----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Desjardins" Subject: Re: FID (Film is Dead)
>I do have to agree that a plain old photography course should be taught > in the digital medium. Quite simply, it*s the dominant medium for > those who take snapshots and those who do photography for a living. If > people are going to have digital cameras in their hands, that that*s > what they should use when they learn. Whenever there is a paradigm > shift, there is always a tendency to include the older approach > *because it*s the best way to learn*, Unfortunately, it*s > mostly the older generation trying to recapitulate their learning path > for the new kids. The better approach is to work up some new pedagogy > appropriate to the new techniques. I*m not saying playing in a > darkroom wouldn*t expand your understanding of light, exposure, etc., > but it*s no longer the best way to start. You have to learn on the > tool you*re going to use. Of course, the language will change as > well. If the APS-C sensor sticks around then younger photographers will > think of the 50 mm as a short telephoto. To me, this is as it should > be. Hell, I*M starting to think like that. The only valid arguement I can see for forcing people to learn exposure on film is that you can force them to use full manual cameras, and force them to learn about light. This is, to my mind, a pretty valid reason, but I expect it would also be possible to find a way to lock a DSLR into manual exposure mode by sealing that control in place so it can't be moved. I think it is important to learn photography with fixed focal length lenses rather than zooms, though this is a topic for another thread. You'll find that anyone who has used multiple formats for any length of time doesn't play the focal length multiplication fools game. The sooner you stop playing it, the better. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
