Anything goes. Share what drives you crazy, I’m interested. I’ll go first: guys who call themselves photographers as an excuse to take pictures of women wearing lingerie in their basement. And always with the Gaussian blur “retouching” and prominent watermark 💀
Maybe they used a paper towel roll as a lens!
Or the saturation.
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5mo
I read somewhere a long time ago that once you’ve got it looking great, dial everything back by 10%. It mostly works well for me now.
Alternately turn your adjustments all off and on again regularly. Eyes adapt like the gain circuit in a cassette player - you need to not look at the same thing for too long or it becomes your new reference for reality. Gotta reset those eyes or you'll keep adding more and more tweaks.
"a gain circuit in a cassette player". Tell me you were born in the last century without telling me. Those youngsters just don't know what AGC is.
I once did a model shoot for a friend, edited the shots, thought they came out great. She then runs them through a bunch of IG filters posting them up. That got me upset.
It’s like slathering a perfectly cooked and seasoned steak in A1 sauce.
Oh nooooo nope. Cant stand that.
Whenever I go to a photography booth at a fair or wherever there's a 90% chance the guy is selling obnoxiously oversaturated "HDR" glossy metal prints at 10x markup.
And guess what, they are sold out each and every time.
That should tell you a lot. There is a big market for crap like that and people are willing to pay for it.
Respect the hustle.
Those guys aren't artists, they're business owners, and they're selling what the customers are buying.
I don’t know how those guy always manage to take the exact same shots as each other…
But hdr is so flattering!
"Influencers" not respecting shit. Be it climbing on statues or defacing things or just being rude in general, or even just take too long in a spot. We're all trying to take pics, you don't need 5000 selfies here. Take a few and move on
People that don't pay attention to their surroundings. So many times I'll line up my shot and get everything all set just to have some one walk in front of me and bloc it because they somehow don't see me taking a pic
It’s main character syndrome!
People who act like their personal opinion is an objective fact
As someone who has worked with opinions for 40 years, I can assure you for a fact that opinions are objective facts. While this is my opinion, know that it is the truth. There is heavy research into opinions and almost always they are facts.
No shortage of that attitude on Reddit 👀
This but with brand names. Everyone wants to think the brand they own is the best camera ever and that everyone else are scrubs. I see it so much on social media.
I have gotten made fun of so many times because I am a Nikon shooter. Please let me just enjoy the hobby in peace.
It sucks that as someone who hates social media you kind of need to be on it in order to share your work today.
EDIT: As some of you have picked up on its mostly Sony people who seem to love to make fun of my Nikon gear. Nothing against the technology but very toxic community.
I hear ya on this ... was out shooting wildlife once, and had another photographer go on at length about why his Sony was so much better than my Canon. Meanwhile ... he's standing only yards away from an informational kiosk highlighting the park's wildlife, which includes photos of mine that the park used on the display. 🤣
I think Sony has a lot of sway with the influencers on instagram and tiktok (seems like every big photo account on insta uses Sony) in which Sony users consume content left and right about why it is better.
Nikons are great! I shot Pentax until last year and jumped to Sony because I'm getting old and the Pentaxes were heavy. I also shoot Canon and have had Nikon. Brand loyalty is as stupid as patriotism.
That's how I was with Pentax from 1986 until 2022!
I think most of the brand loyalty stuff comes from gear being really expensive, and people want to be able to justify to themselves that they have made the right choice in what they have spent their money on.
Work with what you got until it doesn't do what you need.
When I meet another photographer, I want to talk about their photos not their gear. I can go out and buy exactly the same gear they have, but I'll never be able to see the world the way they do.
I loooove talking about gear. Not because I'm a snob... But when someone captures an incredible macro shot of a nudiebranc on an rx100. I am tripley impressed.
In your example the image sparks the gear conversation. I don't mind talking about gear, especially when it comes to describing what they used to get the shot. When I meet someone and have never seen their work, their gear is irrelevant.
