Why Photography is Such and Art
Learning photography can be a fun and interesting hobby that may even turn into a career for the right person. Taking photographs helps people learn about things that are happening in the world and shows them things that they never would have seen otherwise. Learning photography is like learning to drive. It’s pointless to have discussions about automechanics or to explain how all the parts work together.
Photography colleges refine and focus the student’s individual creative talent while teaching the technical, critical and practical skills that are required in the photography profession. Students are encouraged to hone their image storytelling and fine tune their style and approach in still image making through conceptual and critical thinking. Photography is something that anyone can pick up pretty fast . However, in this digital era, you’ll be able to learn much faster than anyone could in the days of analogue film cameras. Now you can have a complicate digital camera, or even give you your kids something as basic as a Fisher Price Digital Camera Blue, that is for sure one of the most fun toys any kid may have now a days.
Photography is a balance: You have to be well versed technically, but you need the eye to find the image. Too far on either side and you’ll see it in the image.
Photography is such a technical subject that many photographers get caught up in it, or snarled up in it, as the case may be. Cameras are such wonderful contrivances that we can get lured in by the latest gadgetry. Photography’s evolution into an electronic medium has a long history, unknown to most of us. Some of the earliest devices for recording and transmitting electronically based images date well back into the mid–19th Century.
Photography is thrilling and satisfying, but it’s not as easy as many may think - it requires an understanding of light, motion, composition, esthetics and a lot of technical knowledge to gain confident control. Photography is a skill that one learns regardless of the medium used - film or digital. This has been discussed and debated time and time again as to which one is better but that is not the point. Photography tutorials in self-help books require self-management skills on the part of the reader. Unlike photography schools and workshops, self-help books cannot provide support from instructors or other students.
Medium Format: Do You Need It?
If you’re like many photographers, you’re always looking for the perfect image. In addition to being aesthetically and compositionally flawless, you also crave perfect representation of color, texture, and the finest of details. You want your photos to show the fine textures, subtle hues, and crisp edges of your subject matter. You’re looking for the best possible image.
If you need this type of image, medium format is here to help. As you may know, medium format photography uses a film format that is significantly larger than the standard 35mm format that we all know and love. By using a larger film area, medium format cameras, such as the famous Hasselblad 500 series can capture significantly more information, and therefore a much sharper, more vibrant image. The large a slide or a negative is, the better image it will give, since the larger area allows for so much more photographic information.
Medium format gear is “professional” gear, meaning the quality is very high. Some of the best lenses ever made have been for medium format cameras. You’re not going to find much cheap, low quality consumer grade glass in the medium format world, though TLR cameras like the Yashica TLRs can be a little cheaper. The best lens makers in the world have made som awesome medium format lenses. Most of these lenses will create images of the highest quality possible.
All these factors add up to give you an amazing quality image that will blow away any 35mm image taken under similar conditions. If you look at a medium format slide (or negative) through a magnifier, you will be amazed at the level of detail you’ll be seeing. It’s hard to describe, but the difference is immediately visible and striking. This is not a small quality improvement that is visible to only an elite few, this is a radical change in the quality of your photos.
Indeed, it is this quality that leads many professionals to deal with the added cost, size, and weight of medium format gear. To be sure, its not the most convenient and affordable of formats. The larger negative requires a larger, more complex camera to deal with. A larger lens is required to focus enough light to expose the medium format film pane. These larger, more complex cameras and lenses are also significantly more expensive than 35mm cameras. Medium format cameras are not for the average photographer, but rather for the professional or amateur who demands only the best looking images possible, while still allowing for some flexibility and portability, which large format lacks.
So, should you go out and buy a medium format camera today? Given the nature of most medium format cameras, probably not. However, if you’re looking to greatly improve the quality of your images, and you’re not too daunted by the complexities and expense involved with a medium format camera, you should start shopping for one today, as nothing else will fulfill that desire as well as medium format camera can.
