Having installed the new PC and CS5 I decided to buy a couple of new books to speed up the learning between my older CS2 and 3 to the newer version. I am generally impatient when it comes to learning functional commodities and prefer to use the trial and error method, but this seemed like a good time to buy more books, as unlike a lawnmower or multimeter the controls are hidden and you can hunt forever to just switch to Photography mode. Adobe Photoshop for Photographers and The Ultimate Workshop, both by Martin Evening arrived while I was in Cumbria,(looking for assignment 3 in 80 mph winds). It is astonishing to think that (if we knew nothing about PS) that we now need a book with 746 pages and a further one 484 pages, just to process photographs beyond the normal man in the street techniques. I know that is an exaggeration but I don't think my textbooks for my Private Pilots License had so many pages and just how much do we need to know ?. I am aware that I know enough to get by, but as a student for a degree in photography I feel I should know more and be something of an expert in the field if one day I was to say teach the subject. It would be inappropriate to not be able to answer questions on the finer points of PS and while we have no examinations I am making the effort to read more.
This of course is a further distraction from getting on with new images, but is at least "something akin to photography" and I am not watching mindless television, which could be the death of us all.
Knowledge need not be about what's in your head already, but knowing where to look for it when you do need to know...
ReplyDeleteI agree Rob, but I hate not knowing and photography is a bit like history, there is so much of it.
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