{"id":7271,"date":"2026-10-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2026-09-21T20:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:44:33","slug":"cluches-are-more-important-than-they-appear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/2026\/10\/16\/cluches-are-more-important-than-they-appear\/","title":{"rendered":"Clich\u00e9s Are More Important Than They Appear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019ve all been beginners one day. And we\u2019ve all been criticised for creating clich\u00e9 photographs. The implication is that clich\u00e9s shows a failure of originality, something to get rid of as quickly as possible because it\u2019s not interesting, it\u2019s already done to death. The implication is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clich\u00e9 but I learned from creating it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

When I learned photography, I had no plan because I knew nothing. I didn\u2019t even know what aperture was. I looked at a lot of photos and decided on a number of things I liked. A lot of those were photos that would be considered clich\u00e9s today, and probably already were at the time. But I saw something I liked, I tried to reproduce it to learn how it\u2019s made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To recreate a photo you like to can\u2019t just copy<\/em> it. That\u2019s not a thing unless you use a photocopier and you put your name on someone else\u2019s photograph. To reproduce a photo you have to understand what makes it work. For example, a photo of a foggy landscape with a lone tree in silhouette on a hill is about balancing a difficult to expose scene (fog can be a real pain to get right, like snow), framing the tree in exactly the right spot in the frame, and balancing the tones to make it a pleasant image. In the end, if you do it well, you have a clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being success in reproducing clich\u00e9s requires an analytical approach that teaches you the mechanisms of that image and why it was successful enough to become a clich\u00e9. Consciously or not, you have to develop the tools that will make you understand what makes that image what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, you essentially build an internal model of what photography is. The same way weapon development doesn\u2019t need to detonate a nuclear bomb to understand whether it works because very accurate models have been developed over time that make it unnecessary, each reproduction of a clich\u00e9 photo refines your understanding of the mechanisms that lead to their original creation. After enough iterations, you stop needing to experiment to reach your goal because your internal simulations, learned from reproducing clich\u00e9s, already have the answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a slow loop: find an image you like and you don\u2019t really understand, try to reproduce it, fail, analyse, close the gap, try again, fail, analyse why, get closer to your goal, until you understand its mechanisms and you\u2019re close enough to have recreated the clich\u00e9. Eventually, you lose interest in the original and you move on to another photograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clich\u00e9s are clich\u00e9s because they were very successful. Any random photo can\u2019t become a clich\u00e9, it just disappears in the billions of photos taken every day. Clich\u00e9s have value before they\u2019re branded as uninteresting clich\u00e9s and that\u2019s why it is interesting to learn from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clich\u00e9s are only a problem when you treat them like a destination, which is what only bad photographers on IG do. They manage to reproduce the current trend and they present it to the world as an achievement. Managing to reproduce one is not something to be praised for. Many people have done so before you. Clich\u00e9s are only a milestone on your learning process. They\u2019re there to be passed and surpassed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019ve outgrown the clich\u00e9s, the reference disappears. You\u2019re no longer trying to reproduce what someone else has created before you, an effect that was discovered by another photographer. You look at a scene, build an understanding of what it is, and use your knowledge acquired from reproducing clich\u00e9s to create your own approach to the scene. You know what you need to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a way clich\u00e9s are stabilisers on a kid\u2019s bicycle: you need to learn from them, but then learn to get rid of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#Photography #Opinion #IMayBeWrong #Clich\u00e9s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all been beginners one day. And we\u2019ve all been criticised for creating clich\u00e9 photographs. The implication is that clich\u00e9s shows a failure of originality, something to get rid of as quickly as possible because it\u2019s not interesting, it\u2019s already done to death. The implication is wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-personal","category-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7271"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8186,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions\/8186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}