Learning Photography

TAKEN FROM www.danheller.com

I am asked the following question far too often: 

"What were your camera settings when you took that picture? It would really help me to know that, because I'm a beginner."


This reminds me of the story where Ansel Adams was teaching a photo workshop in Yosemite National Park, and a student raised his hand. "What was the aperture setting and shutter speed on that photo?", asked the student as he pointed to a classic black and white print of Half Dome. Ansel replied without batting an eyelash, "f64 at 2 seconds." This prompted another student to do the same, "And what about that photo?" Again, he quickly replied, "f32 at 1 second." This goes on and on, while the students scribble in their notebooks the technical information they were told, as if the magician were giving away secrets. Finally, someone "How do you remember all that information?" This time, the answer was more direct, "I don't. I'm making it up." The pencils stopped. He continued, "beginners always wonder about this information, but it's meaningless. When we get to learning how to shoot, it won't even occur to you to ask such questions." 

A lot of beginners mistakenly believe that knowing what the camera settings were for any given picture will help them learn something, or give them some guidelines or insights on how the photographic process works. The problem is photography is not a paint-by-numbers game, where you memorize aperture/exposure values, and apply them under what appear to be similar conditions. Amateurs all too often feel they will get a "sense" for how pictures are taken, which may sink in over time, and there are plenty of pro photographers that write books to give these people such quick and easy answers to these questions. But one cannot possibly learn anything using this method. In fact, it does more harm than good by perpetuating the illusion of knowledge, thereby delaying when the real learning process begins.