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Photography seems to be one place where the exchange rate between better skills and better tech favors skills. I have a friend who makes rock documentaries and

Photography seems to be one place where the exchange rate between better skills and better tech favors skills. I have a friend who makes rock documentaries and his boss will often rent an $8K camera. My friend sometimes shoots on a $500 DSLR, and once mixed in some of his footage. His boss could tell the difference, but it wasn't significant, and it made him wonder why they even rented the nicer camera.

gadders 9y ago
My wife is a good photographer. Not professional level, but pretty good. It always makes me laugh when people say "That's a great picture. What camera do you have?" You could give me the best camera in the world and my pictures would still be "Meh". It's not the camera that makes the difference.
- frou_dh 9y ago
  There's a (British?) phrase for the general phenomenon, especially with recreational sports: All the gear, no idea.
- open_bear 9y ago
  There is a joke: Couple walks into a photo exhibit, and compliments the photographer "these are very nice photos, you camera must be pretty expensive". After an exhibit they invite the photographer to their house for a dinner. Photographer finishes the dinner and says "food tasted great, your kitchenware must be pretty expensive too".
and0 9y ago
That $500 DSLR can definitely do some impressive work, but the issue is in how it processes the images. A DSLR will read the sensor progressively, from top to bottom. So if an image changes from the top of the frame to the bottom (if the camera pans or an object moves horizontally) the top is recorded slightly before the bottom, leading to a "tilting" effect. This would be really noticeable if you were to follow someone around with a steadicam, or had objects moving across the screen with any real speed. When I watch short amateur films on Youtube this effect can ruin the whole experience for me, since I can't stop noticing it. However, a shot of a rock show (crowd or stage) would likely be busy enough to make the effect unnoticeable. There are probably algorithms that fix it too, especially if the film is shot at a higher resolution than is being output (to allow adjustments at the edges of frame).

gadders 9y ago

My wife is a good photographer. Not professional level, but pretty good. It always makes me laugh when people say "That's a great picture. What camera do you have?" You could give me the best camera in the world and my pictures would still be "Meh". It's not the camera that makes the difference.

frou_dh 9y ago
There's a (British?) phrase for the general phenomenon, especially with recreational sports: All the gear, no idea.
open_bear 9y ago
There is a joke: Couple walks into a photo exhibit, and compliments the photographer "these are very nice photos, you camera must be pretty expensive". After an exhibit they invite the photographer to their house for a dinner. Photographer finishes the dinner and says "food tasted great, your kitchenware must be pretty expensive too".

and0 9y ago

That $500 DSLR can definitely do some impressive work, but the issue is in how it processes the images. A DSLR will read the sensor progressively, from top to bottom. So if an image changes from the top of the frame to the bottom (if the camera pans or an object moves horizontally) the top is recorded slightly before the bottom, leading to a "tilting" effect. This would be really noticeable if you were to follow someone around with a steadicam, or had objects moving across the screen with any real speed. When I watch short amateur films on Youtube this effect can ruin the whole experience for me, since I can't stop noticing it. However, a shot of a rock show (crowd or stage) would likely be busy enough to make the effect unnoticeable. There are probably algorithms that fix it too, especially if the film is shot at a higher resolution than is being output (to allow adjustments at the edges of frame).