I remember there was someone who posted on here saying he went to a beginners photography class and got laughed at because be wasn't using a canon or a Nikon. SMH! 🤦♂️
I change my answer to gear snobs. My God I hate anyone who tries to talk to me about photography gear.
Ok but what kind of camera are you using
“Iphone 3gs” gets em every time
It worked
Agreed, but there's a "right" tool for a job sometimes, which I see a lot of people ignore. "Spend thousands on the new RF stuff", like bro, this person says they new to the hobby and $300 or less and you can have a perfectly acceptable starter kit.
People who gatekeep photography in general. Other creative communities are quite tolerant to beginners, but in photography ive noticed quite abit of intolerance to new photographers. Who cares if they are new and crank up the detail slider and vibrance to 1000, if they like it and its the look they are going for then is that not good enough? does it matter if its a fad, or not "proffessional"? Sorry for the rant, but it pisses me off to see that. Especially since i had to go through it myself to the point of selling my gear because i thought i was a horrible photographer.
Yes! We all have to put out terrible work to learn and grow. It’s a process.
Some people are such dicks to new photographers, especially online. I get it, we are all sick of seeing the same questions that could easily be answered with a quick google search. But just ignore it and move on. You help nobody by being a sarcastic asshole to someone whos just excited about a new hobby.
Give someone their space. I do wildlife, and more than once while I’m lying on the shoreline waiting for a certain waterfowl to come close enough, all of a sudden they start swimming away. I’ll look back and there’s someone standing behind me taking pictures. It’s like, there’s a whole lake, gtfo of here!
This one is a big one for me, it drives me fucking insane.
you both should make a little sign that says something like "professional wild life photographer at work. Please don't scare away the animal I've been waiting all day to photograph"
And put it up-trail of your position
That way at least only the real arseholes will bother you...
"Ooooh, a pro! Let's go see what they're photographing!"
I was once taking a panorama of the city skyline. My city panos are about 15 photos at 5 seconds each. This jackass stood 5 feet from me and took out his phone and took pictures WITH A FLASH. Not just one or two but for roughly 5 minutes. I was pissed cause I had to meet friends for dinner. He didn't speak English so I couldn't tell him give me a minute to do a panorama. Asshole screwed up soooo many.
People falling for the whole "more megapixels = sharper photos".
You can talk till your blue in the face, and still watch them sell a perfectly good camera, thinking the new one will magically create better photos.
Meanwhile they shoot everything at ISO 100 and F1.2 so they can add hashtags to blurry photos.
My phone has 64mp so it must be better than your 24mp sony mirrorless
My iphone has three lenses so it’s even better than a DSLR, they can only have one at a time! /s
My 12mp phone can record 4k 30 so it must be better than your bridge which records only at 1080p 60
My favorite version of this is someone with something wildly expensive like an R3 but using lenses that can't even resolve across the sensor.
I'm in a facebook group for beginners and there's a couple of these posts daily. They'll post a sample of a photo that's too soft and blame it on the camera until I point out that a portion of ground is super sharp and they just missed focus because they insist on shooting wide open in the sunlight.
Many of my most liked photos were taken with a 6 year old iPhone. It’s the person, not the gear that makes a good photograph.
People that conflate shallow depth of field with good photos. Yes, in some situations it is preferred, but in others a little more detail in the background would make for a more compelling story. Also, if your depth of field is so shallow that literally nothing in the photo is sharp, or worse, you missed the focus and something completely unrelated to the image is sharp, you may need to stop-down your aperture a touch.
I spent a tragic amount of time shooting portraits where the nose was in great focus and the ears were super blurry. Couldn't figure out why I was so terrible at portraiture. Now it's just cause I don't get the lighting right.
f5.6 gang
I actually just realized this personally after being a 2.8 Stan for yearssss. Always something to learn!
F8 or f11 are your friends too.
We’re all friends now!
Didn’t Ansel Aden’s start the f64 club?
