The Cinderella Effect
Photography in the digital age of fancy equipment…
A subject I am so guilty of, as is any amateur, novice, advanced shooter, semi-pro, professional and gear junkie like. In some way, we have all been part of the Cinderella Effect. Yes, this topic will offend some, it will be crass and very close at home to the point and probably earn me no points whatsoever to anyone. But, it will separate the few from the many, it spans all areas of photography and processing…
The debate has gone on for long enough, however, will never stop. Canon, Nikon, Fuji or Olympus. Apple, Windows, Adobe or otherwise. There is always going to be a debate. And a heated one. Windows releases their latest all-in-one epic amazing machine and for a second she is wearing high heels and a glamourous ballroom gown and steals the show. Fuji throws the XT2 out there and wins the heart of the prince. Olympus counters with the EM1mkii and loses a glass slipper and everyone wants to know the size of her foot to see all of her beauty.
The point is when a nifty piece of tech is released we all hold our breath and for a minute it is the star of the show. The Cinderella effect in place. Then we get all the tech bashers on the internet that tear it apart and scrutinize every aspect of the release. Take years of hard work and try to make it out as a pumpkin on wheels.
The best thing I love about this effect is all the internet bashers on any new gear is the actual concept they have in photography. An evil stepmother who has nothing good to say who only posts in 72dpi and shoots for the web is so concerned about 4K and massive image IQ and has a database of unsung internet hero images? What has happened to the industry?
Why is everything the in thing for like a minute and then not good enough? 3 years ago full HD was almost over the top and now if it does not do 4K it does not feature. Then they all start doing 4K and everyone downscales to 1080p. Make up your mind or turn into a mouse and eat cheese.
These camera companies are working so hard to create a product you want and the moment they do it is not good enough. There is always something to say. Sure when they release a new model it’s the Cinderella effect, and then back to The Hunchback of Notre Dame…
If you don’t like any of this then suck it and go back to film and manual focus a total of 3fps on a bird in flight and come back with 1 out of 36 exposures in focus and most likely overexposed. Stop complaining and start creating. Shoot like no one cares, love light and enjoy composing.
Images are not there to please, they are there to educate, inspire, expose and to be remembered. If you have to pull out a flippen ISO of 25600 and have a dirty as hell picture so flippen what. I guarantee if you had to do it to take that once in a lifetime image you would. And it could make you famous. It could get you like on Facebook, or even a 98% rating on 500px. Effing good for you.
Stop being a pawn in the Cinderella effect. I am guilty, I love fancy tech gear. So do you. I know you do. But it will not make you a better photographer so step up your game and become a better photographer.
I challenge you, scroll your social media page. Look at the images with thousands of likes and hundreds of shares. What does the image tell you? Most of the time it will be nothing, it will just be a great image that was the result of a fast super shallow DOF lens or something along those lines. Find the ones that make you look once, then twice, then a third time. Then you will bookmark it and keep going back. That is an image. I maybe have a few of those, or at least I hope so. I have a number of bookmarks. What is your best image you have ever seen? Please feel free to comment with a link or suchlike… Here is one of mine from my portfolio shot recently….