Monday, September 12, 2011

Amusing

I have just been reading a most amusing post that illustrates to me the absurdity of mathmizing (just made that word up so don’t look it up) photography. Art doesn’t require, need, or benefit from mathematical formulas. Period. Hopefully the post was from a “just took a camera out of the box the first time in my life” photographer. It probably wasn’t because he/she was terribly concerned about the inverse square law and how it affected exposure as the distance between the camera and the subject matter changed. Few people taking a camera of the box for the first time has ever heard of the inverse square law, thank goodness. They would be better off if they never heard of it. The inverse square law only applies to the distance between a light source and the subject matter. It does not apply in any way, shape or form to the distance between the camera and the subject matter. If it did we wouldn’t be able to see the moon. If the exposure is correct for a subject two feet in front of the camera it is going to be correct for that same subject under the same lighting when the camera is two hundred or two thousand or two million feet away or even 238,856 miles away. Jeeze put away the calculators and learn to see photographically--that is much more important and even a lot more fun for anyone but a geek.

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