It maybe a part of the technical knowledge required of a photo student, but I have a question. Why???
It's one thing colleges seem to forget. Yes it might win you a beer on a bar bet, but how does that knowledge make one better in any function of photography? How does knowing the math make one better at their craft? College is expensive and college time is precious. So to quote Thomas Jefferson, we should "question with boldness" why something is in the coursework, and if it can't be justified it should be eliminated.
Is that obscure use that might never come to the vast majority of the students, worth the time when only maybe one or two students will ever find themselves needing the information? Is there other information that would better suit a students needs?
You may or may not feel such math is justified. I knew a lot of college professors that taught material because that's what they had to teach. It was part of the system and if you got them away from school they would admit better things could have been done with the time. If they wanted tenure, they better teach the expected material. Frankly Id rather see photo students learn about enlargers and light meters, but then again its just my view and everyone is entitled to their own.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: f number adjustment to increase light level
From: ADavidhazy <andpph@xxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, January 21, 2011 9:53 am
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students
<photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Agreed ... factors of 2 are easy but what if you wanted a factor of 4
or 6 or 75?
I will agree again that is is academic but in certain obscure and
unanticipated applications it might be useful to know this if you want
to determine a specific
f number rather than just guessing at it. The question was asked in an
academic
setting - part of the overall technical education of photo technology
students.
Andy
PS: Interestingly ... most students here don't know what a
photographic enlarger
is or what a light meter is either! The digital age is upon us! ;) <-
wink!
On Jan 21, 2011, at 10:12 AM, Lew wrote:
> Yes, but a quick look at any lens or light meter tells you just as
> much without any calculations at all. Each stop signifies a factor
> of 2, so to get 4x the amount of light, click over 2 stops & you're
> done. Teaching a student all this math (if this is what the thread
> is about, I wasn't in on the beginning) is very academic. It's not
> anything a photographer with a camera in hand would ever do.
