> all they need to understand is which parameters affect output in what way. Yes. That was the point I was trying to make and after reading the responses, I se

> all they need to understand is which parameters affect output in what way. Yes. That was the point I was trying to make and after reading the responses, I see I didn't make it as clearly as I could have. I think the confusion is in the multiple ways to interpret this phrase in the original article, "knowledge of how the camera works." I thought the examples I cited (lighting, lens, aperture, etc) would make clear how I took that phrase but they didn't do so sufficiently. I'll give an example. In the example I'll substitute violin for camera again because I think it helps to remove some of the technical nuance specific to cameras. I took "knowledge of how the violin works" to include "knowledge of how to..." apply finger pressure on the strings, rock the strings to create vibrato, use bow strikes, apply rosin - all to achieve. I did not take "knowledge of how the violin works" to mean things like: the effect of internal geometry on acoustic resonance. To me, those are "knowledge of how to build the violin" which I already said wasn't necessary to be great violinist (although the example of 'geometry -> acoustic resonance' is more 'designing a violin', I group design as part of 'building'. I know see several people took the phrase differently when that interpretation wasn't the point I was trying to make. As a filmmaker, "knowledge of how the camera works" means knowing how to apply lighting, lens, aperture, shutter speed, etc to achieve the desired artistic result. I didn't mean "knowledge of how the camera works" in the sense of "the impact of pre-charge voltages on charge coupled devices", which to me is akin to "the effect of internal geometry on acoustic resonance" in a violin. As I said that's designing a camera/violin, which is part of "knowing how to build it" not "knowing how it works". "How it works" is simply too open to interpretation.