What Disrupted Photography More Than Photoshop?

Dylan Field says the camera phone was the bigger disruption to photography. People stopped buying cameras dedicated to photography because the best camera is the one already on you. Instagram and a phone camera changed how a lot of people treat photography.

He remembers the early days as an avid Photoshop user. People freaked out when layers arrived, then again when filters and Kai's Power Tools came out. The fear was that software was destroying the art and creativity of photography and erasing the photographer's role. A new toolkit let new artists use filters and layering to reimagine a canvas. Older creatives did not map perfectly onto the new tools, but creativity and human potential exploded and boundaries moved. A public mailing list from the launch of layers shows people calling layers the worst thing ever. Layers became the future, and photographers still do incredible work.

He will not call the result better or worse. There was change. He says resistance to change is real, and getting attention means doing something new, daring, and bold.