Community weekly poll: How much photography experience do you have?
- 12/12/05 4:34 PM
Don't throw anything away - Don't delete that image!
by skipres - 12/13/05 12:52 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
80% of the Photography that I take nowadays is not as "perfect" as when I spent eons of time just to set up 1 shot.
Now, since I can put 3,000 images on my SD card, I just shoot everything and anything that catches my fancy.
Shots that are slightly off center, to dark, slightly blurred, washed out, have junk in them, are now EDITED.
Even with the most basic image editors what was a "throw-away" shot can become an impressive photo or ART.
Take a poor picture and turn it into pastels, lighten it a bit and you have a Monet or other impressionist painter. Print it on canvas and you might just have a frameable piece of art work.
Centering pictures should definitly be done with editing. There is not enough time and not enough image information in the viewfinder to worry about centering or "frameing" your photo. Do it with your editor in 3 seconds...
Out of the last 10,000 images that I have shot, I have deleted about 3 (they were just Black - I think the camera went off in my pocket...<grin>)
Throw everything onto a CD. Years from now you and the Great Grandchildren will get a big kick out of those "mistakes".
Make your own history - enjoy.
long, long, long ago....
by engelbert - 12/13/05 1:25 PM In reply to: Don't throw anything away - Don't delete that image! by skipres--I had my first cam. That was when I was ten yrs, and I am born in 1924!! Since then I did not stop, made iot partly my main activity, when giving advice and trainig in the art of presentation. I did first maily black and white, and still love it. But even in about 1980 I got enamouirde with the possibilities of drawing and hence creating on the different varieties of 'arithmetic-machines' ha, ha that arrived on the market. Gradually evoluting in the direction of PC'c and table tops. I had about al type of camera's and used them to the full. Dark rooming only B/W. But digitalling came as a wonderful extension the old appr\oaches. Beiing 82 now, I enyoy terribly the art of creating images, whether scanned or 5aken with my --now-- NIKON D70. {I am a l0ong time lover of NIKON products, but earlier enyoed the wonderfull possibilities of e.g the Kine Exacta, and the Rollei
-- once a formost utensil to make academic prints --microscopic use etc.
In my opinion there is-- once you now the ropes of the new techniques-- not much difference in approacht to creating images--whether you are a painter, an 'old fashioned photographer' of a more new fangled camera user. And I am all three.
Many greetings. Yours,
Rien Buter.
And please: mail me to bubro@planet.nl to contact me. I have a lot of things to do, and reactions on this sight are very quickly out of sight, if you only occasionally have time to take a longer look ....
I (almost) totally agree with you
by vdcauter - 12/13/05 1:56 PM In reply to: Don't throw anything away - Don't delete that image! by skipres"Almost", because we can easely enjoy pictures taken more than one century ago because you can see them without needing any device than your eyes but I am not sure that your "great grandchildren" will even know what a Data CD or a PC with CD reader was...
How many people are able now to listen to the original wax cylinder recordings of Edison although those are analog and not digital?
As far as I am concerned, after editing, I am throwing away about 80% of my digital pictures and more than 2/3 of my videos.
Future is still to come, garbage is present
by dottorbozzi - 12/13/05 2:24 PM In reply to: I (almost) totally agree with you by vdcauterI don't agree with skipres: it is not a matter of editing with filters a badly done photo to transform it into a piece of art. It may be funny for a while, when shown to a friend, but on the long run, it's boring. I'm little over fifty years old, and I started playing with a B&W camera(may be a 6x6 agfa, I don't remember), when I was fifteen, then started playing in the dark room for almost a tenth of years, then shifted to slides because (mainly) the scarcity of time to devote to developing films and selecting and printing on paper the best shots. But if a criteria has driven my "passion", is to avoid to my beloved ones that chilling sensation of incoming deadly boredom following the announce of a 45' presentation of "nothing to say" slides from one of the don't trow anything friends of mine. It is not for the importance of the pictured one in itself: I've been uncomfortable any time I choose not to save a photo into which is captured a moment of the life of my sons, or relatives, but finally, I've been much esthetically pleased and I remember the good ones, instead of the bad ones. so, becoming critical toward you've done, is a better way to improve yourself, for what it may account for.
