ok maybe a bit tongue in cheek - Overused Photography Tricks

[Wirefox]

I LOVE FLUFFY WATER IN HDR AND POSTERISED OH A BIT OF COLOUR POPPING AS WELL

Now if you put that altogether in a shot of Auntie Gertrude holding up the leaning tower you could just be onto something

I think that is the point really, as Jeroen, has alluded to above; It really is how you apply these techniques that matters. I have an irrational aversion to the stock fluffy water shot but millions of people hang them on their walls behind behind their IKEA settees. and I can actually see why they would want to do that.

[Shadowman]

you just gotta agree with most of it, , take that pic from the piza tower with all those peeps leaning into it, mind you , i show a mate the pic of the ring in the shape of a heart and off he goes to try it because he has never seen it before, lol,
it kind of reminds me of the droplet into water ?, wow, i must emulate that,
yep and so has everybody else,
a million times over,
i think the comments are a bit too cruel tho, cheers martyn

But it's not like it's the same people going back and doing it every year, new generations take cues from the previous and old techniques get tried again. How many artists have tried to duplicate the Mona Lisa or film maker who tried to emulate Hitchcock. You get new artists and new viewers and perhaps along the way you sell a few of your ideas or someone else's from the past.

[Shadowman]

I'm kind of going back and forth on that article. While some of them are very cliched items, the long exposure ones are actually useful photographic techniques. It really does seem like the author is just angry.

And how many of them the author could actually re-create or complete.

[JK6065]

I have an irrational aversion to the stock fluffy water shot but millions of people hang them on their walls behind behind their IKEA settees. and I can actually see why they would want to do that.

Steve, what do you mean by fluffy water?
Something like this?


Lighthouse byPica on Flickr.

That's what I had I mind about applying long exposures properly. So if that's what your aversion is all about than we've got ourselves a great topic to argue about. I simply love it!

[bambleweeney]

Steve, what do you mean by fluffy water?
Something like this?

There you go, a good point. A cliche is all in the application of the technique. Apply it like everybody else ... it's a cliche. Think about what you're doing before you press the shutter then it's a technique. Find yourself a supermodel, some great light and a few softboxes, ask her to hold up the leaning tower of Piza and you've got a good shot. Get your hungover mate from Scunthorpe (sorry Scunthorpe nothing personal) to do the same thing at midday with your point and shoot - cliche.
Me, I'm reluctant to jettison techniques just because somebody thinks they're cliched.
As a fine example, last night I went to the opening night of an exhibition of 'contemporary' photography. If nothing else it was cliche free although it has to be said that the contemporary idea of having a photo with no apparent subject, composition, lighting or contrast is now becoming a cliche. Honestly after looking at 20 or 30 flat, grey prints of grass printed on A5 and mounted in an A2 frame in an effort to give them some importance I couldn't wait to get home to the comfort of Photomatix to HDR some old fluffy water shots.

[Wirefox]

Steve, what do you mean by fluffy water?
Something like this?

No. I can certainly live with that. Its bold, its brassy and super contrasty....nothing like the fluffy waters of my aversion. What I am talking about is the type of thing that you see when you get your medical prescription mixed up with heavy session on the Jack Daniels - the sort of image that is born out of the "I luv yow I do...yous my best mate in the whole wide world"...rather than the type of image that invites you outside and kicks your head in.

Jeroen, I am seeing similarities here with your latest pylon photograph. Three very different moods in one photograph. As Chris quite rightly observes Strauss, Wagner and Motorhead...but not necessarily in that order. I really like the concept. I am not saying I am keen on all her fluffy shots mind.

EDIT: I did actually qualify my tongue in cheek statements earlier.

I think that is the point really, as Jeroen, has alluded to above; It really is how you apply these techniques that matters.

And it is not just the fluffy water prints that induce vomiting in the IKEA sundries warehouse...so it could be environment association trauma that induces the panic attacks So if you were to put a stylised HDR photo of a Ford Mustang in a strip joint I might actually quite like it.

Now there is a thought....does the environment in which we view photographs influence our perceptions? If I viewed Donalds prints in Tebay services amongst the teddies in kilts and bonny price shortbread tins would I like them as much? Although every nerve screams against it - I think I would and maybe that is what makes a good photograph - it transcends the influence of its immediate environment. It draws the viewer in to the degree that all surrounding distractions become a irrelevant.

So on that basis it is probably fair to say that most of the fluffy water shots I see I associate with construct yourself coffee tables and cheap cutlery and that means they are simply not doing there job. Most stylised HDR I associate with the Wii or the PS3 so again they fail to stand up on their own. Now in popular culture these images actually trigger comfortable and familiar associations in most viewers....so is that a bad thing. Probably not - but I hate to think I will have to sling my Ansel Adams limited edition prints when I go off my Laura Ashley curtain pelmet

[Nass]

Well the reason something becomes a cliche is because it's popular =)

Btw Jeroen I really don't get how that image is done, especially how the sky is darker than the water. Are we talking 2 opposing GNDs here with the clear in the middle?

[prabbit237]

I read all the comments both there and here and notice that the author has NEVER said "hey, here's some of MY work showing how original photography should look." It's always easy to sit back and critique someone else's stuff but a lot harder to show how you don't follow right behind them in their footsteps. Basically "who died and made YOU king?"

I guess it all comes back to the old saying "Those who can't do, teach^H^H^H^H^Hcritique."