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PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4189 Location: Evolving

Check out the standards required by the BBC (owner of the world famous Science Picture Library) for their website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18332793

I was genuinely shocked by these. They are way below average holiday snap standard. If the Beeb are going to let a reporter loose with a phone camera they could at least tell him to get the sun behind him when he shoots.

digigandalf · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 5455 Location: Twinsburg, OH

Sad to see the BBC sinking to the level of Flickr (or worse).

mikenorton · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14 am

This has all happened before. Back in the 80s when auto focus first came out editors saw that anyone with an auto focus camera could produce a sharp picture. So they started using these pictures because they were cheap (usually free, people just wanted a photo credit). Slowly the editors realized that they were getting what they paid for. Will that happen again?

Then again maybe the BBC had all their photographers covering the Queen's Jubilee.

rudyumans · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:52 am

if you double click on the picture of the people on the boat you will see that it is actually a still from a video. The video is not all that good either

That is not the case with the other pictures. I agree, those look like cell phone snaps

evaners · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:15 pm

The sad part isn't the poor quality of the images. Nor is it the fact that the BBC can't tell the difference, or doesn't care.

It's the fact that 99.99% (I did the math myself) of the people that will ever view the photos, will never notice anything out of the ordinary about them.

There used to be a time when we people knew the difference. They bought all the big magazines (Life, Natl Geo, etc.) because the photos were always amazing. Regular people knew the difference between great photography and their own snapshots, and they appreciated that difference. With the advent of affordable digital and especially camera phones, everyone has now become accustomed to snapshot sh*t as being good photos. And there's no longer any recognition of the difference between that crap and good photography.

rinder99 · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:09 pm

+1000 it was LIFE and LOOK and NAT Geo that made me wanna do this as a life.

mikenorton · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:56 pm

libyphoto · Joined: 08 Jun 2009 Posts: 799 Location: Oz

NEWS FLASH:

Was on a shoot today. The matriarch of the family informed me that the, and I mean "THE", photogrpaher in our town (not that he was any competition to me.... ehem!} is now working in the production facility of her company.

The definition of "irony" in this case is that, 6 years ago while experiencing the onslaught of digital in our profession, I told him in a phone conversation that "the writing is on the wall" (for the demise of our profession) - apparently he did not believe it. Now perhaps he does.

Every limp schlong (i.e. like obama) is destined to fail. See the writing on the wall folks, and stop thinking that you can right the wrongs and turn back the clock. You can't.

Figure out what you are going to do next and stop whining about being left behind.

The only other option is to become Chinese and hope they don't defer to Capitalism....

Good Luck.

komarinasia · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 181 Location: at my desk

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4189 Location: Evolving

Not that a shot being from TS means that it is bad. At least it has been through some approval process at some stage, which these would never have passed.

semmickphoto · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 5:03 am

What if the BBC is sick of all the perfect made ideal pimped plastic unrealistic stock look that is out there and just wants to show life as it really is? Its a news site, not a marketing agency.

komarinasia · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 181 Location: at my desk

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4189 Location: Evolving

semmickphoto · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 8:48 am

Why? Its a news story on some tourists, nothing more, nothing less. I dont see the problem in this particular case.

robhainer · Joined: 03 May 2010 Posts: 2915 Location: Dallas, GA, USA