How exciting! I have a few:
- As OP said, guys who only shoot explicit stuff with women. This does not include the people who shoot a bunch of different stuff, one of which includes lingerie/boudoir
- Street photographers who slap 85s and 70-200s on their cameras and post only shots of the backs of peoples heads with dramatic neon bokeh. I know IG loves that stuff, but its boring. Also, ya'll get a big head from the IG success
- Most of all, mean photographers. There are so many nice ones out there but I think we all can agree there are a lot of mean people too. It can be a highly competitive, territorial, and insecure space and social media is a catalyst for it.
RE: The telephoto street photography: I like to twist the classic phrase and say these types are "f2.8 and be nowhere near there"
Ive heard it called 'Across-the-Street Photography', and enjoy that phrase quite a bit
God I can’t stand mean photographers either. Like we are all doing our best, it costs nothing to just be nice.
$3.50
I ain’t giving you no tree fiddy, you damn Loch Ness Monster!
Pet peeve? Almost everyone and their dog wanting to turn it into a business.
There is a lot of truth in this. I started enjoying photography a lot more when I stopped doing it as a job.
I'm told I take great pictures and could sell them on stock websites or whatever other hustle is the fad. I just like taking pictures for me and sharing them with friends and family and to occasionally shoot a paid gig to offset the cost of my hobby.
Me too! So I uploaded a few on a stock website. Retirement is just around the corner baby! In 18 months I've grossed $3.73. Can't get a check until it's over $15 so I guess the week after never it'll show up.
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5mo
Is it, though? I applaud any photographer who succeeds at it as a business — if that's their goal.
Me? I define success differently. I love birds. Love photographing them. Love capturing and sharing their beauty and the sense of wonder they inspire.
Turning that into a business — even a successful one — would turn the thing I love most into work. Turn my joy into duty. No thanks.
If a friend admires one of my photos, I happily send them a digital file. People I barely know tell me that whenever they see a bird, they think of me. If my photos can get people who were never interested in birds before to start paying attention to them, they may be more likely to pay attention to local conservation efforts, to vote or contribute to measures affecting birds in their area.
Though we all define success differently, that's what it looks like to me.
Opinionated photographers (usually with a lot less success) commenting on your social media and telling you how you are supposed to do your work/editing.
lol I posted my first set with an older canon camera and someone responded “looks like you haven’t mastered canon colours yet.” My brother in Christ I just got the camera yesterday
Mastered canon colors? What does that even mean?
😂
Models thinking they can charge more than I'm going to make for a shoot. Especially when they've literally no experience with anything needed for the particular shoot, or anything at all in general.
Oh 100% and it happens all the time! I’ll literally book a girl for ecomm and she’ll get to set and have zero experience but her agency is charging a premium. Super annoying especially when the client has like 120 looks to get through.
“Can you work for free ? I’ll give you a photo credit !”
I only do photography for a hobby and my niche is mostly nature/landscape but I do dip into sport or portrait photography as well.
Had a few people contact me asking me to do their weddings as it will be 'good exposure and experience' for me. Obviously they didn't want to pay.
I don't need your exposure. I take photos for me first and foremost and only share them online because a few friends and family like them. And your wedding isn't going to give me any relevant experience either... Lets not pretend you took one look at the cost of an actual wedding photographer and noped out.
I don't mind taking photos for free for people. Family events I'll take my camera and I've offered some friends family shoots when they've had a baby, but that's me offering to give something to people rather than them asking.
i was doing a couple photoshoot and there were some kids purposefully photobombing many photos, like religiously following us just to get in the pictures, and one of the partners said, “oh that’s okay you can just photoshop them out”. like??? HUH?? i dont think people who don’t use photoshop and non-photographers understand how utterly challenging, tedious, and time consuming photoshop can be and photoshopping unnecessary things out when you shouldn’t have had to in the first place
Canon vs. Nikon snobs. Back in 2015 when I was still new to this, I shot my first college football game. Nikon photographer sees my gear, says “Canon Rebel T3i….hmmm… in a very judgy, patronizing tone. Now if I’d had more money I would’ve had a faster setup, but I got some decent shots with that body.
