Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I really just don't understand this exchange, and I don't think you do either. First off, while I often forget what I write, I believe what I was talking about back when is the fact that digital allows me - and everyone else - to shoot more images, and the more one shoots, the better one gets; I don't recall saying that shooting with autoeverything was better for beginning photographers. Beyond that, however, I don't see in my waaaaaaay above average students - in terms of their raw intelligence and their exposure to things technical - anywhere near the success rates with digital autofocus cameras that you ascribe to the average 14 year old. They give me out-of-focus images; they give me poorly exposed images; they give me images that are blurred because the shutter speed was too slow. They make the same kind of mistakes kids made/make with manual focus, meterless, film cameras. Love film, hate digital. But please, stick to reality. If one is going to produce photographs that are ultimately work looking at, one still has to learn about the relationships between shutter speeds and f stops; one still has to learn about depth of field; one still has to know how to focus manually. Bottom line, one still has to learn the basics of photography. The only difference between learning those basics now, and learning them when we were learning them is that today one really does not have to learn how to soup film and print it, any more than you or I had to learn how to deal with glass plates. ;-) On 3/24/06 9:12 PM, "Don Dory" <don.dory@gmail.com> wrote: > Larry, The thrust of my comments were that you had to know what the device > would do before you could get interesting results. With the automagic cameras > you have no idea why an image turns out the way it does. Make the mistakes > and see what interesting images happen; screw up the exposure and you find > out about high key and low key. Accidentally use a slow shutter and > discover blurs. Screw up the focus and see what selective focus does. It all > adds to the knowledge. Don don.dory@gmail.com On 3/24/06, > lrzeitlin@optonline.net <lrzeitlin@optonline.net> wrote: > > > <<B.D., > You > are a talented and experienced photographer.? Take your average 14 > something > year old just starting out.? Hand her your Oly330 and watch her > shoot a card > full of properly focused on something and correctly exposed > by > some > standard images.? What is good, it all looks good.? Why is it good, > well > they are all in focus and I have whites and blacks so the exposure is > just > fine. > With the limitations of manual and a limited number of opportunities > the > newbie will have to think.? Yes, a lot of the first images will be > trash, > but the newbie will know they are trash and look at what works.? With > some > understanding of why you want a particular shutter speed and why an > > aperture > causes certain effects then the automagic camera becomes a valuable > tool. > Otherwise you are in P and your images look just like everyone else > with a > zoom and a pop up flash. > Don > don.dory@gmail.com>> > > Don, > > > Don't make the assumption that technical and artistic skills are somehow > > related. The evidence s > hows that they are uncorrelated. I know engineers > that can design a > computer from scratch but can't write a coherent English > sentence. > Shakespeare, on the other hand, wrote his plays with a quill pen. > Would > learning to use a word processor have enabled him to do better. I > doubt it. > > To use a more cogent example, Ted, who is unquestionably one of > the best > photographers on the LUG, is a self admitted technophobe. Would a > Masters > degree in Optoelectronics make him a better photographer. I doubt > it. > > Skill with the mechanics of a camera has nothing to do with artistic > > vision. > > Larry Z > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more > information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information