Don't Fall for the Lies That 'Real' Photographers Want to Tell You

The best thing about the internet is that there are so many sources of photography education out there. The worst thing about the internet is... that there are so many sources of photography education out there. So how do you sort facts from lies told so often that they’ve acquired the status of fact?

One look at the stunning lead photograph for this article, created by the wonderful Canadian wildlife photographer Simon D’Entremont, should be enough to tell you that this is somebody who really knows what they are doing when it comes to capturing great images. Like many experienced photographers who enjoy sharing the love of their craft with others, Simon has a YouTube channel in which he leverages his extensive experience and knowledge to educate and inform other photographers. I have been a fan of Simon’s channel for some time now. Along with his engaging and insightful content, I always enjoy his stunning photography that he presents on the channel and uses to great effect to demonstrate the photographic concepts that he is discussing.

Over the many years that Simon has been a professional photographer, he has encountered a lot of the photography myths and misconceptions that have been repeated so many times (usually online) that they have acquired the status of fact. We are all familiar with this phenomenon of disinformation masquerading as truth in other areas outside of photography—a red rag enrages a bull, never wake a sleepwalker, wait an hour after eating before you swim, etc. But as Simon discusses in his video presented here, photography also has its fair share of myths and lies that regularly get peddled as fact.

I don’t want to give away which photographic falsehoods Simon discusses in his video—you’ll have to watch the video yourself for that. As well as potentially learning something new, you will also get to enjoy some of Simon's own remarkable photography that he uses to illustrate the points he is making as he does a kind of “MythBusters” breakdown of some of the most egregious photography misinformation that is most commonly parroted on the internet—in many cases, by experienced photographers who should really know better!

Gordon Webster's picture

Gordon Webster is a professional photographer based in New England. He has worked with clients from a wide range of sectors, including retail, publishing, music, independent film production, technology, hospitality, law, energy, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, medical, veterinary, and education.

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3 Comments

Simon without doubt is one of the best YouTube wildlife photographers out there giving great advice and content.

For the processing photos argument being cheating, that is one that I have not heard delivered seriously before. One of the biggest things that gets focused on in cameras, is the capability of the raw files to be adjusted in post.

For the auto and manual argument, that is a common one, though it is based on limitations of many digital cameras of the time. Older metering technology and older cameras with less latitude to adjust the raw files, would often mean that auto modes would result in incorrect exposures relative to the vision the user had for the image, or the post processing goal of the image.

Modern cameras are better able to detect the subject and ensure a better exposure of the subject, thus fixing many of the exposure issues with the exception of when you want a specific stylized look, or if you are shooting for a specific post process workflow.

The areas where Auto still has trouble, is determining the best shutter speed and ISO for a specific subject. Cameras still do not seem to use data from the subject tracking as well as accelerometer data to measure camera shake to determine the minimum and maximum shutter speed to use, thus it can lead to images where the shutter speed and ISO are too low or high for a specific subject when in aperture priority. And while there are many settings to adjust how the camera will pick ISO and shutter speeds, that is not fast to adjust.

On the other hand, those functions have improved greatly over the years and in some scenarios, they are simply better than manual mode. For example, dealing with rapidly changing lighting conditions or a subject that is rapidly moving between shaded and unshaded areas.