Teaching Photography Question

[DiskoJoe]

$40
MAMIYA SEKOR 1000TL 1000 TL 55MM 1.8 WITH CASE AND FLASH SHOE. | eBay

I know you said you cant buy anything on ebay, but can the kids? Then if everyone gets a film camera you just have to buy film for the class which is not too expensive in bulk.

 

[pgriz]

Well, photography is used for many things. The most common form, snapshots, are there to record the time, the place, the company. Little or no artistic value. Getting the main subject(s) more or less recognizable, and more or less properly exposed (ie, discernible) is about the level of this particular bar.

Next up would be the trade shots (contractors documenting the work, real estate agents taking some documentary photos, cooks showing their newest dishes, etc.). Again, no artistic value, but some effort at getting the right angle and maybe even the right light.

Then we get to the posed (usually family) shots. Here, knowledge of light, choosing the appropriate background, getting some decent poses and expressions are things that are useful. At this point, knowing aperture (for depth of field), white balance (for mixing lights), ISO (low noise vs. overcoming poor light), and flash technique become important. Most of these images will end up being shown on relatively low-resolution screens or on print sizes no larger than 5x7.

Next, we probably get to the artistic shots (OMG that’s so gorgeous) or good documentary shots (interesting flower!/bug!/thing!), where knowledge of good photographic technique will certainly help the final product. Here, lighting technique, background selection, use of the appropriate amount of DOF, and the “right” shutter speed, etc. play an important role in separating “kinda good” shots from the really good ones. Now we can expect the final use to be either on high-resolution monitors or on prints of up to 16x20.

And then we have the “professional-quality” shots for publication, journalism, once-in-a-lifetime memories, artistic display, etc. where very good technique is (or should be) essential.

In a class billed as “Advanced DSLR techniques”, that I attended a number of years back, the mix of students ranged from professionals taking the class to stay current, to wanna-bees who wanted to go “pro” to advanced hobbyists, to complete noobs who thought that pressing the shutter button was “intermediate” level and they wanted to get to the “advanced” level of using the picture presets. So just because we call something “Advanced” doesn’t mean that people all have the same understanding.

In the case of Brian trying to teach high-school kids the elements of photography, the reality will be that the majority of his students will not have what we consider “basic” equipment, and with the equipment that they do have, knowing the exposure triangle is as relevant as knowing what to use the arctan function (that’s trigonometry in case you forgot) for. Good to know as background info, but not something that they will actually use (given that most will be shooting shots with P&S or cellphone cameras). However, I think that a digital camera is preferable to a film camera because the faster the feedback, the better the learning experience. Probably the fastest learning will happen if there is a shooting opportunity, then the images are downloaded immediately to a laptop or desktop to be looked at and critiqued.

In case you’re wondering what the point of this post is, it’s to note that cameras are tools. And the nature of the task determines which tool is appropriate to use. Not every photographic tasks requires the best tools.

 

[Forkie]

They are bringing in P&S? hmmm... I was expecting them to whip out their cell phones/iphones/smartphones and say that that's what they use. Not too many control there, I suspect.

Have you considered using something like this? CameraSim simulates a digital SLR camera - SLR Photography Demystified or Aperture, shutter and ISO value | SLR Camera Simulator

You'll find a bunch if you google "camera simulator".

That's f*****g brilliant.