Small rant...

[johno]

Directed at posters in any of the photography groups...

Out of focus pictures are NOT automatically art.

Take a picture of your cat, dog, little sister, a mountain, a tree, a car, etc, etc, and it looks blurry???

Throw it away! Delete it, if digital!

Don't foist it on the viewing public and ask for commentary.
(I won't even go down the "and be nice" clause...)

Because the first comment will be "learn how the focus works on your camera"

{/rant}

Notes:

If you WANT it to out focus and it looks good, then it's ART.
If you got a cool effect, then it's found ART.

Posting a blurry pic and asking "why it's out of focus" is a valid question.

Comments

[manifestress.livejournal.com]

Another reason why we love ya!

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Digital cameras are < shudder > autofocus.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Being a good craftsman will in no way prevent you from becoming a genius. -Renoir

[ashi.livejournal.com]

Mine can still shoot out-of-focus when it wants to. Maybe it's artistic. *duck*

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Nope, I have a digital camera that is pure manual focus and it even has a shutter! No kidding!

[bovil.livejournal.com]

It's easy enough with an autofocus camera to have it focus on a specific object and then shift the image to create a controlled out-of-focus result.

Most fuzzy digital images are not out of focus per se... they're either too close to be within the depth of field of the lens in the first place, or are shot in iffy light conditions without flash, resulting in too long of an exposure length to hand-hold.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Digital SLRs are usualy expensive. How much was yours?

[bovil.livejournal.com]

the "and be nice" clause...

Oh, it's a "happy fluffy bunny reviewer" group.

Face it, lots of people don't want commentary. They want the happy fluffy bunnies to come up and tell them how nice they are. Iv'e a few friends who left fanfic lists because whenever they made a negative comment or offered constructive criticism the happy fluffy bunnies descended on them with sharp pointy teeth.

I can offer two suggestions:

If it's a community or group you moderate: Ban "and be nice," "positive comments only" and other such clauses. Put in the group description that when asking for comments one must be ready to expect criticism. In the case of LJ, screening posts would still be acceptable, because the entry author would still see the responses.

If it's a community that you don't moderate: I checked. happyfluffy doesn't exist. Register it. Use this ID to join those communities. Use it to incompetently gush about everything wrong with a picture that says "and be nice." Be the teenager who can't spell, capitalize or punctuate. Make people learn to dread happyfluffy's nice comments.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

His is a Leica, a darkroom and a slide/negative scanner.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Even rarer, digital rangefinder, the Epson R-D1.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, I haven't shown you my R-D1 yet? Have I? :-)

[johno.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, evil man, you should be in the LOEG HoF yourself.

Done!

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I'm not fictional enough. I will, though, help flesh out the profile for HappyFluffy

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Oooh! *bounce bounce* I want to be one of the evil people behind the dreaded happyfluffy postings!! >:D

[usqueba.livejournal.com]

I have a camera for my Visor. I was still not sure how it worked (What user's manual?! ::G::) so I was trying different things. I have a blurry, grainy picture of my cat a la bogus Bigfoot pics. It's terribly funny (imo).

AAAAH! It's Smallcat!

On the other hand...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

...if you can't frame even constructive criticism in an inoffensive way, go learn to write.

We've all seen the kind of sad, twisted geek who uses the Internet as a way to make itself feel superior by tearing chunks out of anyone who dares to put their efforts at creativity up for consideration. I'm sure no-one here is of that type...but they are the reason why comments such as "and be nice" are put up.

Re: On the other hand...

[wickedladybear.livejournal.com]

The difference then being between critque (meant to be helpful and give a genuine opinion) and critisism (meant to be mean and hurtful)? Thankfully, I've never heard Johno be any other than sweet. The idea is, frankly, universe rocking.

I don't like the overly saccarine "you're so goood, that's so artistic" syvophants either, but I do like praise for a hard effort and a reasonable effort made.

Ok, I fib a little, I do kinda like sycophants a wee bit, as long as I get the praise.

Is that so wrong?

[succ33d.livejournal.com]

I hope you weren't referring to my pictures because yes, I know they are blurry. I have a webcam and it is hard to focus it when I am trying to take a picture away from my desk. I have to put it on a timer. And if I move at all when the timer goes off, it gets blurry.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Rants are shotguns and thus cover a broad range, whether intended to or not.

So, No, it's not directed at you.

It's directed at the "I'm a shit hot photographer, look at the my great photos", yet when you follow the link/lj-cut, you find blur.

Re: On the other hand...

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Alas, the distinction you make is incorrect.

Criticism, in an artistic context, doesn't refer to adverse comments, but instead to the analysis and interpretation of a work. This may include negative comments, but doesn't have to.

Critique can refer to either a critical work (such as a review or essay) or to the general art of criticism and critical thinking (but that's a more academic usage).

The OED points out that US usage often interchanges the two, but American dictionaries usually list this out as an incorrect usage of "critique." It's often driven by an adverse reaction to the word "criticism."

If one wishes to make one's art stronger, acceptance of criticism (even if just to disagree with it) is very important.

If one just wishes to masturbate... well, as Eric Idle put it in the Not Noel Coward Song, "don't take it out in public, or they'll put you in the dock, and you wont... come... back."

[cambler.livejournal.com]

My blurry photos are caused by manual focus when I've forgotten to set the diopter correction on the viewfinder.

:-)

[johno.livejournal.com]

But you don't post them and ask for commentary.

Unless you are reverting to the 70s and want the blur.