So, now that you have a bmcc that can shoot raw are you a master cinematographer?

Shooting raw is more like shooting film - now that we have more control did the whole world suddenly become child's play? Did you ever dodge and burn when printing a negative on an enlarger?

You still have to put time in to shoot it right even with Raw.

There is a huge gap between an amateur with good tools and a master.

Maybe there are no known masters in your area, I don't know - but there are plenty of masters on the east coast, west coast and Chicago.

Normally I don't let such vapid rants annoy me - but this set me off.

If you feel the need to be a purist - go shoot only jpeg and do video with no color correction - or try shooting slide film - that's a challenge in itself. Maybe you will discover more about the most important medium of the 20th century (my blowhard opinion).

Please - get out a little more and explore the world for what it is. The fact that no one wants to pay shit for your work does not mean you can't still make art - or make money for that matter if you are clever.

other than the first photo, they look fine to me...

Ahhhh, you can't fool me! Now who's trolling who?

You can have quite decent latitude in exposure with traditional negative film too. B&W especially. Caj Bremer, a famous finnish photojournalist active between the 50's and 80's, used to ballpark estimate his exposures a lot. Set and forget. His images are astonishing.

You lose dynamic range if you don't nail the exposure and that's the same with digital exposure as well. Reversal film is another beast. Sort of like jpg you have to get the exposure right or you will blow highlights very easily.

Getting the exposure right is just one part of photographic technique. Raw and autoexposure won't help you with the rest: framing and focus. End of the day, the thing that counts the most is timing and content. How is raw-format making this obsolete?

:-)

@Vitaliy_Kiselev I really really like your graph find there. I'm going to use it in a presentation; its exactly how I feel about the area's I'm working in.

To add to this debate, here's a couple of images from our youngest child's homework:

and the basis:

Of course it was done on a 5D. The girls came up with the idea and it was only 1C outside so it had to be done in the garage. Its not the 5D that makes these pictures, its the lights, which came from P-V deals (the DN900 and AS312). The lights help to lose the scruffy background and the low DOF reduces the background yet further.

20 years ago I used to compete in amateur photographic competitions. These days I'm getting about 1 week every month employment on video and photographic work. From my semi-pro viewpoint, I believe the professional learns how to give the customer what they want in the time and cost they want.

I'm finding that I visualise great shots and interesting angles; but keep my mouth shut if they'll blow the time or cost budget.

To be slightly provocative I would say that learning to shout loud-and-politely makes obsolete most skill that you'd like to believe you need. (Does anyone know of a good shouting tutorial ???)

@manstok

Exactly right, manstok! The challenge for us is to somehow confidently stay atop the fast-moving "technology surfboard" while new and improved waves incessantly crash in around us! In all seriousness, our aggregate level of technological achievement in the visual arts sector is simply astonishing these days, as well as exciting and addicting!

Knowledge is power and takes time and perseverance to achieve -- at least for a feeble-minded person such as myself. It's the increasing pace of product obsolescence that has me dazed. That's why I usually try to avoid being an early adopter because it's also known that fools rush in where angels fear to tread!

Wildlife photographers, or landscape? no idea......

I am pretty sure that raw is all you need for wildlife.
Just get big rock, throw it into the big lion and you will have some time to make few really dramatic shots. Your wife later could even sell them to cover part of expenses for your funerals.

absolete = obsolete or absolute? i guess both fit ;)

lol

I would say that a similar argument to this thread would be....now that you can play and record perfect synthesized music on your computer that there is no longer a need for a musician to create a great song?

Which is equally full of shit!

So is the number of village idiots thanks to a keyboard and a few fingers.

@gravitatemediagroup so all those rappers are putting out great albums? Or do they need to be an artist to produce good art?

@GMG are you saying then that all photographers are like village idiots? Because if you aren't then your logic above does not work.