Chicago Sun-Times‘ layoff of all the photographers, and instead will simply use photos taken by reporters or anyone with smartphones, video screengrabs, or whatever multimedia sources available.
The result of this shortsighted decision is immediately obvious. Take a look below and compare the coverage of the same exact event by the Chicago Sun-Times (where all photographers have been laid off) and Chicago Tribune (still using professional photographers):
http://www.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/index.html?story=21018380 (Use the arrow to the right of the photo to go through the whole gallery).
http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-130628-blackhawks-parade-rally-pictures/
As you go through each photo gallery, the difference in the quality of the photography is almost comedic.
Aside from a few good photos, Chicago Sun-Times‘ gallery is filled with shots that lack any sense of excitement, with no creativity in composition, poor choice of focal lengths and camera angle, lack of intimacy, and missing any sense of the vitality and festive atmosphere seen at such events.
In contrast, Chicago Tribune‘s photo gallery is filled with great photos that get up and close to the action, brimming with life and joy, with compositions that draw you into the images and feel like you’re there with the people.
In recent years, there’s been more and more shifts in our world that is pushing professional photography into an early grave (as if it’s not already got one foot in it already). Technological advances in cheaper photography gear, better smartphones, and gimmicky one-click filters that turn bland photos into cookie-cuter artsy ones have created the illusion that anyone can do what professional photographers do, but that is only an illusion, as demonstrated by the comparison above. Quality photography takes skill and knowledge, and without devoting time and effort into professional-level shooting, you’re just shooting typical snapshots that anyone else with a smartphone can take.
Good photography requires a strong sense of creative composition with the use of effective camera angles and focal lengths to emphasize a sense of place, scale, visceral impact, overall mood, accentuating body proportions or flattering it, and conveying an effective visual narrative.
Effective lighting (and working with available light in creative ways) is also extremely important. You can use lighting to bring out the surface textures, to emphasize the forms, to create a sense of depth, to flatter your subjects, and to create distinct moods.
Understanding of color theory goes hand-in-hand with lighting and composition. An effective color palette in the shot creates a sense of overall cohesion and design that’s an effective match for the intended mood, as well as create interesting composition by using color contrast and harmony to accentuate focal areas.
While manipulating digital images has come a long way, there’s only so much you can push a badly exposed shot. A properly exposed shot gives you optimal exposure that retains enough information in both the highlights and shadows, and it requires technical understanding of aperture, shutter, and ISO settings. The auto-metering in cameras can handle typical shots that are lit from the front or side, with even distribution of light and dark values in the shot, but as soon as you have a back-lit scene, or uneven distribution of values, then the camera’s auto-metering gets tricked into significant over or under exposure, and when that happens, there’s very little you can do to salvage those shots.
And finally, good photography requires the ability to capture the subject (be it an object, a person, a place, a scene, an event, or a visual narrative) so that the most expressive and compelling aspects are conveyed through a creative vision unique to the photographer’s artistic sensibility.
It doesn’t matter how ubiquitous cameras become, or how prevalent photo-sharing is in our age of social media, there’s always going to be a distinction between good and bad photography (as shown clearly in the comparison links posted). Professional photographers deserve respect for their consistent output of high quality images under the stress of deadlines, facing various challenging scenarios (including life-threatening ones such as war zones) and still produce artistically excellent works worthy of magazine covers. That is the difference between casual shooters and professionals.
For the people who think “anyone can take pictures,” until they have done professional photography assignments that really tested their creativity in stressful situations, they won’t fully understand why professional photographers deserve a lot more respect than people usually give them.
