Stephen Walton Photography Workshops

So many, oh so many things in photography have passed their sell-by date I think, yet some photographers continue to push them.

While I’m not saying we (as photographers) shouldn’t go back to old trends after a while, we should at least recognise when some are ready for the sidelines.

Here are my 5 least favourite trends in photography that really need to stop!

1. Phone Reflections

If you do this, please stop. They’re done to death and no one is approaching this innovatively anymore. It just seems to be unoriginal copies of different things popping off a phone screen. When it first started trending I’ll admit it was different but now it’s overdone and doesn’t really ‘say’ anything photographically speaking.

2. Heavily, Heavily Retouched Portraits

What is wrong with human skin? You don’t need to spend this much time removing every facet of reality to purport an expectation of beauty that is utterly unachievable – even through surgery. I fell foul of this thought process in the past but over time I’ve seen it really isn’t honest – which photography is designed to be. Just use good lighting instead.

3. Shooting Everything at F/1.4

There are more apertures you know?! While shallow depth looks wonderful and does a lot for composition and storytelling, it seems to be relied upon too much.

Are portrait photographers (especially) questioning ‘is this the best aperture?’ or is it just being used because of low light? While this makes sense, wide apertures come with smaller fields of focus and offer less shape and texture which can enhance a story. Shutter speed and ISO can be used instead to compensate for low light – unless a flash or LED panel can be used alternatively.

Again, my work shows a lot of wide apertures in different genres so I have been guilty of this crime in the past.

4. Selling Bundles of 3,000 Presets

Come on, please tell me you’ve never bought these. Does anyone really come with expectations that they’ll be 3,000 amazing presets all totally unique?

For the heavy discounts that are applied to entice us in you’ve got to stop and think – how can anyone make money selling at these prices, unless most of them are sh*t?

I’ve seen these packs and they are filled with basic adjustment presets like ‘Brightness +5, Brightness +10, Brightness +20, etc.’ It takes milliseconds to do this yourself in Lightroom and then batch repeat this on other shots. If you are going to invest in presets look for smaller packs and find out what each one does and judge for yourself.

NOTE – The more presets you have the longer it takes for Lightroom to load as well as you’re weighing it down with rubbish.

5. Exact Camera Settings

I hope you’ve passed the point of asking photographers for their exact camera settings? It’s utterly pointless. Use camera settings as a mere guide at best but understand you’ll NEVER be able to recreate the exact same shot with those exact settings.

Natural light is a variable so can’t be replicated the exactly same in different locations which is why settings for one shot are redundant for another. Distance of light source, temperature, atmosphere, cloud, humidity, and diffusion all have an effect on how light appears to a camera.

You’ll learn a lot more about photography, yourself, and your camera by making mistakes and readjusting your settings I promise.

Final Words

I cannot put myself above the pulpit and say I’ve never made these mistakes myself. I am not ‘cool’ but some of these trends or pastimes need to halt for the sake of photography.