Sta.sh
remember when photoshop was for professionals, and not every photo you saw was some crap photo that had been made "better" by photoshop?
remember when you could go to the front page of deviant art and NOT see the same artists and photographers all the time because they had so many favs, and pageviews?
are you fed up of not getting the views you deserve because someone with 6 million pageviews can post any old art and get a million favs.. then read on.
Remember those days?
these days I cant come to deviantart and look very far before I see yet another submission by certain artists who have so many pageviews its unlikely they will ever post anything again that wont make it to the top pages of devart.
It goes like this, you post somthing and people who like it will fav it, if it gets enough pageviews or favs it goes up to the top of the most popular tabs, and thus you get seen more and more, which means more favs and more pageviews.
great if you dont have many, but it seems maybe its unfair since hugely popular people with lots of fans will get more and more favs.
now I said in the title about photoshop and I think that photoshop is abit to blame for all this.
in the olden days, photographers had to be good, they had to know how to work a camera and have a knowlage of composition and form.
now if they get it wrong, they can do whatever they like with the photo and make it actually quite good.
and then a boring, underexposed photo can be a great peice of artwork that millions of people love and then fav, along with comments such as wow your a great photographer, great photo.
But are they really?
some, maybe even most are, and maybe im being harsh, but where is the line between photographer and photoshopper?
Its a vicious circle, and its hard to break, but people really need to start looking further then the first page of each catagory.
further more commenting on peoples deviations needs to be more then what everyone else is saying, if someone has a long list of comments saying great photo, you dont have to say the same.
If you think theres somthing bad, or it could be better, for heavens sake, say so, dont be afraid to say what you think.
heh its funny, I would put this in my journal, for I fear people will say this isnt "news" and will proberly hate me for what i have said, but I dont get enough pageviews to reach the number of people I want to.
artists and photographers and writers, shouldnt have to rely on the more famous members of deviantart to help then get seen by being featured in there journal.
Dont get me wrong, i beg you. I love most of the artists work im refuring to, and yes photoshop is a great tool, but lets not all be the same, lets not all fav somthing just because everyone else does.
lets look past the post processing and "look" at the bigger picture.
and then, when you have looked, and thought, leave a good comment and if you really love it, and its worth it, Fav it.
But most of all, lets not make this a fan site for the top 10 artists who have over 1 million pageviews, lets keep this place as a community of good and even great artists.
remember when you could go to the front page of deviant art and NOT see the same artists and photographers all the time because they had so many favs, and pageviews?
are you fed up of not getting the views you deserve because someone with 6 million pageviews can post any old art and get a million favs.. then read on.
Remember those days?
these days I cant come to deviantart and look very far before I see yet another submission by certain artists who have so many pageviews its unlikely they will ever post anything again that wont make it to the top pages of devart.
It goes like this, you post somthing and people who like it will fav it, if it gets enough pageviews or favs it goes up to the top of the most popular tabs, and thus you get seen more and more, which means more favs and more pageviews.
great if you dont have many, but it seems maybe its unfair since hugely popular people with lots of fans will get more and more favs.
now I said in the title about photoshop and I think that photoshop is abit to blame for all this.
in the olden days, photographers had to be good, they had to know how to work a camera and have a knowlage of composition and form.
now if they get it wrong, they can do whatever they like with the photo and make it actually quite good.
and then a boring, underexposed photo can be a great peice of artwork that millions of people love and then fav, along with comments such as wow your a great photographer, great photo.
But are they really?
some, maybe even most are, and maybe im being harsh, but where is the line between photographer and photoshopper?
Its a vicious circle, and its hard to break, but people really need to start looking further then the first page of each catagory.
further more commenting on peoples deviations needs to be more then what everyone else is saying, if someone has a long list of comments saying great photo, you dont have to say the same.
If you think theres somthing bad, or it could be better, for heavens sake, say so, dont be afraid to say what you think.
heh its funny, I would put this in my journal, for I fear people will say this isnt "news" and will proberly hate me for what i have said, but I dont get enough pageviews to reach the number of people I want to.
artists and photographers and writers, shouldnt have to rely on the more famous members of deviantart to help then get seen by being featured in there journal.
Dont get me wrong, i beg you. I love most of the artists work im refuring to, and yes photoshop is a great tool, but lets not all be the same, lets not all fav somthing just because everyone else does.
lets look past the post processing and "look" at the bigger picture.
and then, when you have looked, and thought, leave a good comment and if you really love it, and its worth it, Fav it.
But most of all, lets not make this a fan site for the top 10 artists who have over 1 million pageviews, lets keep this place as a community of good and even great artists.
