Dr. T. on standards of quality

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis) To: photo-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I agree with Allan's assesment of the situation. I am convinced that popular/mass "photography" has reached one of the lowest points ever experienced in human history, thanks to the P&S cameras and the drug- store processing.

My 7 year old daughter and 70 year old mother can now use a camera. But have you seen their pictures? Standards have reached an alarming low. Fuzzy, badly composed, badly exposed and printed pictures are now perfectly acceptable. There is no taste, no discrimination. 

When I see this "portrait" from my mother, with the main subject totally out of focus and the wall back there perfectly clear and I dare say "isn't a little bit out of focus?", I get this dirty look and response that I pay too much attention to details. Today anything is acceptable, no matter how bad it looks.

As Grek Erker said a few digests back (too many actually ;)), all it takes is a little attention to focusing and composition and a little demanding taste when looking at the prints (discard bad ones, have redone ones that got screwed in processing), to produce results that are admired by the masses. But then people will ask "What camera are you using?", istead of "You actually did use your brain, didn't you?"... These are the times... 

>may say "WOW!" when they see some good stereo slides in my Realist red button viewer, even to the point of asking what it takes to do this 3D thing. But I find there are very few individuals I've taken beyond the "WOW" stage and into involvement.

Allan, I have found that the best thing to do is to let them borrow a Realist camera. Do that for the more promising material. There is a lot of resistance to trying something different or seemingly complicated. Once they try the camera, some of them are hooked for life. Worth a try... 

This message got too long already... Isn't about time for a new digest? 

George (procrastinating before his "sale of the century"...) 


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