Experience, Equipment and Training

FixitDave

FixitDave

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  • Experience
  • Equipment
  • Training

You have 100 points to spend on these 3 areas of photography, giving the most points to the one that most important.

How would you you score them?
 
FixitDave said:
  • Experience
  • Equipment
  • Training

You have 100 points to spend on these 3 areas of photography, giving the most points to the one that most important.

How would you you score them?
Click to expand...


This will vary depending on the previous experience of the user so do you need a benchmark ?
 
Interesting

Do you mean to us 'now', as in more of all that, or as we perceive them generally?

I'll assume generally

Experience 60%
Equipment 10%
Training 30%

By 'Training' I'm taking it to mean class such as seminars, reading books/mags/online

DD
 
I'd whack 100 on equipment. That way I can gain experience and teach myself without having to spend any money ;)
 
I'm with DD on this one

Experience 60%
Equipment 10%
Training 30%

Training is important because it is knowledge, experience is the practical application of that knowledge and learning from what went right and what went wrong. Equipment is what you have available to take the pic. It's a tool and without either training or experience is pretty much worthless. (except when it's my camera of course :), in which case it's priceless)
 
experience: 50% -you just can't beat it!
training: 40%- I did learn alot, and I had no idea of how to use a camera other than point and clicks!
equipment: 10%- HOWEVER much I do love cameras, I learnt on a 48 year old Praktica. I spent 2 years using it for B+W photography during my A-Levels, whilst everybody elses new film SLRs broke down atleast once or twice. Made really nice photos with a 50mm lens. I still use it sometimes if I have the time to use a dark room. I must say, one of the best £10 investments I ever made! Came with 4 lenses aswell!
 
Re training - Did any of the courses, tutorials, etc. train you to deal with people such as the bride crying her eyes out because it's pouring with rain, the flowers didn't arrive, the cake's been dropped and her divorced parents are having a stand up row over the seating arrangements?
 
pxl8 said:
Re training - Did any of the courses, tutorials, etc. train you to deal with people such as the bride crying her eyes out because it's pouring with rain, the flowers didn't arrive, the cake's been dropped and her divorced parents are having a stand up row over the seating arrangements?
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Yep :thumbs:

Empathy course for Brides

Martial Arts courses (years of) for others

But I certainly didn't need to spend 30 points (like some :nuts:) on gear to shoot it all, my first 2 Weddings were shot on a Zenith EM with Helios 50mm & 28mm lenses; and you know what? I reckon I still could get decent results with those still

:D

DD
 
That's not really going to work with me, I probably have the least amount of gear of any "pro" here. 2 bodies, 3 lenses plus the normal array of flash, tripod, etc. Ok I'm picking up another lens this week but my 30 pts on gear is 30 pts on the right gear rather than 10 pts on lots :D
 
Another vote for...

60%
10%
30%

I've only just upgraded to a D-SLR and was getting pretty good pics with my Fuji bridge camera. Years ago I got good results with 35mm SLR's from my very first Zenith to the last Canon EOS I had.

I don't think you can beat experience for improving your photography. It helps with both the creative and technical side. You learn what works idea and composition wise plus you learn how to use your equipment to good effect and find out where things can be improved upon.

Training is good too, especially for beginners, it's just not going to make as big a difference as experience will. Training is required so that you know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Beyond that it's down to you. Once you understand the techniques and technology involved with photography then training can't really take you any further.

The equipment is just a tool that you use to get the job done. So long as it's a capable tool then you should be able to use it.
 
pxl8 said:
That's not really going to work with me, I probably have the least amount of gear of any "pro" here. 2 bodies, 3 lenses plus the normal array of flash, tripod, etc. Ok I'm picking up another lens this week but my 30 pts on gear is 30 pts on the right gear rather than 10 pts on lots :D
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2 bodies & 3 lenses :eek::eek::eek: you rich/jammy sod

Last Wedding I shot (and won international awards for btw) was on my son's broken camera-phone with its 256k card - AND - I had 3 broken legs and 4 dislocated arms to contend with too

Now that's photography !!!

:nuts::nuts::nuts:

DD
 
With some fields of photography equipment becomes much more important

those that spring to mind are
Medical, macro, Astro and some types of sport and wildlife

give me back my zenit and a 50mm lens and i can shoot landscape, portrait, weddings etc - but how far would it get me at a night time football match?

for me equipment has to be 20%+ but the most important factor (imho) is common sense
Training is very often focused on technical skills but often the skills that a photographer needs are "soft skills" to deal effectively with people
 
in all of my hobbies, i've always believed in buying the best equipment you can.

the reasons being, if you have the best equipment you can afford, you are only limited by your ability. experience comes from what you're prepared to put into it, and training can come in all shapes and forms, and does not necessarily have to be formal.