About an hour later he comes over, shows me a picture, and mentions some technical spec. Then he says “You cannot get that with a Canon. You canNOT get that on a Canon!” I just shrugged and said “Ok?”
You should have told him "Nikon? I guess that's why you're still shooting college ball."
I mean, it's not like you can't find a few grey lenses at football games (before Sony came onto the scene when they were all Canon).
Note: I'm not saying either is better, it's just a tool. While gear can make a big difference for sports shooters, every major manufacturer has it covered.
I shot runway at NYFW with a Rebel XT, ain’t nothing wrong with any entry level body. Like Helmut Newton said, it’s all in here taps noggin
Subscription-based editing software.
I'm a hobbyist — I just want to do basic Fuji RAW editing. I literally cannot afford to shell out $20/month for pro software that I'll use every few months to adjust levels and apply batch edits.
Adobe even charges you a cancellation fee... I hate it here.
I have 2:
- When people think they're being really amazing and over play how creative they're being while making all their photos only aqua and orange shades.
- That so many people buy into the orange and aqua shades being the most hype and creative way to have your photos when it's so stale.
Don't forget gotta crush the blacks, blow the highlights, and pull the contrast down to like -200 too.
Alwayssssss. It’s like shadowy and side lit and you can see the blinds on the window behind her but because there’s boobs it gets a million votes.
Edit: I do think photographing women makes for beautiful art, I work in fashion so I literally take pictures of women for a living.
I feel like the analog subreddit is often “look at my pretty friend” or “look at this nude model” but sometimes it ends up with a highly upvoted post with a very angry comments section so it seems to be quite a split community there
Porn always sells.
isn't there some acronym about upvote because of girl and something else. something long.
Half or even fully naked women will ALWAYS elicit more of a response than someone that has more technical knowledge and experience than someone who clicked the shutter button on an attractive female. The sad reality is that as an art form; photography has become overwhelmingly mediocre.
Eh I disagree it’s become “overwhelmingly mediocre. It just isn’t as exclusive as it once was. So, you have way way more photographers than ever before. Naturally, most of them are mediocre so it could be easy to draw the conclusion that photography, as an art form, is itself becoming mediocre. However there always has been and continues to be, incredible photographers producing art.
When I see portable studios erected for literal $50 jobs.
Hahaha yeah this one bugs me too. It’s always someone just trying to show off and look more professional than they are.
And on average their shit falls on its face with utter lack of/shitty post.
Fall photos where people they feel like there is no such thing as over saturation.
It's so intensely autumn that the grass is also orange
In China there are groups of old men doing "street photography" with super tele lenses and only in locations with a high concentration of fashion stores, and of course they don't move around, they basically pick one spot and just stand around with there super tele the entire time.
you can guess what they shoot.
There's a photographer on Flickr who posts photos of women on bicycles almost exclusively. They're not artful. Not especially interesting. Just random, run-of-the-mill snapshots of women on bicycles. 😐
I hate so many things about the modern world. Can people do nothing in life without having their image posted online.
This is so ick
Abuse of filters and presets.
I get it but ya know what?
Cookies that all look the same end up in the clearance aisle.
Be a cake. With extra sprinkles.
This fucking teal and orange thing that’s happening right now; it’s ugly as hell, and is going to look super dated in a few years.
wasnt t&o a 2010 thing?
Like after matrix came out and every second movie was graded in teal and orange
No photography etiquette.
As a landscape photo hobbyist, sometimes we are at a popular location or event that other photographers flock to.
Some photo hobbyists don’t ask if they are in your frame, park too close, or is just LOUD! We’re in nature so shhhhhh the eff up!