Long Term Photographer
by BobCPhoto - 12/13/05 1:51 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I was interested in photography as a High School student back in the middle 40's (Yes, they had High Schools then, but mine started in the 10th grade). It continued through college and until my daughter was born. I realized that I needed a better camera and got a Kodak SLR which handled the old 128 film, later graduating to 35 mm, and then it really grew. I became interested in portrait and wedding photography, converted my double car garage into a combination studio/darkroom and continued professionally for over 26 years. I had to have heart surgery in 2000 and my Dr. told me that wedding photography was too stressful so I retired. Now I take the photos which I like, mainly animal and wildlife (not so stressful) and do restorations and retouching via computer and Phoptoshop CS working on an Apple Mac G5 with 1G memory and all the goodies. I have just switched this year to digital photography and love it. I have found, howevcer, that there is a lot of work to be done on digital negatives as it isn't all you think it would be. I guess I'm just finicky about my work.
31 years and still going strong
by photobuff55 - 12/13/05 1:56 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I started taking pictures when I was 18 (oops, just gave away my age!) and my then-boyfriend thrust his Pentax K1000 in my hands and said, take pictures of the race car! They ran pro-stock at Union Grove, Wisconsin back then. I didn't even know how to buy film (what was ASA?). But when the first prints came back and were halfway decent, I was hooked. I have to say that learning on the manual camera was the best thing that ever happened to me. I can still remember the day I was introduced to the concept of depth of field and how to control it. Very exciting to me! I would say to anyone just getting started, whether digital or film, put the camera on manual and experiment. Get a feel for the different f-stop/shutter combinations in different light conditions. You never stop learning, and in addition to being self-taught, over the years I've taken both darkroom and digital classes at our local junior college to help me understand photography better. The best part of being good at photography is that it's something I can give to my family and friends. For almost 10 years I was the official photographer at church (it ended when there was no longer a need) and I presented annual slide shows to the congregation. When my sister knew she was going to have to put down her dog of 13 years, she called me to come and take pictures of the family with their dog first. I've been the photographer at my niece's wedding, and took the last picture of my father and his siblings before he died. It can be very rewarding!
DONE IT
by illiceman - 12/13/05 2:58 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I HAVE DONE IT ALL. I AM NOW INTO DIG. LOVE IT. NEVER A SUPER PIC. TAKER BUT ABOVE AVERAGE. I THINK IT IS A MUST FOR MOST PEOPLE. LOVE TO LOOK BACK. THAN I LOVE TODAY. SNAP IT. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
Long time photographer
by Cecil - 12/13/05 4:33 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I started in high school and then after being in the military I took are home corrospondance photographer course. After completing it I did wedding and portrite photographer and also fire scene photographer at the vol. fire dept. I belonged to.
Total time with 35mm and also medium format film approx. 20 years. This year approx. 4 months ago I bought my fist digital camera a Kodak DX7590 and am having a lot of fun with it.
6 yr. digital photographer
by truckerbob33 - 12/13/05 5:48 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
Since starting 6 years ago, I've learned to try to compose my pics before taking them. This has led to less need for editing my pics. Robert Meute
I didn't know that!
by Batchain - 12/13/05 6:29 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I was assuming *digital photography only* which made me a ''newbie'' but I have - informally, not professionally - taken some better-than-average shots at different times - even with a thing so primative as a Polaroid 660!
My would-be submission to a pro group has a blank spot on the right side because the ''pro photo shop'' sold me the wrong film! I had everything just right and the print would have been an A#1 eye-catcher if not for the film screw up. I was 17 when I took it and have it to this very day as proof of what can be done even with *sub-standard* equipment.
It's an exciting time to be a photographer.
by PDeuth - 12/13/05 6:29 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
The potential for good photography is greater than it ever has been before. When I had a commercial photo business years ago an image might have several iterations between the lab and I, and a point of deminishing returns was reached. It was always a clear compromise.
Today I can tweak the photo WAY past that point, if I care to. The amount of control I have as a creative photographer is nearly total, or 100%. It's a whole new world, and the amount of learning and the degree of technical skills is higher than ever before, but, nevertheless, it's an exciting time to be a photographer.