If you can tell someone has photoshopped the hell out of their photos, they probably aren't doing a good enough job. It takes practice and they may just be trying something out and looking for an opinion on it.
I agree on the part where people are submitting photomanips where are all they did was adjust the contrast, cross processed and added a texture. Lots of people quickly favourite a picture without pausing to look if it's a photomanip. People are faving it for the photo itself most of the time. I'm fine with photo manipulations when they are making a whole new photo, but just doing minor edits isn't fair to the original artist. It's even worse when they don't give credit to the owner of the photo. They would clearly state it's a photo manipulation, because if they don't it's pretty much art theft for taking credit for it.
I fave what I like, no matter how many faves or views. Lot's of times stuff I like is done by a popular artist, and they are popular because of their great work. Other times it's done by a lesser known person. I never fave something just because everyone else does. I fave something if I like it, and if I don't like it then I don't favourite it.
Some people are pageview-hungry fave-whores, but most people are here for the art, and shouldn't whine about not getting the attention they deserve. They will get pageviews in time and should take the time to improve, you shouldn't expect instant popularity on this site. No matter how much people gripe and complain, it's not going to change. Do your part, favourite lesser known artists, but don't just do it for the sake of spiting the more popular people. Do it because you genuinely like their art, same if the deviation happens to be more popular.
Stop discriminating and just enjoy the art. It's here for you to look at, and not for you to complain about. If you don't like it, don't look at it. If you still have a problem, then leave deviantART or put up with it.
It's just art.
Appreciate it.
First of all, your speaking of old days on deviantart — well. I'm a member of this community since early 2002 and I honestly cannot remember the days you're speaking of. What has certainly changed is the community's number of members but we always had our "celebrities" on here that got procentually more favourites and views on their work. This is a phenomenon that does not only appear in the photography scene or only here on deviantart. It's a common phenomenon of our society — which is unfortunately anything but fair.
It does not make any sense to me, and I can neither see any proof for your speculation, that a program is responsible for how things are. Actually, excuse me for saying this, your assumption is a bit ridiculous.
I can understand why a Photographer suspiciously eyes software like Photoshop. While it gets often "justified" as a "digital darkroom", it developed into more than just a digital darkroom. A photographer like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa or Helmut Newton perfectly showed us what masterpieces you can create with pure photography. Persons like Man Ray introduced us to the power of a darkroom. They have done everything possible with a camera and a darkroom. However, they all have died and the earth is still rotating. Things are changing. Things are developing. Nowadays in photography everything has been done before. Yes, different faces, different places, but original? No. Reality got reproduced in great detail. Now we want to produce. Fantasy, Illusions, Ideals. Photoshop is plain and simple part of the development and, yes I know, development challenges as it want's you to develop, too. "Classical" Photography will always enjoy the status it deserves and a good photo will always be a good photo — but it had its proper time.
A bad photo with good post-processing stays a bad photo. People who are familiar to photography clearly see the difference. If people fave it anyway it is neither the creator's nor post-processing's fault. When those brain-less catchy pop songs play on the radio it's not the musician's fault or good production's, it's the people who buy that stuff. But, hey, our unfair world would actually really suck if we were not free to decide what we like. See it as a sort of privilege that we can like shit as we can produce it.
The reason now anyone can do this with photoshop isnt because of photoshop being a household name, but more that digital cameras (dSLR and cheapy digi cameras) are low in cost.
Back in the day (if you are under 30 don't type this
Consumer electronics are to blame. Think outside the box, Apple did. Also, how is this news? :/ I understand and respect you wished to hit a greater audience than your own journal would reach, but use the forum?
Putting it in perspective, Acrobat was first implemented in 1991. Acrobat came what seemed along time after Photoshop.
The top artists (by pageviews and
Respect those who achieve this, do not blame availability of tools.
Though I am a photoshop user and I believe photoshop is a great help (and I don't consider myself a photographer, and someone really has to tell me wth is a photographer, coz I seem to fail to comprehend what it takes to be one -.-' ) I'm proud to say I'm one of the few that actually looks for people that are unknown and I see one's the entire gallery before choosing the work I like the most.
I hope more and people start doing the same. And yes, you might have been slightly harsh, but that's what you believe in, so no one will hate for it (I think...)
Just one more thing (I know, I'm a pain
Any way, I liked the article and it's good to know so many are willing to support the 'litle ones'
But I agree with what you're saying. It gets on my nerves when people take some foto and then crop, edit, enhance and get about the same I got from patience and "having an eye".