“Smartphones have ruined photography” article

Nobody prints their photos? Seriously? No one sees them after they take them? That photographer obviously doesn't look at Facebook feeds. Or maybe his friends block him from seeing their photos. With that attitude, I would.

People may print fewer photos overall, but now you can create photo books at Costco, or enlarge prints to hang in your home, or Photoshop them to create a more artistic look for your decor, as well as printing photos for the more traditional photo albums. I download my phone photos periodically, along with those from my nice camera. I am a traditional scrapbooker, but my DDIL does photo books. They get printed one way or another, and are definitely viewed.

When our youngest DS got married recently, we sure weren't relying on guests using their phones to capture the memories. We hired a professional photographer, and also had a friend do some additional pictures that the professional photog because he was busy with group shots. Like the photographer, my friend had a really high quality camera, not just a nice phone.

I think the availability of technology has produced more people who take pictures, as well as some who, like me, also made the decision to invest in a really nice camera.

The digital age teaches us immediately when we have taken a bad shot and need to retake. As a result, we have more amateur photographers, but I also think we have better amateurs, as long as they learn from their mistakes.

I have a decent camera in my phone, but I will part with my "real" camera when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

What nonsense!

I guess it depends what kind of photography and photographers one is talking about, but to my knowledge nothing terrible is happening to professional and fine art photographers to make them less creative.

And the vast majority of everyday people were never taking photos before, so surely them taking any photos is better. The best camera is the one you have on you. Sure, you can get better quality pictures with some skills and a nice DSLR, the skills and understanding what that camera can do being the more important part (I've seen some amazing creative work done on toy cameras and basic smartphones).

But most people who take photos on their smartphones get better at taking photos over time, IMO. As scrapnnana said, you get immediate feedback with digital, so you can learn faster what works and what doesn't if you pay attention. And I see lots of people getting creative - not necessarily with great success all the time, but creative is creative. And if a person wants to learn to be a better photographer they have something in their pocket that they can practice on all day every day.

I personally despise the phones that take really wide angle tall photos - they're ugly and unflattering and weird looking - and I'm sad that a lot of people never turn their phone to landscape orientation... but again, any photo is better than none to my way of thinking. I can crop.

Whether people value photos - we might have such a flood of mediocre everyday shots that it's hard to sort through and find those truly valuable gems. The average non-memory keeper probably has no sense of what they have, no organization, no proper backups. But hasn't that always been true? Think of families with boxes and envelopes of poor quality fading snapshots (thanks, 1970s) scattered around the house, no negatives, hardly anything framed.

Nobody ever looks at photos? Nope. Sorry, that's just wrong. Nobody ever prints them? Fewer people do, sure, but those people might be the same uncreative people who use IG filters, so what does he care? And in the past lots of people only printed because they had to to see what pictures they got. They never did anything beyond that.

This smacks of the "smartphones are bad, we used to talk to each other on trains" argument that forgets that we've always had books or newspapers to hide behind. Didn't Plato (?) claim that writing stuff down would rot the brain? Smartphones (and digital cameras generally) have made it easier for anyone to learn to take good photos and to enjoy and share them. That sounds like a good thing to me, and it doesn't threaten or degrade pro photographers who do exceptional work.

This guy just sounds like a snob. (that said, I wrote most of this before I watched the original 1.5 minute video yet, so maybe I'm judging him too harshly based on pull quotes and my own biases).

This exactly!

I print 8x10 prints from my phone all the time! They look great, better than almost every camera I’ve ever owned.

While my 8 takes decent pics, it can't hold a candle to my DSLR with my Tamron lens 16-300mm. We were in the Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend on a tour, and the guide pulled off into a meadow where they sometimes see elk, bear, moose, or big horn sheep. There was a moose and elk not too far from each other in the field. I was the only one with a good lens and my pics turned out much more clear than everyone trying to zoom in on the creatures. My goal is to print the pics on a 12 x 12 print. I know that close up pics don't matter as much, but no phone I have seen does anything like a good DSLR. My kid has the X and they were clear, but the zoom pretty much sucked.

lisacharlotte i think i love you.  great post!!   haven't read the article, definitely am not going to watch any videos.  this guy sounds like a douche!

My thoughts are that my phone takes as good of pictures as my Canon Rebel (except the zooming part...camera is way better for that). I keep looking at the mirrorless cameras, but honestly they need to advance some more before I will consider purchasing one. I carry my Canon for important events where I will need the zoom...otherwise its phone camera all the way for me. And I'm fine with that.I dont have the desire or patience to learn a DSLR, so a point and shoot or phone camera is as good as it's going to get around here (nobody take away my scrapbooker card!!!)

Interesting topic!!

If it weren’t for my iPhone, I wouldn’t have scrapbooks. I print 100 times more pictures than I did with a traditional camera, both film and digital. Apps make it super easy to print.

I just skimmed the beginning of the article-- just long enough to get the idea that 'man, this guy is full of himself, isn't he?'  Talking about how bad iPhone photography is, but he's having an exhibit of POLAROID photography?!?     It just sounds like sour grapes, almost-  'those darn iPhones, they take digital photos, and you can use filters on them...' lol!!

Can’t fit a DSLR in my hip pocket!