The Worst Advice (in ANY format)

[e]

Opinions of what lenses I should use.Many times I like the lens that others don't.I like my cheap Optar because it blows away all my other LF lenses hands down.I like my 3.5 and 2.8 Xenars because I can actually see the GG inside in dim light.I like my Noctilux because it is the fastest lens on the planet and is wonderful even though some dont care for it.Lesson learned....listen to others but.... make sure to go with your gut! One other thing...that lenses should only be used at their optimum apertures...

[John Kasaian]

How about this:"Nobody uses that old_______(insert name of camera, lens, light meter, tripod etc...)anymore, You really need to get yourself a____________(insert name of overpriced, soon to be obsolete camera, lens ,light meter, tripod etc...)if you want to take great pictures!"

[Struan Gray]

Kevin's experience is like the the "just burn film" advice often dished out here and elsewhere. Nonesense, but people like saying it.

Sometimes it seems trivially easy to be a rebel in photography. I shoot at midday in full sunlight. I *like* wrap round ever-ready cases. I handhold large cameras at slow speeds. I cheerfully put my film through the hand baggage scanners. I crop in the darkroom.

[David Walker]

Barry,

I think you are right. Somewhere down the line Picker changed his tiechnique based on his experiences. He could probably do that based on repeatable metering and processing technique. I was really referring to setting film speed (base exposure) at the low end and setting development time to fit printing and paper contrast at the high values. That he did not change that.

My daughter is taking a college level (not art school) photography course and thyt have her evaluating test strips as to whether "it's too dark or too light" arghh. No wonder begginners get grey and light grey in their prints

[bill_1041]

Worst advice: "The smaller the f-stop, the sharper the picture."

[chris jordan]

ha!-- yeah, Bill, i was given that advice, and followed it for the whole first year i shot with 4x5. my lens could stop down to f/64, so i figured for best sharpness i'd shoot everything at f/64, and i couldn't figure out why all my transparencies were so dang fuzzy!

[Huw Evans]

I guess this is a slight departure from the topic - not so much advice as commen t - but I read the following in a review article in an increasingly popular UK p hotography magazine today:

'...depth of field is much shallower than I would expect for a lens of this foca l length and quality...'

I don't think I'll be buying it again.

[jnantz]

Kevin's experience is like the the "just burn film" advice often dished out here and elsewhere. Nonesense, but people like saying it.

Sometimes it seems trivially easy to be a rebel in photography. I shoot at midday in full sunlight. I *like* wrap round ever-ready cases. I handhold large cameras at slow speeds. I cheerfully put my film through the hand baggage scanners. I crop in the darkroom.

YES!

[Kirk Gittings]

Van Deren Coke to Thomas Joshua Cooper in a graduate review, "there is no need for a third generation of American landscape photographers".

and to me "format is irrelevant to vision".

[Nick_3536]

When I was first learning how to use a darkroom, I knew a guy who worked in a ca mera shop. He would say really wise sounding things like ?expose for the shadow s and develop for the highlights?. He never really explained what that meant, b ut who was I to ask a bunch of questions? One day I was complaining about how b ad my prints looked, and he said,

?You just need to buy a box of paper and lock yourself in the darkroom until you learn how to print?.

There?s the awful advice. It not only sounds innocent enough, it actually sound s good! I already had a great deal of enthusiasm for the work, and here was thi s god-like individual (he worked in camera store!) telling me that I just needed to apply some time and effort, and I would be a good printer. Wow, this was go ing to be easy AND fun!

So I got busy. I printed, tried some different paper, tried some different film , printed some more, tried some different chemicals, tried a different light sou rce, made more prints, tried some different lenses, etc.

The idea of buying a big box of paper/film is mutually exclusive with trying many different types of paper/film and chemicals. You stick to one paper/film and don't go jumping all over the place.

How are you supposed to compare todays work with yesterdays if you are changing everything all the time?

The point of buying a 250 or bigger box of paper is to force the person not to change too many variables.