Focused on the wrong things

I started a bit of a conversation on social media yesterday about how many photographers are too obsessed with the wrong things. It appears for the last few years many photographers are obsessed with how sharp a lens focuses and/or the out-of-focus area, I shudder to use the term bokeh. Shouldn’t we be more obsessed with composition and subject?

I see many many photographs every day. The photographs I see range from being taken by beginners to professionals. The photographs I see every day range from macro to landscape, from nature to portraits of people. It often pains me when I see a beautiful portrait of a person and the first comment I see goes something like, “this is absolutely stunning bokeh!”. For the love of Ansel Adams! This is a stunning portrait of a beautiful person and the first thing you notice is the out-of-focus area! All the dead masters are turning over in their graves!

The same goes for the sharpness of a lens. Yes, sharp focus is important. Yes, some lenses have better resolution than others, but super sharp and high resolution are not always best in my opinion. Photograph a female model and during the retouching process to remove blemishes and stray hairs and then you notice all the fine facial hairs, every skin pore, every slight blemish. While it may be a true representation of the person it is not how our eyes and minds see them.

Let’s get back to where we are more concerned about composition and subject rather than the blurry area and how super sharp a lens represents every minor detail of everything in the world.