Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/24

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Technical vs. artistic skill
From: lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net)
Date: Fri Mar 24 16:49:52 2006
References: <200603230826.k2N8PNwq070630@server1.waverley.reid.org>

<<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


Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Re: Technical vs. artistic skill)
Reply from datamaster at northcoastphotos.com (Gary Todoroff) ([Leica] Re: Technical vs. artistic skill)