----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom C" Subject: Re: photography vs cameras
> William Robb wrote: > > ...and photography is now pretty much a point and shoot game. > > I know what you intended Bill... but disagree as stated. :) One can have > technology do everything but compose the shot, and composing the shot is > where it's mostly at when it comes to a good photo. When you take the sentence out of context, it does look pretty disagreeable. OTOH, camera technology has brought us to the point where composing the photo is pretty much the only choice left to the user, if the user is so inclined to take advantage of the technology in the box. You don't need to know all the things that used to seperate the craftsman or professional from the schmuck, and now that schmucks are using the same equipment, more or less, as pros, anyone can be a professional photographer. > > Having the photographic knowledge certainly helps... i.e., knowing what one > can do with aperture, shutter speed, filters, etc., opens up endless > creative possibilities that a point & shooter type of person will not > attempt or know of. It helps, sure, but OTOH, if you are shooting portraits, you can use the portrait program, landscapes? use the landscape program, and for action, use the action program (Canon users get this option, we don't), so there goes needing to know about aperture and depth of field, or shutter speed and freezing action, the camera will do it for you. The wannabe pro (who is the person being discussed in the post you answered), then only needs to know a bit about filters, and may end up with a polarizer or a couple of grads or soft focus filters, probably because that is what the person in the camera store (or on a mailing list somewhere) tells them they need to solve a particular problem. I shot a wedding last winter (I don't do them often, anymore). While at the location we had chosen for our portraits, another photographer was also working. She had a couple of cheap studio flash units, I think they were the low end Photogenics that aren't actually called Photogenic) in a couple of umbrellas, and a point and shoot digital firing them with a slave. Her total equipment outlay was probably less than what I paid for the lens I was using. I didn't think much of her light placement, but I also didn't see her pictures. This is the new professional. William Robb >
