Garbage In, Garbage Out

There is a term in photography relating to the outcome of your final product dependent on the source material you begin with. It originally derived from computer science in relation to data, because computers are dumb and only do what you feed into it. So if you feed it shit, it will output shit.

From the Wiki:

Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) in the field of computer science or information and communications technology refers to the fact that computers will unquestioningly process unintended, even nonsensical, input data (“garbage in”) and produce undesired, often nonsensical, output (“garbage out”).

The same thing applies to pictures. Photoshop has come a long way from it’s heyday. It can make the ordinary extraordinary. But the same rule applies, the better the quality of the photo going in, the less Photoshop you actually require to make it amazing. And you should never be using Photoshop as a means of constantly trying to save garbage photo’s. Not if your bread and butter is photography!

I saw this photo floating around on Facebook, and it seems that art imitates life is more than an apt way of framing this picture as a snapshot of our current society’s behavior wrt relationships.

With the exception of the reference to negatives, i would say this picture describes the digital age quite well.

The digital age, even in guilty. My Nikon can take thousands of pics, throw away shots. Part of the strategy is to switch to ‘drive’ mode and continuously take pics hoping one of the many turns into gold, but this is usually for action shots where the motion is frantic.

However i like to think the best shots are the ones you plan ahead for, and with the right education in lighting theory, composition and mastery of your equipment you will get the best source material. The greatest photographers will wait patiently for the perfect shot to present itself, waiting hours for just the right lighting from the greatest light source we have.. the sun, and it’s position in the sky.

Garbage in/garbage out is the motto. Start with the best in-camera picture you can take so you end up using the most minimal amount of post processing (Photoshop) as possible.

In this regard, you can consider Photoshop as an analogy for Game.

Stupid Meme.. Fixed it for ya!

A real quickie, but a goodie. Got to let me flex my Photoshop might for a bit.
I’m sure many of you have by now seen a stupid meme about body types floating around on Assbook or Twatter or Dumblr.

Anyhoo, this pic is quite obvious in it’s tone. Sexiness means having more meat on your bones, not being rail thin. The obvious implication here is to denigrate thin girls and root for the ‘bigger’ girls. What we’re really seeing is a bullshit trope laying the groundwork for saying ‘Fuck you skinny girls, once you go big you never go twig.”

The meme then goes to EXAGGERATED lengths to prove this by pitting some of the hottest most recognizable and desired females of a bygone era whilst posing for obvious professional pin up pics against some of the most poorly chosen, half recognizable celebs in the most unflattering harsh under daylight point&shoot camera pics.

Exhibit A. – The Meme.

Being somewhat of a hobbyist when it comes to photo’s let me just clarify a couple of things wrong with the setup of this meme.