Damon Winter of The New York Times has won third place for feature picture story from Pictures of the Year International (albeit anonymously, for the time being) with photographs taken on an iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. Critics have pounced. The debate over the propriety of using apps, already hot, is intensifying
My opinion: I can do what Hipstamatic does with Lightroom and Photoshop. Also, there are a LOT of lens/film/flast combinations on Hipstamatic...to have the eye to use exactly the right combination is a talent as much as taking any photo is. Hipstamatic is an art, IMO.
I love the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone - I think the images it produces can look really cool... I like 'em - and they're my pictures, so that's what matters! If you don't like my pictures, you don't have to look at them...
@barrymikhal
Right... So, if it doesn't take pictures, what the blazes does it take?!
@manek43509 i think what @barrymikhal mean't was hipstamatic isn't the thing picking and taking the photos as such, the person is so why shouldn't he have got 3rd place :)
I love the Hipstamatic too, and I don't use to take each and every photo. I think each point of view is going to be different... and I really think the photos are worth wining even the first place.
@hdoyle
Oh gosh... I read @barrymikhal's comment as being very derogatory - I see now how this might not be the case, now... And in which case, I apologise!!
(In my defence, it is half-past-two in the morning, and I'm quite tired!)
ITA with @barrymikhal that he took the picture, he deserved to be rewarded for his work, not matter what he used to document it.
To put it in 365 terms, it would be like saying that people shouldn't make the popular page if they dont use a DSLR. Ridiculous right? Photography is photography.
thats like saying that no one with a point and shoot should take good photos, photography in its entire being is changing, when everyone can take good photos now there will be photographers ranting trying to keep it elite and only to the pros, but we cant.
i have taken good photos on my iphone, if you check my 365 there are some in there, but really they arent as good as what i can get from my dslr.
half of photography is in the timing and being in the right place at the right time, and if you dont have a bulky camera with you all the time of course you're going to reach for you iphone, i know i do! and if that photo is the ONLY shot of some amazing event that no one else got?
iphones have better cameras in them than a point and shoot i have sitting in the cupboard.
Wow those pictures are amazing! I just got my IPhone and I just donwloaded this app to play with. I hope that 365 will accept pictures for themes and competitions from it. (YES tongue in cheek here).
It is the person operating the equipment that makes a picture a photograph.
@sdpace The issue in photojournalism is that you are not allowed to alter an image that changes the reality of it. If you took a picture with a DSLR and edited it in photoshop to look like his pictures, you would be criticized in photojournalism. HDR is another type of processing that is not allowed in PJ, but now there are cameras that shoot in HDR. The lines get blurred as technology advances.
@sdpace This site: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/and-the-winner-is-anonymous/
lists the contest as a photojournalism contest, and he works for the New York Times. I don't have the Hipstamatic app, but I think it would be software, rather than hardware. So if he used a toy camera (hardware) to take the pics, it would be okay, but the vitually identical image formed by software seems not to be.
The photographer's statement in the article is brilliant. I think nearly everywhere - and even to an extent here on 365 - iPhone photos and apps are certainly considered to be deficient in comparison to 'real' cameras, 'real' lenses, and 'real' editing software.
However, if what a photographer is working with is a level of chance through equipment (a la camera phone, or p&s, or Holga, etc), the more important aspects of composition, color, perspective, shape, line, etc., HAVE to be that much stronger. Yet it seems too many photographers mistakenly believe if their cameras are expensive and heavy, with big lenses, these will compensate for lack of understanding of the basic elements of art and image-making.
And yes, I may be somewhat defensive on this topic, as I've found it inordinately more difficult to keep my images from my iPhone and apps to the level of style and quality I know I can expect to achieve from my easily-managed DSLR + Photoshop : ) No offense meant, but it is fascinating to read this article in this context.
@manek43509 - settle down home slice. Opinions are for everyone. Just like you and yours.
For the record it doesn't take the picture. The user does. Barry for the win. @barrymikhal
Photoshop or Hipstamatic. whats the difference really? I mean its debatable. But in the end does it matter? A good photo is a good photo, and a bad one is bad. Doesn't matter how the moment was captured.
i love the artistic nature of Hipstamatic. the quality of the iPhone is really freaking amazing. i've held off getting a proper p&s because of my iPhone.
@barrymikhal
haha, thanks Barry - so sorry about all that!
@crappysailor
Yes - I take photos because I enjoy taking photos, and the only person I'm really doing it for is myself, so what matters is if I'm pleased with the outcome... But I did completely misread Barry's comment yesterday, and now feel rather ashamed of myself! :/ haha!
