PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE: The largest photonic senses under the photo sun - National Geographic

Author: Jan Rybář

March 27, 2012

HOW TO PHOTOS THE WORLD: Jan Rybář Photography Course (Episode 12)

The world is known to be full of nonsense, and because there are also many photographers in the world, it is also full of photonic nonsense. Let's explore a few of them, on the road and at home. And I don't mean all sighs seriously, but where would we go if we weren't well over the top! (Although: it's often not a good idea to joke about photographers, they are easily offended, so watch out!)

So here are some of those remarkable statements:

"Photography is experiencing a huge boom!"

Statistically certainly yes, in the past it has never been possible to get such great results for so little money. Even National Geographic is printing reports on iPhone photos, soon the photo chips will be in coffee mugs and irons.

But is photography as such rising? So the ability of people to faithfully and originally capture the world around them and pass on emotions, enthusiasm, stories through the photo? I think not. Just like the internet did not bring what many had hoped for: that humanity would somehow be wiser (with so much information all around). But enough philosophizing!

"Photography is an art."

It's not. Photography is a craft, ie a set of greater and lesser knowledge and facts that sometimes mutually exclusive, evolve, change over time with technology and fashion, but in the end they simply allow you to take a photo that someone likes. Dot - a craft like any other. Yesterday, the gardener cut a wild climbing rose in my garden. Splendor! That was an artist! Or that I, too, could learn it too?

"When the ISO is raised in P mode, the photo will be brighter."

It won't.

"No one would mind putting a photo of his site on my site."

Will be.

"Beginners take pictures at automatic, seasoned guys at the manual."

I often hear this in my photo courses. But no, it's not that simple - the pros are just good at knowing when to use it. There is nothing offensive to use automation (ie program P) (for automation marked mostly with a green rectangle or a green camera, really forget about it). "Péčko" is handy and in good light conditions, when we don't care much about anything, it can often pull us out of the lap (and time or aperture priority modes, on the other hand, sometimes make our feet a little sore). Well, yes, taking pictures on the manual is, of course, a beautiful discipline, but sometimes a bit annoying. So - it's not an automation / manual dispute, but about knowing what to use - when to leave something or everything on electrical circuits, and when exactly by turning the wheel and squeezing the knobs to take control and control the situation.

"I don't need long glass because I'm not going to take pictures of elephants."

You need. When I become the director of the globe, my first decree will ban commercial radio from cafes. With the second decree, I will order camera dealers to tell the owners of SLR cameras at the counter: The telephoto lens is not for photographing game, but a necessary piece of glass, without which it is simply impossible to take pictures (for example, portraits and many other "basic" shots). With the third decree, I will introduce the subject into the primary school curriculum: what is ISO and why you cannot live without it.

"I may be stealing what's going on in that camera."

Can not. The more complex and modern the camera, the less the human brain is able to understand what the electrons are actually doing there. Remember how ten or fifteen years ago you understood the function of the individual parts of your car's engine? And now it's just a mess of mysterious devices encased in plastic for you? It's similar with cameras. But just as you have to know that the car has wheels and water is poured into the washers, it is absolutely necessary to understand at least in general what is happening in that camera. What is the time, aperture, etc. That I'm insulting you by teaching what "even a small child" knows? Bet you bet that no more than 5-10 percent of camera owners really know what time it is and what to expect. Not to mention the screen. True, I still don't know where the oil is pouring into my car either.

"Amateur is a bad word."

It's not. Photographer Honza Vojtek summed it up nicely in the February issue of FotoVideo magazine: “The word amateur comes from the Latin amateur - lover. So it's not a person who doesn't control the field or the opposite of a professional. "

"Nef is the name of a prominent Czech photographer."

I admit, no one has ever told me this, but when I first saw the suffix nef myself, I just remembered the photographers of my father and son (Ondřej Neff and David Neff). Nu and nef is the raw suffix used by Nikon. And raw, this is the format that first scares you when you start shooting in it by mistake, but then you like it very much (it's a "machine" file and it contains a lot more information than compressed JPEG. And so they go with the photo when adjustments make much bigger spells - about that sometime next time.)

"My photos will please those photos in 50 years too!"

They won't because they won't see them. The probability that all those wonderful pictures that you have on hard disks, external disks, CDs, etc., will survive fifty years is close to zero. The media stops working, you step on the external disk, your little child takes a shower backup in the bathtub. No, your pictures don't have much of a chance.

Maybe something will survive on various social networks, but who would remember the passwords and the photos on paper? They have some hope. Although - have you noticed how fast they lose color after a few years? So it is vanity over vanity.

INTRODUCTORY PHOTO: Jan Rybář

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