Comic Genesis Forums

Laemkral? This is clearly for you. And anyone who just likes photography.

Some guy who is wayyyy too serious about photography does a weekly column in a Latvian newspaper giving advice to photo novices.

A few are good. Some are downright insulting. They're all in the form of "Wrong Way" "Right way" photo couplets.

http://ivarsgravlejs.com/pages/uafptext.htm

I got about 8 in, and found that I disagree with about 3 of them from a purely artistic point of view.
FOr instance, centering is boring.

Some were clever, excellent exaggerations of common mistakes. I thought it was kinda funny, very much along the lines of "what not to do in a webcomic."

I've not been doing a lot of photography since i quit my comic, though I do periodically remember to bring my camera along and see things that make me go "oooh". Germany has a lot more of those moments than Iraq, though there still are a few occasions when the desert truly shines as an artistic piece.

Nice find, Ryan.

Laemkral wrote:Nice find, Ryan.

Credit where due. I found it on Neatorama. Or, someone else did and posted it there. Pretty cool blog of random internet stuff.

Rkolter wrote:Some guy who is wayyyy too serious about photography does a weekly column in a Latvian newspaper giving advice to photo novices.

There's always a split second where I read "Latvian" and think "Latverian".

I think I may need to get out more often.

Oh man this is hilarious. I'm sending this to my department head(head photo prof as well)

Dracomax wrote:I got about 8 in, and found that I disagree with about 3 of them from a purely artistic point of view.
FOr instance, centering is boring.

Yeh, it seems the site is dedicated to improving technical photography, not artistic photography.

Man, I tried to get into photography, read several books and know about all the common rules, but it never helped me make good photographs. I think there's just something in my character that prevents me from being a good photographer. Like, photo artists I know will stand in the place without a movement for hours until they get a clear shot or something, I never have that kind of patience. I also have problems focusing on one object, instead I try to fit as much interesting details around, until the picture is totally crowded. It's so much easier when you draw it. So eventually I gave up on trying to make nice photos so now I just make crappy holliday photos that don't have any meaning to anyone but me.

Anyways, this site seems like it's for the newest of all novices. Kind of like "Photography for kids". I learned most of these things by intuition. Some of them are wrong in educational way, like when you tell a novice to follow some strict rules because you think he's not experienced enough to bend those rules.
Doesn't seem very educational, but some of mistake photos are a riot. "Try photographing so that it doesn't look upside down". Heh.

Jim North wrote:

Dracomax wrote:I got about 8 in, and found that I disagree with about 3 of them from a purely artistic point of view.
FOr instance, centering is boring.

Yeh, it seems the site is dedicated to improving technical photography, not artistic photography.

Ya rly. Cause, after a couple months of design classes, slapping the subject right in the middle of the photo makes we want to be physically ill.

Also, someone seriously teaching you to do a self portrait would say "The correct way is to not hold the camera with one OR both hands. What are you some Myspace cam whore? Use an auto shoot button or get someone to help"

"... try to photograph it in a way that does not look wrong."

Yeeeeah, that's helpful.

I disagree with the page condemning dutch angles. They're so trendy!

BTW how many of you guys are photographers? I mainly do journalistic photography (my minor) *Self-whoring link*

I particularly liked the bit about not photographing facial scars and blemishes-the wrong photo was immensly more interesting, becausethe light quality was much better.

also, I would never try to photograph a public figure in a respectful way. probably because I don't respect any public figures, but also because I like the idea of a photograph humanising the figure.

OH WELL THEN that explains everything!

Removing that third vanishing point before setting up your camera is always a bitch, I never know where to leave it so it's not in anyone's way

Komiyan wrote:
OH WELL THEN that explains everything!

Does anyone else thing the 'right' thingy looks terrible here?

But 'It's better to photograph clouds when there are clouds' cracked me up, so all is forgiven.

Alias Pseudonym wrote:Does anyone else thing the 'right' thingy looks terrible here?

I agree with you.

The "wrong" picture looks like how you'd expect to view it in real life. The "right" one looks like some kind of fishbowl effect, or a MC Esher building.

Photographers will like to rip apart tutorials by some guy in this thread

Tim wrote:

Alias Pseudonym wrote:Does anyone else thing the 'right' thingy looks terrible here?

I agree with you.

The "wrong" picture looks like how you'd expect to view it in real life. The "right" one looks like some kind of fishbowl effect, or a MC Esher building.

I think the one on the left looks like an up-angle, and the one on the right looks like a hand-etching.

So I guess the one on the left looks like a 'natural' view, and the one on the right looks... artificial.

the fact that so many of you seem to be commenting on the fact that these are basic "duh" kind of things make me feel like not many of you are seeing that it's clearly a joke...

I dunno so far I think his whole little series is pretty funny.

I liked the bit about the lens cap.