Hipstamatic didn't form that composition, didn't see that lighting situation, didn't frame the shot with the trees. It only added tone on the back end. Geez I hate process haters.
He could've just taken the photos with a real lo-fi camera that uses film, then the whole debate wouldn't be applicable because there's no fancy computer scripts that produce the effects. Just saying... there's a real, PURE way to get hipstamatic effects... (before people call me a hater, I use Vignette like crazy on my Droid... HOWEVER, I know it's just a program with predictable results, and still turn to real film most of the time)
However, I don't see the complaints about his photos... they don't look that different than stuff I've seen come out of a D3 before. There's not the gimmicky fake light leaks and fake film scratches and fake polaroid film frame and fake negative markings like most iphone/hipstamatic photos.
I think some of you may be missing the point of the controversy about this image. It has to do with photojournalism and its obligation to represent the "truth". Damon Winter works for the New York Times and his picture was in a photojournalism contest, not an art show. See the last paragraph in this New York Times statement on photos & images: http://www.nytco.com/company/business_units/integrity.html
I'm not against photo manipulation - if you look at my pics, every single one has been altered beyond what is acceptable for photojournalism. The controversy is not because he used a camera phone, it's because of the app. I guess the question becomes: Is the Hipstamatic app a digital manipulation? If it is, then Damon Winter has lost his photojournalistic integrity and he will have difficulty finding work in PJ.
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I love the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone - I think the images it produces can look really cool... I like 'em - and they're my pictures, so that's what matters! If you don't like my pictures, you don't have to look at them...
@barrymikhal
Right... So, if it doesn't take pictures, what the blazes does it take?!
What an asinine comment...
Oh gosh... I read @barrymikhal's comment as being very derogatory - I see now how this might not be the case, now... And in which case, I apologise!!
(In my defence, it is half-past-two in the morning, and I'm quite tired!)
To put it in 365 terms, it would be like saying that people shouldn't make the popular page if they dont use a DSLR. Ridiculous right? Photography is photography.
i have taken good photos on my iphone, if you check my 365 there are some in there, but really they arent as good as what i can get from my dslr.
half of photography is in the timing and being in the right place at the right time, and if you dont have a bulky camera with you all the time of course you're going to reach for you iphone, i know i do! and if that photo is the ONLY shot of some amazing event that no one else got?
iphones have better cameras in them than a point and shoot i have sitting in the cupboard.
It is the person operating the equipment that makes a picture a photograph.
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/and-the-winner-is-anonymous/
lists the contest as a photojournalism contest, and he works for the New York Times. I don't have the Hipstamatic app, but I think it would be software, rather than hardware. So if he used a toy camera (hardware) to take the pics, it would be okay, but the vitually identical image formed by software seems not to be.
However, if what a photographer is working with is a level of chance through equipment (a la camera phone, or p&s, or Holga, etc), the more important aspects of composition, color, perspective, shape, line, etc., HAVE to be that much stronger. Yet it seems too many photographers mistakenly believe if their cameras are expensive and heavy, with big lenses, these will compensate for lack of understanding of the basic elements of art and image-making.
And yes, I may be somewhat defensive on this topic, as I've found it inordinately more difficult to keep my images from my iPhone and apps to the level of style and quality I know I can expect to achieve from my easily-managed DSLR + Photoshop : ) No offense meant, but it is fascinating to read this article in this context.
For the record it doesn't take the picture. The user does. Barry for the win. @barrymikhal
Photoshop or Hipstamatic. whats the difference really? I mean its debatable. But in the end does it matter? A good photo is a good photo, and a bad one is bad. Doesn't matter how the moment was captured.
haha, thanks Barry - so sorry about all that!
@crappysailor
Yes - I take photos because I enjoy taking photos, and the only person I'm really doing it for is myself, so what matters is if I'm pleased with the outcome... But I did completely misread Barry's comment yesterday, and now feel rather ashamed of myself! :/ haha!
However, I don't see the complaints about his photos... they don't look that different than stuff I've seen come out of a D3 before. There's not the gimmicky fake light leaks and fake film scratches and fake polaroid film frame and fake negative markings like most iphone/hipstamatic photos.
:)~
http://www.nytco.com/company/business_units/integrity.html
I'm not against photo manipulation - if you look at my pics, every single one has been altered beyond what is acceptable for photojournalism. The controversy is not because he used a camera phone, it's because of the app. I guess the question becomes: Is the Hipstamatic app a digital manipulation? If it is, then Damon Winter has lost his photojournalistic integrity and he will have difficulty finding work in PJ.