Long- time photographer loves digital
by stuartl - 12/13/05 7:10 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I took my first a photography class while in junior high school, probably in 1956, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
While in the Army (air cavalry) I carried two 35 mm cameras almost everywhere I went. Since I was in Europe, and traveled quite a bit, there were a lot of interesting subjects.
Digital photography is the answer to a vague wish that I had for many years, of being able to take many photos inexpensively, to have good control of how the pictures are processed and to print my own pictures. The ability to store and classify what I’ve taken, simplifies my personal collection. Hopefully the storage medium will not degrade over time, and my children and their children will be able to access my photographs.
I have had four digital cameras, and find that you get a great deal more for your money now than you did just nine years ago. I have given up my 35 mm cameras; digital is that good. The ability to share photographs and to send them anywhere in the world almost instantly, and at no cost is terrific.
I never want to go back to film, and wonder what the future will bring to this art.
Stuart
photo experience; 50 years+
by bimmerpilot - 12/13/05 8:26 PM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I started dabbling in black& white photography about 1940 when an uncle gave me a 4 x 5 inch view camera outfit. It was pretty much on its last legs - leather bellows cracked and peeling - but I managed to get a few murky prints from it. Prior to this, I had used Kodak Brownies for miscellaneous photos. Then, around 1950, I took the plunge and bought an Argus C-3 35mm camera and started making color slides. After a while, I got an Argus C-4 35mm and used it for a long time, still mainly for color slides. After being drafted into the Army in 1954, I was sent to a photolithography school, which included working with 4 x 5 inch Speed Graphics and process cameras up to 20 x 24 inch film size. This was my first experience working in a darkroom - developing, printing and enlarging B&W film. While in the service, I picked up a Rollei twin-lens reflex camera, 120 rollfilm size. Upon completion of military service, I went to college and got a degree in mechanical engineering. At this time, I was too busy to do much with photography, except color slides. I was given a 16mm motion picture camera with 3 lenses. This got me involved with motion picture taking and editing. By 1968, I had decided that the fixed lens 35mm camera was too limiting, so I bought a Zeiss Contarex 35mm camera with a 50mm & a 135mm lens. This was a window into serious 35mm photography. i wound up with lenses from 18mm to 500mm focal length. I used the Contarex for business photography, taking photos of various projects that I was involved with. This turned out to be a lucrative side business, supplying 8 x 10 color prints for my clients, which continued for almost 10 years. I then bought a Canon F1 35mm camera with several zoom lenses for my personal use. By this time, my eyesight started to deteriorate, so I decided to get an auto-focus camera, a Minolta 700si with 2 zoom lenses, a 28-70 f2.8 & an 18-35mm f4.5, which I still have. A couple of years ago, I got into digital photography with a point-and-shoot pocket camera. It turns out that his camera is the main one that I use - mostly for casual photography. I also have done altering the images and printing them using a PC. Right now, I feel limited by the 28 to 110mm focal length zoom on this camera, but I don't want to get a bigger camera. The pocket camera can go with you and is ready to use - probably wouldn't have a bigger, more versatile camera with me.
40+ years but 37 with SLR
by tbcass - 12/14/05 2:52 AM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I bought my first SLR in 1968. Took a photography course in college in 1969. I own three 35mm cameras now with various lenses and accessories but I haven't used them since I bought my first digital 3 years ago. The only problem I have is shutter lag. I have a new Fuji c9000 on the way from NewEgg which I bought after much research and believe it has the best features for me for the money. Digital gave me a renewed interest in photography.
Many years (too many to count)
by agimpels - 12/14/05 6:16 AM In reply to: How much photography experience do you have? by Marc Bennett
I started with a 4x5 learning photography the hard way, trial, develop, print, and see the errors. And there were a lot of them. Through the years I have progressed through 4x5, 120/620, 35mm to digital. Now, while taking the picture has been made easier it is still is the eye and mind of the photographer to make the moment into a memorable photo.
Someone said the public judges your picture. While that is true it really is the photographer whose is the most critical judge of each individual shot. I have taken shots that I feel do not represent what I want and shots that surprise me for their technical content and perfection, mostly by accident. I guess I feel when you are happy with the shot, it is a great shot.
Last, do as much of the composition and technical expertise on the orignal shot. Use the tools of the computer for touchup, if necessary. Again, the eye and brain are the best tools you can have.
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