Drowning in lifestyle photography

I too find such images irritating, as I do for most things with the sole goal of presenting a fake-happiness, shallow, empty, wealthy, materialistic lifestyle.

Like the movie American Beauty, just a few feet behind the front cover, life usually is ugly and garbage.

So don't take me wrong, I hate such photos too, but put yourself in the photographers' shoes.

What would you really do in their shoes?

If you run away from the shallow DOF look, you may get your work confused with it being shot with a slow kit lens, a cellphone, P&S or whatever.

People are really not that sophisticated.

They need to see shallow DOF to trust you used a pro camera, coff coff, as if that was all photography is about... your reputation as a pro depends on it, and that was not sarcasm.

Same arguments for everything else.

People want to see themselves as fake as possible, so they can perpetuate the idea of eternal wealthy and happiness for others to see.

Hardly clients will want themselves portrayed without expensive items, huge smiles, and doing things that scream "see how happy and succesful I am???".

If you try to do something a bit more nuanced, poetic, somber, truer, you may find quickly that this recquires tremendous artistic effort each time you go out on assingment, and you're really not earning enough to be a visual poet every time.

So you reach out for a recipe, as easy and effective as you can rely on.

As again, you're not getting paid to be Scorsese.

BTW, I really hate wedding filters too, but I understand why they do it.

To strobe light every session with a fine degree of perfection and inspiration, or to rely on good ambient light every time you go out, may not be doable.

So they just shoot with whatever light there is atm, and throw a ton of filters over the images, so the client can see "a photographer did that".

It's sad, but the game is hard.

These guys are facing constraints left and right to earn a few bucks.

Best regards,