If I am shooting candid photos at an event, stop goddamn trying to photobomb the picture. Some people will do this like 10-50 times?? Just pulling silly faces and trying to jump in the frame. Fuck off. I am trying to do a job.
There doesn't have to be a story behind every damn picture.
The story is fine, but when the story is more the point than the photo, that's when the photographer is trying to make something out of it that it's not.
I went to an art show in a big city and this one photographer had a dozen photos of what appear to be friends of hers posing casually on the street. Each photo had a 100-word description that included a quote from a poem. I was tempted to swap the description cards to see if anyone could tell. I certainly couldn't.
I get this. Sometimes art is there just for the sake of being looked at and appreciated! No story needed.
seriously. The need to name and present every photo like its your college thesis is so annoying.
I don't really have pet peeves. But I guess if I have to pick something the closest thing is HDR photography purely because it looks god awful.
Youth sports photographer here: people telling me they need to buy some of my photos and then never doing it. If I could make a living off all the “I need to get my order in” comments I could quit my day job.
Smoothing skin so much in post that their face looks like a mask.
“Photoshop Poisoning” should be punishable.
My favorite is when they turn the face to plastic with the smoothing, but completely ignore the rest of the model's exposed skin (neck, chest, arms, hands, etc). It's like they stuck a doll's head on a human body.
Especially on children. There's a few big name family photographers in my area that smooth the children's faces and I'm so sad for them. These are the photos their parents print for their home. What does that tell them.
What in the world children do not need retouching!
Not even a wedding photographer so maybe I'm just being dense.
But the "I just bought a rebel t7 and have only shot on auto, just booked my first wedding what should I do?" Just irks me and it doesn't even affect me.
Or the "I just got a insert something rebel series as a gift, how do I get clients now?"
Put in the work, practice, research. I don't even do the traditional portraits but the first time I had a client that wanted me to cover them for an event I felt terrible that they wanted to give me money for taking pictures. I still don't even feel that comfortable when I take payment because I'll forever feel like I can always improve something.
Spot jockers... people that walk up behind you/next to you as you are shooting, try to make out what you are shooting, and then proceed to take the exact same shot.
Don’t ever shoot weddings my friend. This will happen all the time with guests. 😆
Tell me bout it…had this drunk woman tail me almost the entire reception with her phone. The. Complained I was in her way 🫠😆
This is big reason why I prefer landscape photography: no people for miles.
Also, mountains don't ask you to erase their double chins in photoshop.
Really negative, argumentative or nitpicky comments on photography websites. I know this is an internet thing too, but the amount of mean spirited comments on reviews or photo slideshows take the enjoyment out of reading articles and looking for insight from others. Dpreview is a good website with insufferable commenters.
Trends, such as all wedding photos currently being brown.
Sad beige
The word "cinematic" lol
I hate this word but I hate that it makes sense even more.
The popular Instagram pages all commenting on each other’s posts how great they are. If you’re in any kind of niche you’ll see the same 10 pages make a post and then the same 10 pages all comment on each other’s post “omg love the colors! this is so good! you can’t miss! how do you nail it every time! omg this is amazing!” and then they reply “thank you!”, and they all just take turns @-ing each other on how great they are and saying thank you, over and over again, resharing each other’s content to their stories almost like they’re all AI chat bots circle jerking each other.
I get it’s to drive engagement. But holy f.
Close second pet peeve has to go to photographers who gatekeep information. When you were starting out you know you had a lot of questions and would have loved if present you could go back and help out or give yourself some advice/pointers/tips. Pass on the info. If anything you make a lifetime fan of your work because you told them the best aperture to use for portraits or something.
@FloridaManZeroPlan I agree! Great comment! Omg this is amazing! I love the colours!
Thank you! Thanks for the love! 🙌 you rock! I wish my comment could be half as good as yours are!
This is very niche, but....the prices of expired film.
Some old film stock that hasn't been tested in decades should not cost more than fresh film, unless it's some extremely rare stock like Aerochrome.
