Photogs are a pretentious bunch. Hatred for HDR, circular fisheyes, selective color, cliché’s, blah, blah, blah. It is a common thread among the camera fondling photo forum crowd…putting down others so they can massage their ego. I guess it helps boost their self-esteem by making them feel how superior they are to everyone else.
Personally, I always like to take what they hate and make something great of it. Nothing better I like than to put a photo from a well hated genre, the photo snobs despise, into museums and curated collections.
http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/post/123975547363/los-angeles-county-museum-of-art-california
By the time the snobs run all their pet prejudices through their head, the photo op is gone. The prejudiced, camera fondlers seem to put more time in mental masturbation than button pushing.
I first learned about Hyper-Real / Painterly HDR from Les Krims. He has some beautiful work, some of the best I’ve seen of this genre. I fell in love the cartoonish look of hyper-real HDR.
Waving Woman Towel Head – Photo by Les Krims
Every pix does not benefit from this treatment, but some are really improved from it…just depends. Whether it is contrast, color, lack of color, lighting, sharpness, bokeh, grain, motion blur, distortion or other special effects – they are all tools the photog uses to garner attention for their image. A photo is not like a video or movie. The photo must catch our attention and tell the story in one image. Hyper-Real / Painterly HDR is just another one of those tools that can make our pix standout.
Beside ‘the look,’ HDR helps give street and doc photos a more extended dynamic range. When your a street photog you take the lighting you get. Many times it is the worse type of lighting you can use…but you make due and make something great out of it.
Ernst Hass on the subject…
“There are black and white snobs, as well as colour snobs. Because of their inability to use both well, they act on the defensive and create camps. We should never judge a photographer by what film he uses- only by how he uses it.”
It is the same with all photo processes. I keep an open mind to it all. Either something works or not.
Photos used herewith are from the following limited edition artists’ books
by
Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
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180: The Circular Fisheye at Large!
The Americans: 60 years after Frank
Twenty-Six Roadkills
Bikers’ Mardi Gras
Whoop-Whoop!
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. 