First of all, Happy New Year and Happy 2nd Birthday this blog!
Ok, that out the way we can discuss this little gem: http://phlearn.com/how-to-great-photographer. Or turd, either way.
The TL:DR of the link in question is that it is a post talking about how much technical knowledge a photographer needs to learn to be “good”. Apparently none according to the OP, who claims that attempting to learn all the little details is unnecessary in the actual process of taking photographs. He would be happy to let people shoot in Auto all the time and have them take photos in a state of blissful ignorance.
I want to make the point clear that, in some respects, he’s right. There is a great deal of stuff out there that is completely redundant and unnecessary to learn. You don’t need to learn how sensors capture light information or why it is that higher resolution images print better to be a good photographer. People learn those things because, most of the time, they want to be better at what they do and maybe to pass on the knowledge to other people that have an interest. Ok, maybe knowing how a sensor converts light into data is redundant in the actual act of taking a photograph, but if you’re interested in photography is it such a bad thing to learn how your camera performs such a process?
“understanding the F-Stop will not make you happier or take better photos.”
What rubbish. Cameras have improved a lot in recent years but Auto modes are none too reliable, even now. Learning about shutter speeds and f/stop ratings is crucial to improving your work. You cannot, and I can’t stress that enough, control the outcome of a shot if you don’t use Manual. A camera doesn’t understand what it is you’re trying to achieve in taking a photograph, you do. If you want to shoot at a low f/stop to decrease the DOF, you change those settings yourself. A camera picks what it thinks are the best settings for the scene in question, but perhaps those might not be the best settings to achieve your vision of the scene.
“Think back to what it was like in the very beginning. Think about what you enjoyed about photography to begin with. Think about all the laughter. Think about all your adventures. Is all of that still there?”
He goes on to talk some garbage about how photography becomes more of a clinical process rather than “something fun” once you’ve learnt some technical details. What tripe. Photography arguably became more fun for me; the power to control the camera how I saw fit made the fiddling worthwhile. Knowing that the outcome was my own doing made each shot more special. Doubly so with film, which is a very hands-on and somewhat more “technical” skill than digital. Yes, I obsess over the technical details and take huge amounts of time taking shots with my Hassy. It’s still fun because I’m taking photos, something I want to be doing.
This guy is doing something very worrying in my mind, he’s reinforcing the view in the minds of many, many amateur photographs, that it’s ok to be oblivious to what you’re doing within photography, that you don’t need to know anything special to take good photographs. Camera manufacturers have been reinforcing this in their own way, making SLR’s cheaper and “more intelligent”. Most people believe megapixels and HD video recording mean everything in a camera these days. They may well be having fun, and I am certainly not taking that away from them, but there is a clear difference between being enthusiastic and competent. Heck, some people are more than happy to remain that way and not care, but there are those that do and this is sending a very, very wrong message. The harsh reality is that there is a point where you don’t have the technical skill to get any better, where you can’t realise your goals using Auto alone. I think it’s high time some people pulled their heads out of the sand and realised that. Perhaps ironically, this guy is considered a professional photographer, and many of his shoots appear to be done in a studio (something that requires a degree of technical expertise, perhaps?)
Believe who/what you will, but I’ll be frank and not Chris for a second here and say that I think he’s talking out his arsehole.