Overcooked "HDR".
Older Men who see me with two cameras and a heavy lens and feel the irresistible need to explain my own equipment to me spouting very basic stuff
Like “Oh that’s a heavy lens not good for long shoots, but you probably shoot very little” from an hobbyist like me
No you doofus I shoot long hours because I set up the tripod collar to work for me instead of my wrists
Guy asking me if flashes are actually useful outdoors while I have my flashbender mounted because, you see, you need walls to reflect light. Idiot, I’m at a town celebration with no walls in sight that’s why I mounted the flashbender! Do you even know what it is?
I like good advice but when people see me relatively young in hobby photography where the majority of photographers are male and retired they feel the need to spout wisdom from basic online courses they probably paid too much for
Oh another one, this was an older woman. Taking a group shot at 6 pm summer, she insisted I should shoot people with sun in their faces else their faces would turn black. Yeah awesome advice there I love squinting faces in pictures.
The pics turned out great btw.
I enjoy photography too much to really have any "pet peeves", but there are definitely things that make me roll my eyes.
- People who beg for popularity by liking / sharing / favouriting (etc.) everyone's work on social media, whether it's great, good, average, or rubbish, in a clear display of "you scratch my back".
- Idiots on social media with their "Imma get tons of engagement by saying something negative about a whole group of people, hurr durr, I'm so smart". That other group could be anything: users of (X) system, digital shooters, film shooters, landscape shooters, blah blah.
- Similar to the first one, the use of "provocative" statements or questions to try and get attention, rather than letting your photos do the talking. If your photos need that much explanation, they're not good enough.
Basic ass posts with questions like;
"How do I make money selling my photographs? I dont want to do weddings or deal with clients... I just want Warren Buffet to give me $10k every time I press the shutter release. Thanks in advance."
Answer: You dont. This shit is like asking a youtuber how to get rich and famous... well... you work really hard and hope that you get extremely fuckin lucky. Thats it.. thats the secret.
...and...
"I want to get into photography, thinking about/currently getting myself into $100k worth of debt to attend college for photography. What can I do to make sure im successful?"
Answer: Well... a good idea would be to not put yourself into massive amounts of debt for the sake of learning a skill you can develop in your free time and by watching youtube tutorials... That would be a good start.
People... go to school for something useful, dont put yourself in debt to learn something every other mom/dad does on the side for extra money. Spending $100k at university to learn photography isnt going to put you on a path to success. Its going to take you half a decade to use photography to cover the costs of school and finally start seeing a return on your investment. Just get a camera and start learning. For god sakes lol.
Shooting events professionally for organizations and having other photographers take over space in front of clients and people enjoying themselves. Pushing people around then using photos to undercut the actual paid photographer.
the "signature" watermark on all the pics, signed with the same cursive font
People, mostly YouTubers or Influencers, stating that a particular lens or focal length is for portrait, landscape, wedding or other use only, this extends to cameras also.
I'm sorry but the packaging my lenses/camera come in don't state what kind of photography they are for and I will use them however I want.
If I want to use MFT camera with a 100-400mm to take photographs of flowers then you can't stop me.
When someone says, "wow, that is an awesome picture, you must have a really nice camera!". This is further complicated when you have a really nice camera, but it is still an insult. I always want to reply with, "this meal is incredible. you must have an amazing stove." .
No they just don’t know. I‘m a much better pianoplayer than photograph and I played on a BEAUTIFUL piano in someone’s living room, and the response was ‚It’s impressing to hear what our piano is actually capable of.‘
They didn’t mean to insult me, they just didn’t understand..
Selective colour. Making an image completely black & white except for the subject's eyes, or a flower or a car. I absolutely HATE it.
In the past was telephoto street photography, then it was homeless street photography (Suzanne Stein is the worst offender that I know). After that it was the obsession of "telling a story", then the color grading and thinking that all photos should be heavily post processed to be any good. Now I don't care so much but If I have to choose it will be false equivalence and treating the raw files as something absolutely secret that no one should see unedited.