now i'm not saying that having good equipment will ensure good results, but it certainly won't prevent them, and it will most probably make it easier to achieve them.
 
rdh said:
Just out of interest - what bodies and lenses?
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1DMKIII, 40D, 135mm f/2L, 50mm f/1.4, 24-105mm f/4L IS

Later on this week I'm picking up a 200mm f/2.8L for "work" but I'm also toying with getting a 300mm f/4L IS for "play" ;)
 
Experience 77%
Equipment 43%
Training 19.5%
Maths Tuition 67%

Awww come on :)
 
Experience 85
Equipment 5
Training 10

I have seen some absolutely stunning photos taken with the most basic equipment, and some absolute dross taken with high end equipment. Having all singing, all dancing cameras doesn't make you a better photographer :)
 
pxl8 said:
1DMKIII, 40D, 135mm f/2L, 50mm f/1.4, 24-105mm f/4L IS

Later on this week I'm picking up a 200mm f/2.8L for "work" but I'm also toying with getting a 300mm f/4L IS for "play" ;)
Click to expand...

Well, you know what they say - work hard and play hard ;)

The 24-105mm must be your weddings work-horse then (bar set portraits with the nifty)? If that's the case, it makes me want a 5D + 24-105 kit even more...

Edit:

60
20
20

Unless it was Ansel Adams giving the training, then it would be 0, 0, 100! :D
 
rdh said:
The 24-105mm must be your weddings work-horse then (bar set portraits with the nifty)?
Click to expand...

No, not really. I use it for the groups and some scene setting shots but everything else is the primes, normally the 135 when I've got the space. Primes and a good working distance just seem to work better for me :thumbs:
 
pxl8 said:
No, not really. I use it for the groups and some scene setting shots but everything else is the primes, normally the 135 when I've got the space. Primes and a good working distance just seem to work better for me :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Understandable actually, the nifty will work much better indoors in low light, and the 135 would be perfect outside.

Hmmmmm, decisions, decisions ;) Thanks for help.
 
Wow, some great replies, I was surprised to see training as low as it is (for some)...surely training is the foundation of what you have done so far?

1st comes training...
This could be an official uni qualification.
Work experience.
Some text in a mag or web site that you've read (such as this site where people give advise on how to improve on cropping, angles, ISO levels, post production etc etc etc).
A quick demo in a shop or from a friend on how to use the kit.

Now how many of you have been shown how to do something (change a setting in the camera menu or post production), that lesson lasted 5 mins but saved you possible hours of playing around?

How many of you say "I wish I know that before" after being shown something?


After you have the basics from training, then you gain experience, from there you ask peoples opinions...then you get more training.

With equipment, a good camera will improve a good picture...it will never improve a bad picture so I would give it less. But interesting about using the camera for a specific field...ie macro etc, but in a thread somewhere on this forum there is a guy that set up macro to take pics of water droplets...baby bottle, plastic keg tap and a desk lamp (ok, the good camera and lens is there but still...)

Experience...just a little more than training.

Maybe I'd score it...

Experience = 50
Equipment = 10
Training = 40

Or am I rating training too high?
 
Experience 55%
Equipment 35%
Training 10%

I've rated equipment higher than some because good equipment lets you put into practice the skills your experience and training give you. I just couldn't shoot the way I want to using a 10D and an f4 lens.
 
DiddyDave said:
2 bodies & 3 lenses :eek::eek::eek: you rich/jammy sod

Last Wedding I shot (and won international awards for btw) was on my son's broken camera-phone with its 256k card - AND - I had 3 broken legs and 4 dislocated arms to contend with too

Now that's photography !!!

:nuts::nuts::nuts:

DD
Click to expand...

Course we had it tough. Last wedding I was at I didn't even have a camera, I had to paint in red wine on a tablecloth, scan it in and print 10,000 copies before the wedding breakfast.

Now thats not photography. :naughty:

Andy
 
40
20
40

Bish, bash, bosh, done!
 
Experience 10%
Equipment 10%
Training 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
practice 10%
 
SimonTALM said:
Tough, you don't know the meaning of the word. I'd have loved to paint with wine on a table cloth... Luxury. The last wedding I shot I had to carve 1,000,000 images in stone with my fingernails and I had to carry them from the mine in the first place... :naughty:
Click to expand...

You tell the kids that today, they wont belive you
 
This is a really tough one. :thinking:

I didn't learn anything in my original studies that was relevant to my career. But it did get me my first job, where experience taught me what I needed to know to get by in this industry.

As for equipment, most of my favourite images from the last couple of months have been taken on my 2 pixie camera phone....but when it comes to images for clients, it's so important to have the right tools for whatever the job requires.


So.... with my work head on it's

Training 10%
Experience 40%
Equipment 40%

With my personal head on it's

Training 10%
Experience 80%
Equipment 10%
 
that's reserved for luck of course. :p

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