----- Original Message ----- From: Christian Skofteland Subject: Re: K1000: Why a good student camera?
> On Tuesday 19 November 2002 15:32, Herb Chong wrote: > > > > > a acredited beginning photography course i know doesn't even allow students > > to use a light meter. absolute minimum features so that the student has to > > think of everything and consider everything. the philosophy is that they > > need to learn all the controls thoroughly and to understand the effect of > > each control by experience. > > > > Herb.... > > That's insane (or inane). No, its an accepted method of teaching. You are trying, in your own inane way, to draw a direct line from forcing a student to examine the subject closely enough to be able to judge exposure to hobbling the student. The opposite is the fact. We force the student to learn exposure estimation by eye, not so they can do it, we, as teachers, know that light meters exist, and we know that they are the single most important tool for guaranteeing correct exposure. What we create in the student by forcing them to learn what light does is make them better at judging how to meter the subject. This will do them a lot more good in the long haul than giving them a light meter. The problem you are having is that you are thinking about the subject one dimensionally. William Robb > > Knowing what your values are does not affect your ability to understand > exposure. Not knowing "correct" exposure will NEVER allow you to learn > photography. Sure you can guess and with experience, estimate "correct" > exposure but why blindfold the student? Learning exposure is an important > part of photography but not the ONLY part. A beginner's course should teach > more about the process instead of restricting students because the teacher > didn't have a light meter when he was learning 70 years ago. Yes, the basics > are very important, but you CAN learn the basics without being blindfolded > and sent into a mine field. Experience will come to both groups (those that > are blindfolded and those that are "allowed" information) but I think it will > come quicker and more practically to those that are allowed to see direct > relationships on a numeric level than those that are guessing and estimating > on a theoretical level. > > Christian > > >
