Reply To: Equipment and education… yes they matter!

[archy]

You make a lot of bold faced assumptions.  People hire photographers for events because they want to be sure that the event is recorded. Why rely on everyone else with camera phones when you can sign a contract with someone that guarantees you’ll have the day recorded and that you will have images to see. you can’t guarantee everyone is going to share their camera phone pictures later on.

Art is entirely subjective. Believe it or not, some people don’t like van gogh, some people think rachmaninoff sounds like crap, and some people think artistic interpretations of their wedding have ruined a good moment. You have a picture on here where you claim you caught the bride’s dress in “beautiful bokeh”, to be  honest I thought it looked like crap. I’d much rather have a low quality photo of my husband making that heart melting face with nothing else in the frame whatsoever than have that much disruption with the bokeh. If we want to talk art, I might as well point out how little you understand it. Using that photo as an example, the eye is drawn to foreground objects (the bride) and warm hues (the cream of her dress). She’s also placed within the rule of thirds territory whereas her husbands face is in neutral ground. You botched that image, artistically speaking.

In fact, in your example “illustration” you claim your third image shows education/equipment but I  honestly believe that narrow DOF is a huge cop-out for composition. Why even re-place you’re subject with such a narrow DOF, you wouldn’t be able to notice the branch placement above his head. Look at some real photography and note the wide DOF used. A real pro can give you good composition without faking out using DOF.

I’ll say it again, this forum focuses hugely on digital imaging rather than real photography. Until understand the terms you use (aperture, white balance, iso) and  know exactly what the image will look like without even looking at the viewfinder, you won’t understand what you are doing behind the camera (trust me, it isn’t hard to do. I’ve taught 6th graders how to do it, it’s junior high physics).