Rubbish or Art

[John Crowe]

The modified images made to look painterly are not my cup of tea. Creating photographic art does not necessitate making it look like a painting or drawing. As one who has painted and drawn, I'd rather see a photo re-imagined in that particular media. It is the same reason I prefer printing photographic images on photographic papers rather than on canvas.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Takes all types John and you are entitled to your opinion and I respect that. But I will aver that it is impossible to improve a bad photographic image by giving it a painterly makeover.

On the other hand a portrait captured by camera of some unknown person is hardly the stuff of anything but a family image in a frame but a good photographic image made into photographic art can be an image framed on the wall if its impact and composition are good enough.

Despite all rumours to the contrary making a photograph into art is not just a case of pressing a button on your computer. As much as a sharp image might be sharper with the latest sensor, good AF, and the present best lens available simply by pressing a button on the camera body.

I don't classify my images as "Art" but rather as "Photographic Art". I don't expect everyone to enjoy them. But ten or more student photographers with their cameras on a walk will capture much the same images of the subjects taken from the same vantage point. Then the competition devolves into which image is sharper ...

Art from a photograph is going to be different with every iteration and despite the serious added effort might not be successful let alone to everybody's taste. It takes a bit of hard work to destroy a perfectly good photograph

I take my hat off to those that make real art with brush and paint.

 

[Smaug]

Well, you asked, so here goes:

Post #1: Rubbish. Let's see the original please!
#3: Rubbish.
#4: Art. I LOVE this shot!
#5: Art, it's great!
#6: Rubbish; let's see the original.
#7, 8: Rubbish. (not that the woman isn't pretty though!)
#9: It has potential. Needs a much tighter crop on the girl, I think.
#10: Not rubbish, but not art. It's just a fun moment.

 

[Smaug]

Woo, you're warming up on Pg. 2!:

#11: Masterpiece; I LOVE it!
#12: Great candid.
#13: Meh, I think you had to be there.
#14: Perfect composition and really fun. 10/10.
#15: Love it; this is my kind of impressionism!
#16: 10/10. Accept the happy accident.
#17: 9/10. Needs a bit of cropping out of the foreground maybe? Nice shot, though.
#18: Meh.
#19: Awesome sports shot.
#20: 10/10. Fun and sexy without being obscene.

 

[Smaug]

Pg. 3 Critique: engage!

#21: Another masterpiece. Perfect.
#28: Nice. Needs the back-story, but nice!
#29: 10/10 for some proper camera porn.
#30: 8/10 → 9/10. This is one where the editing improved it. I wonder what it would look like without the paint brush treatment, but with the extra saturation?

Thanks for sharing this great photography, Tom.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Thanks - I just dragged out some of my ancient Flickr posts to get something going - I appreciate the time you have taken to comment

I have edited in some numbers to make some sense of the comments.

Oh to find that Endeavour replica original - I meant it as a pretend I had been there with my paint box and it was not the replica. Good old Captn Cook sailed right past this particular anchorage

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Historic Image - not a lot of merit otherwise

I just happened to be at the mouth of Batavia (Jakarta) harbour when unbeknown to me the 'Duyfken' replica suddenly appeared re-enacting a return from exploring the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Unfortunately the best of the day there was only one other amateur camera on the spot to capture the moment.

Dated 15/7/2001 and you saw it first here.

Early days of digital photography with a Canon Pro90 IS and a very smoggy day.

• Canon Canon PowerShot Pro90 IS
• ƒ/8
• 70mm
• 1/1000s