Photographs, snapshots and pictures

Ed Sutton

Ed Sutton

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I'm curious to know if people think there are differences between photographs, snapshots and pictures and, if so, what those differences are. Can a snapshot be a picture? Is a photograph always a picture. Can a photograph be a photograph and not be a picture? I'm asking because I'm not entirely certain of my own interpretation of the three terms and how they relate to each other!
 
A photograph is an image taken by a camera, but a camera can take a snapshot. A snapshot is something taken quickly or with little thought but to capture a very brief moment before it passes, but a snapshot is an image as is a photograph. A photograph is also art, a shot planned out with forethought to create an image as perceived by the photographer to achieve or to portray a thought or emotion, as a lot of studio shots are and advertising work I think can be seen as art.


There are very blurred lines between what your asking, at the end of the day it is in the eyes of the viewer as to how they interpret a shot.
 
without wishing to over complicate my answer ,,,,,,they're all the same to me .
 
This question is one I have thought of many times over the years. I take photographs for a living. There was a time when I never took snaps at all. Always thinking 'the light isn't right' or 'the background is crap' etc etc. One day, my wife moaned that I never took any pictures of us and the kids when we were on holiday and we never had any 'memories' to look back on. I realised that it was perfectly ok for me to 'grab snaps' at any time as well and not every shot I take needs to be a masterpiece! I now take hundreds of snaps and also, when I want, take photographs for work or pleasure depending how the mood takes me.

Separating the two has made me a better photographer and I also enjoy it more. I have no idea what a picture is other than I know that sometimes, some of the deliberate 'photographs' I take are just nice pictures, not artistic.
 
I think I use the words "photograph" and " "picture" interchangeably - not to mention "image". Sometimes if you're writing it's useful to have several different terms for the same thing so that it doesn't become repetitive.

"Snapshot", on the other hand, suggests one of the above taken in a very casual manner.
 
There is a need to communicate subtly different things. So it is helpful to use terms the other party might understand in the same way.
Snapshot often being understood as a photo taken with little or no planning. Regardless of the quality of the result.
sbowler579 said:
A photograph is also art, a shot planned out with forethought to create an image as perceived by the photographer to achieve or to portray a thought or emotion, as a lot of studio shots are and advertising work I think can be seen as art.
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Art: An accidental result, be it from a camera or the way paints happened to have mixed on the canvas is also touted as art. I have no problem with that. As long as the result looks pleasing.

Is a photograph that has non photographic elements added on a computer, still a photograph? Even at 99% non-photographic content? Or which percentage? Or does it not matter? I suspect it is better to call it a picture.
 
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Thanks for the replies. I'm nto sure I'm any nearer to sorting my thoughts out though! My (current) feelings are that:

A snapshot is only a photograph in as much it's made with a camera. It's primary function is to act either as a personal reminder of something, or to show something to someone who wasn't there. However it might also be a picture by accident.

A photograph is a considered creation, in the way that a snapshot isn't. It's purposes are often the same but it is also intended to be something more substantial. This might make it a picture, or it might not.

A picture can be both of the above but it does something which neither do automatically. It's something hard to pin down but it goes beyond the snapshot's mere recording of information or the looking nice that photographs aspire to. Pictures have something indefinable to them.

Snapshots are easy to take. Photographs aren't very difficult to make. Pictures are bloody hard to find!
 
All Ferraris are cars. Not all cars are Ferraris. All snapshots are pictures/photographs. Not all pictures/photographs are snapshots.

"Snapshot" suggests to me a photograph taken with the attention focused just on the subject without regard to the composition, the relationship to the surroundings, the perspective, the shooting position, the lighting, the posing, creative camera control and so on. In essence it is a photo taken (usually quickly) in a "see it - shoot it" fashion without thought or planning.
 
Call it what you like, don't see any difference really. OP I think you need to get out more and use your camera to take something.
 
munch said:
Call it what you like, don't see any difference really. OP I think you need to get out more and use your camera to take something.
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I use my camera quite enough thanks. Pondering such things as this is all part of photography for me.
 
ianp5a said:
Is it too soon to mention Hitler?
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yes , someone's got to be outraged and mention shooting people in the face first
 
Personally I'd say photograph/ image/picture are all interchangeable to mean anything taken with a camera , a snapshot/record shot/holiday snap would imply a picture taken to just record the moment - probably on full auto - with little thought to composition etc
 
jerry12953 said:
I think I use the words "photograph" and " "picture" interchangeably - not to mention "image". Sometimes if you're writing it's useful to have several different terms for the same thing so that it doesn't become repetitive.
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Same here. It's more of a grammatical difference rather than a photographic difference.

As for a 'Snapshot'

I guess it's all relative.

Some people can spend hours setting up a landscape image. They may consider a 'snapshot' to be a few mins work - something most of us would consider a 'photograph'

An individual's speed of thought also comes into it.

Some people can (in an instant) address composition, light, subject, point of view etc and get a well thought out image yet to them it's a snapshot.

Some people can (in an instant) fail to even consider any of the above and that's their definition of a snapshot.
 
Definitely a difference. Photographs are a subset of pictures and snapshots are a subset of photographs.

A picture is a (usually 2 dimensional) representation of an image. A photograph is a picture that has used some form of light capturing (usually a camera) to create it. A snapshot is a photograph that has been taken for a particular reason, usually without a great deal of thought (which does not mean it does not have a purpose or meet the expectations of the photographer).

And then we could get into the whole art or not art discussion...
 
"Snapshot" - "snap" as in "snap decision". Taken hurriedly, possibly instinctively, little or no planning - probably no planning. Sometimes used to describe a photograph that looks like a snapshot in the sense above, even though meticulously planned.

"Photograph" - image made using primarily a camera ("primarily" to allow for additional processing in a darkroom or on a computer). Nothing implied as to good or bad, careful or careless.

"Picture" - using carrying the connotation of something attractive to look at ("pretty as a picture") and most often hung on a wall.
 
They're all images to me. How they were taken is of no importance. What they communicate matters. Richard Billingham's images in Ray's a Laugh are snapshots, but they're still quite rightly acknowledged as great images by those who know what they're talking about because of they're content. It was the right thing to do for that story. I recognise, and use the term "Snapshot aesthetic" when teaching, but generally, they're just images.
 
I would have said they were all interchangeable. However in some circumstances the term snap or snapshot is derogatory, and used as a term of contempt.
 
This gentleman explains it quite clearly in the video:
Snap, snap, grin, grin, wink, wink, Say no more!
 
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