Suzanne Stein is the worst offender that I know
Looking at her web site, most of her work doesn't seem to be candid. Her subjects know the camera is there and they interact with it. It's not like she's taking candids without the subjects' permission.
Without knowing how she gets that interaction from the subject how do we know if she's taking advantage of the subject under false pretenses or telling a story the subject wants to be told?
Or has she written some article or something revealing she uses unethical methods?
Snobbery an elitism of all types. Be it gear snobbery, you're shooting with what? Gate keeping. Putting down people new to the hobby etc.
I took some photos of a Girls Football event in the summer during the world cup for work. I'm not a professional, just a hobbyist, but work didn't have a marketing officer and we needed some photos so I offered.
I wanted to make sure I captured photos of the girls having fun and was conscious that they might not act themselves around me with a camera pointing at them. So I took at 14mp Lumix point and shoot I got off Facebook for free with me and gave it to one of the girls and asked her to take some pictures of her friends throughout the day.
After we were done I shared the photos with The FA and they picked out one of the photos the girl took and are now using it on a national campaign. My photos were fine and we were able to use them for what we needed, but it did make me laugh that a 12 year old took the best photo on a camera that's worse than an iPhone. She got the best photo because she was immersed in the event and not just a bystander with fancy gear.
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5mo
Shoot wide and find it in post instead of composing intentionally before you expose.
R5 sports shooters are notorious for this. "I got plenty of Mpx, I'll just crop." uhgh.
When someone books you to shoot portraits of their family, you agree a price and they bring another family along for the “would you mind just talking a few pictures of our friends children too”
So.. kind of ironic because what I dislike is pretty much some of these comments in a nutshell, but intolerance and being mean.
I find it humbling when people photograph what I'm photographing. I don't like it when photographers get pissed because they're sharing a hiking trail with people. I also find it neat that people are into film or "analogue" or whatever trend that gets people inspired.
While gearheads can be condescending, the converse is true. So many people are salty when someone with good gear has subpar photos, or when you feel the need to say that you could've used a phone or no filters. Let them enjoy their gear.
So many people are insecure and condescending.
My wife taking pictures then expecting me to import/edit!!
Damn, I should’ve married someone that would do my culling and editing. I never realized that was an option.
Divorce her. Lets get married so you can do that for me instead.
I shoot primarily film; people telling me that direct flash is wrong drive me bananas. Sometimes you just need more light and if you expose correctly it won't look like some horrible pic from an 90s memory wall.
For me it's when people see a good photo and their first question is "What settings did you use?"
As if all they done was dial in those settings and that's why they got their great shot. They don't ask about composition, how long they had to wait for the shot, how they found the location, what they like about the location, etc.
Sorry but if you dial in those exact same settings, it doesn't guarantee you a great shot, it's all those other things that have made it a great shot!
"Every picture tells a story"
Gatekeeping.
this is massive in sports photography. I assume other areas as well. So many guys on the sideline are just ignoring and being rude to the new photographers. Especially at high school. Its unnecessary.
I've been a full time pro photographer for just over 30 years, shooting primarily pro sports, live music and portraits. I've never been 'that guy'. Unless it's a seconds to go, crucial must get this picture situation, I'll always talk to/answer questions from new photographers.
There are no secrets, and anyone who tells you otherwise IS 'that guy' and you don't want their answers to your questions anyway.
I'm not a "professional" photographer despite folks telling, "wow that's a professional setup." Professionals get paid, this is just an expensive hobby.
Ugly HDR and clarity boosted to 100
Oblivious people. I don't mean random passers-by that don't notice you and your tripod, but other 'photographers' at a popular spot. I didn't wake up at five AM and walk down to that Wanaka tree, set up and wait for the light just to have you park yourself right in front of me like I'm invisible.
