Now About The Snapshot

[Ted Byrne]

So... suppose you've got a face on snapshot. Captured on your point and shoot (In this case my Canon G10). Okay... How to make it interesting?How to find some grit? Something that turns the most common of all - full frontal captures into a moment worth a thought or a feeling? Or at least a legitimate snicker?

Hello post processing, huh? And then what?

Oh... one of those guys is me  . The totally cool one.

Thoughts?

[eob]

I think that this photo stands firmly on its own, without all that post-processing noise (noise - as opposed to signal, or content - not a random electronic noise).

Sometimes, the simplest technique (cropping, correcting tonality, color and contrast) is the strongest approach. In this particular case, the body language and face expressions are all you need. The "gritty" look is in vogue lately, but in itself it does not provide any added value to this photograph, unless you use it (the photo) as an illustration to some kind of writing (prose, screenplay, etc.).

That opinion seems to me even more robust to me now, when I look back on works of Yousuf Karsh (by the way, this month's "Rangefinder" magazine has an article on him). A lot of digital photographers just can't help themselves but add all that digital noise to their work just because they can and in hopes that it will make their styles unique. Well, guess what. All it does to their styles is to make them homogenous and shallow. What really creates a STYLE in any kind of art is content, not the way that content is manipulated digitally. Posing, lighting and - most of all - personal relation to the subject is what you need to differentiate yourself from hordes of Photoshop wizards. And I repeat once more, I am not an enemy of Photoshop. I use Photoshop and/or Lightroom on each and every one of my photos.

[aprilS]

As many times as I've viewed this image, I remain confused. 

While I appreciate the skill in post-processing, the moment remains unreal for me -- or was that the artist's intent?

There doesn't seem to be any connection between you and JD, the faces appear out of scale, and your hand on his shoulder (also) disconnected from your arm. But then there are the "bubbles" floating around, as in a pipe dream, so...I'm uncertain. Perhaps it's a successful self-portrait of a wish!

[Ted Byrne]

Oh... okay... backstory...

I was hanging with my bud Johnny here... and people were, like - you know...  rude... taking pictures, asking us for graphs...  and like finally some guy he realizes we were annoyed so he grabs my camera and takes this snap so I won't be upset at his ...

Right... BULL!

Actually Rita and I were walking along 41st street and right outside of Madame Tussaud's they had this image. And well... couldn't help myself... Draped an arm around the statue and asked her to snap the thing. The background? The glass doors in front of the large ticket area... Lights flashing... SHOW BIZ GLITZ. :-)

Fun  --- The object here was.. is.... 

[aprilS]

Ah-hah!

That explains my feeling of a disconnect. I kept wondering if the other cool guy was a cardboard cutout -- which is a statement in itself -- but there seemed to be too much dimension for that.

It posed a curious puzzle.