StuartRae said:
In the photographic challenges issued by Asher, he says "The images cannot be snapshots", which leads me to ask the question.
Here's a first shot at a definition.
A snapshot is a photograph taken on the spur of the moment, with no forethought or planning on the part of the photographer.
I suspect "snapshot" and "fine art print" are two ends of a continuous spectrum, i.e., there is no clear boundary between a snapshot and a fine art print. And no definition will be able to clearly distinguish between the two, i.e., we're really trying to answer, "What is art?" by defining what isn't art. Attempting a definition is, nevertheless, a worthwhile discussion. I've seen words like "postcard," "photograph," "fine art print," etc., used to label some regions, but they're not used with a consistent, widely accepted definition.
Under your proposed definition any amount of planning, e.g., shifting the camera a bit to improve the composition, means a photograph is not a snapshot? And a photograph of a posing individual or group is never a snapshot since posing requires actions based on forethought and planning?
How about this?
Snapshot: an image presented as captured, without any editing of any kind.
By this definition even resizing to fit the print's dimensions elevates the image to the next level, since resizing is an editing action. Unfortunately I don't know what label to attach to that next level.
Of course, editing a snapshot can result in fine art, e.g., see M. Reichmann's
"From Snapshot to Fine Art."
A subsiduary question arises from Asher's statement, which is "Do snapshots therefore have little photographic worth?"
Stuart
"Worth" is a judgement call. (Just ask a grandmother how much a snapshot of the grandchild is worth.) A large part of what this site is about is how to achieve fine art, sometimes starting with a "snapshot." For members here, snapshots have worth at least as a learning and evaluation tool.
I read Asher's words as a request for us to carefully consider the quality of the images we post, and limit our posted images to only our best, or images that could be among our best with a bit of help.
Bob