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When Did Perfect Photos Become Boring?
Soon after I bought my first digital camera and learned how to use it, I subconsciously began chasing a specific goal: cleaner pictures. So, I bought sharper, faster, more expensive lenses. I wanted less noise, so I learned how to remove it. I didn’t want to miss any shots, so I sought cameras with better autofocus. I wanted to capture photos in any type of light, so I bought cameras with more exposure latitude. I didn’t realize it, but apparently I subconsciously wanted to capture the cleanest, sharpest image in any situation.
As time went on and the technology improved, camera manufacturers gave me what I wanted.
Today, even entry-level cameras and kit lenses can produce images that would have amazed us twenty years ago. Modern lenses are incredibly sharp, and sensors handle high ISO settings that, just a few years ago, would have been unusable because of noise.
Even if your camera fails you or you mess up the shot, software can now remove noise, correct distortion, sharpen soft details, recover highlights, and open up shadows. We finally have that technical perfection that we spent decades chasing.
As of late, though, I’ve noticed something interesting happening. Photographers, myself included, are deliberately leaving the imperfections, or they’re using editing techniques to reproduce an old-time…
