Talent. ~6 comments.
And speaking of sunset pictures, in the days of film cameras, I struggled mightily trying to take a picture that I thought was any good. But getting a picture that came out of the camera looking great was all but impossible, even for professional photographers who spent most of their lives in dark-rooms changing what the camera actually saw.
Not having any darkroom skills, I learned that one way to improve my photography was to know what my camera was set to when I took the picture. That way, I could check my camera settings, look at the picture, and maybe see where things went wrong... But how do you know what your film camera was set to when you took the picture?
I can remember writing down my camera settings in a little pocket notebook when I took a picture, so I could compare the settings and how the picture looked. That never really worked for me, but it was better than nothing.
Nowadays, the digital camera takes care of all that. When you look at your new picture on the computer screen, your photo-processing software will show you exactly what your camera settings were when you took the picture, making it easy to see what you did wrong.
Of course, the camera and its settings aren't everything in photography; in fact, the settings are probably the last thing you need to worry about. Camera manufacturers want you to believe that the latest and greatest camera will turn you into a professional photographer. Camera accessory manufacturers want you to believe that the most expensive carbon fiber tripod will solve all your problems. And the photography software manufacturers want you to believe that their software can fix any problem you may run into.
But the truth is, it's talent that separates the real photographers from the somewhat okay snapshot-takers like me... And apparently talent can't be bought, or in my case, even rented, and believe me, I've tried.
This is getting too long, and I don't have enough ambition to finish it, so I might write more about cameras tomorrow. But keep in mind there's very little chance that tomorrow's blog will be any more interesting than this one, no matter what or when I write.
Theboondork