"Your pictures are great, you must have a really expensive camera"
I shoot tourism, and my peeve is when I meticulously edit out imperfections, so the product looks incredible. Just to have the client crank the saturation and contrast and slap them on instagram.
Followed closely by providing multiple crops for use across all mediums, and the client uploads the 16x9 to instagram.
People who think image sharpness is a personality.
People who hate my vintage lenses... If I want to shoot with an adapted old-ass weird projector lens, because I enjoy it, I may be just not into autofocus expensive glass which wields the same results
Crooked horizon lines.
Social media. That's my pet peeve
Old men who ONLY shoot boudoir photography. There's a guy in my town that does this. I don't kick what most people shoot. But being a 60 year old single man who ONLY shoots girls under 21 in thongs is absolutely nasty.
Wildlife photographers who harm wildlife to get their shot. I know of cases of people cutting branches off trees to expose roosting owls.
People who say nifty fifty
Hey! I have a lens that happens to be 50mm. I think it's nifty. His name is Steve and I love him. He also does his best.
People in camera stores who refuse to sell you a 50mm lense because it's a cliche
My pet peeve is over-processed sunrise or sunset pics. High F stop to get the stars on the sun, highlights dragged right down, saturation and vibrance right up.
There's a 'photographer' near me that ONLY takes these type of photos and every man and hid dog RAVE about them.
I hate these over stylised shots, they are not even close to reality.
The stars on the sun can be a bit much but Ive taken some photos of ridiculous sunrises where I had to really blow the saturation down a lot because no way would people believe I hadn't cranked them up. Theres some really colourful sunrises and sunsets at times like where the whole sky is just really rich pinks and purples. Feels weird having to lower it so much because people wouldn't believe it.
People getting in the way!!!
Photo dumping and not editing or even reviewing your photos to take out duplicates and bad ones. Just watermarking and posting.
There is a guy who dumps photos from comic cons and ren fairs with just a watermark and he gets an unreasonable amount of praise and his photos look horrible. Out of focus. Bleached. Poor cropping. And there are 500+/album. Hes been doing this for years.
Just take a day. Review them. Slight touch ups go a long way.
One thing that made me want to go feral...
I was on a trail and saw a grey heron eating a frog and was taking photos, hoping it would come out of the shade so I could get a better shot. I was expecting it to fly away later of course but seeing how calm the bird was with me that probably wouldn't have been for a bit. In the mean time there was a duck swimming by in the sunlight I could photograph.
All of a sudden the heron flies away and I look back and a crowd of people is behind me watching what I'm doing. One lady threw a ROCK at the bird and said she was impatient and wanted it to move. I've never wanted to fight someone more than that in my life, mainly just for throwing a rock at an animal but also for the dbag attitude.
The cost of film.
Late to this but there is a photographer in my town, everyone seems to love his street photography but every single one has the exact same VSCO filter applied, tons of grain, and massive white borders. Subjects are just normal street shots of people and he goes to tons of events in town.
People who call Fuji GW690s "Texas Leicas".
Maybe it's not that big a deal but for me may shoots have been ruined by people walking into frame and looking at me as they do it so they can see my camera or just standing in the way, also dogs running threw shorts, running into me, knocking over my tripod, scarring of wildlife or just the smell of poo in the air.
Gatekeepers. And it usually follows the D-K curve pretty closely.
Also people who truly think which brand they chose to use actually means something significant. Like people who actually think "Nikon sucks" or "Sony sucks" or whatever.
Making sure everyone knows it was shot on film.
Shitty HDR
Not being good enough.
Copy cats. When I was hired to do weddings guests used to fire off the cameras and flashes which would screw up my images.
So eventually I learned how to talk to the people and set guidelines. That allowed them to take their pictures and not interfere with my work.
I had no problem with folks using their cameras to get the pictures. Knowing that their flash was under powered to produce the results desired. Which in turn helped me increase my business.
Smashing the vignette in post processing all the way to the end of each spectrum.