@manstok

Exactly right, manstok! The challenge for us is to somehow confidently stay atop the fast-moving "technology surfboard" while new and improved waves incessantly crash in around us! In all seriousness, our aggregate level of technological achievement in the visual arts sector is simply astonishing these days, as well as exciting and addicting!

Knowledge is power and takes time and perseverance to achieve -- at least for a feeble-minded person such as myself. It's the increasing pace of product obsolescence that has me dazed. That's why I usually try to avoid being an early adopter because it's also known that fools rush in where angels fear to tread!

@Vitaliy_Kiselev I really really like your graph find there. I'm going to use it in a presentation; its exactly how I feel about the area's I'm working in.

To add to this debate, here's a couple of images from our youngest child's homework:

and the basis:

Of course it was done on a 5D. The girls came up with the idea and it was only 1C outside so it had to be done in the garage. Its not the 5D that makes these pictures, its the lights, which came from P-V deals (the DN900 and AS312). The lights help to lose the scruffy background and the low DOF reduces the background yet further.

20 years ago I used to compete in amateur photographic competitions. These days I'm getting about 1 week every month employment on video and photographic work. From my semi-pro viewpoint, I believe the professional learns how to give the customer what they want in the time and cost they want.

I'm finding that I visualise great shots and interesting angles; but keep my mouth shut if they'll blow the time or cost budget.

To be slightly provocative I would say that learning to shout loud-and-politely makes obsolete most skill that you'd like to believe you need. (Does anyone know of a good shouting tutorial ???)

:-)

You can have quite decent latitude in exposure with traditional negative film too. B&W especially. Caj Bremer, a famous finnish photojournalist active between the 50's and 80's, used to ballpark estimate his exposures a lot. Set and forget. His images are astonishing.

You lose dynamic range if you don't nail the exposure and that's the same with digital exposure as well. Reversal film is another beast. Sort of like jpg you have to get the exposure right or you will blow highlights very easily.

Getting the exposure right is just one part of photographic technique. Raw and autoexposure won't help you with the rest: framing and focus. End of the day, the thing that counts the most is timing and content. How is raw-format making this obsolete?

other than the first photo, they look fine to me...

Ahhhh, you can't fool me! Now who's trolling who?

So, now that you have a bmcc that can shoot raw are you a master cinematographer?

Shooting raw is more like shooting film - now that we have more control did the whole world suddenly become child's play? Did you ever dodge and burn when printing a negative on an enlarger?

You still have to put time in to shoot it right even with Raw.

There is a huge gap between an amateur with good tools and a master.

Maybe there are no known masters in your area, I don't know - but there are plenty of masters on the east coast, west coast and Chicago.

Normally I don't let such vapid rants annoy me - but this set me off.

If you feel the need to be a purist - go shoot only jpeg and do video with no color correction - or try shooting slide film - that's a challenge in itself. Maybe you will discover more about the most important medium of the 20th century (my blowhard opinion).

Please - get out a little more and explore the world for what it is. The fact that no one wants to pay shit for your work does not mean you can't still make art - or make money for that matter if you are clever.

@spacewig they may not be "good" writers, but I would says blogs are at an all time high. lol

they may not be good photographs, but I would say photographers are at an all time high as well. insert card, turn on camera, snap snap snap, put card in PC, do what you want "I'm a photographer!" thank you RAW, once again.

@yoclay yeah, but at the end of the the ability to shoot RAW helps to create a nicer finished product.

i'm not disagreeing with anything you said btw. I'm making the claim that RAW has had a major impact in the photography world, and has made it much easier for anybody to jump in, and for some reason folks are finding a hard time to agree with me, but a quick search of the internet will show that the world is full of amateur photographers that are actually taking some pretty nice pictures.

i'm sure 40 years ago there was damn good telephone operators, but now everyone has a smart phone and are pretty good at making calls with them.

Being a photographer has almost nothing to do with the camera. It has to do with how you look at the world, your vision and viewpoint and your ability not only to facilitate the kind of situations that make your visual style happen but also your human skills. Not to mention your business skills as an agent, producer, accountant, and bill collector.

In fact as far as I am concerned there is nothing more amateur than believing that you are a photographer based on the camera you shoot or the kind of format you choose.

People don't hire me for my camera, they hire me for my style and the kind of work they think they can get from me that they cannot get elsewhere. This includes my lighting, choice of talent, the way in which I interact with my subjects and my capacity to make choices in art direction as well as later in post production.

There is so much more to being a professional photographer/filmmaker than equipment or technology. Taste and vision count more than Canon or Nikon. Getting the right picture might only take 1/50th of a second, but sometimes 20 years and a million shot frames are needed to recognize it.

It's so tragic...if only these poor souls had gone to a photographer with a RAW camera...

@ahbleza bet you weren't expecting that response.

@ahbleza so is she a photographer or not? i'm a little confused. either way, I give her credit for having passion in something, even if she doesn't know everything their is to know about photography,.