I am flabbergasted (photography)

[DMZ73]

David,

sorry to hear that this gallery was trying to sell you on Photoshop.
Not everyone has the innate ability to compose a photograph. With the advent of Photoshop, and Photoshop classes, the raw photos can be tweaked, enhanced or modified. Maybe she felt that you had a high caliber talent that could only be enhanced with a Photoshop class.

Funny - I was into art since I was a little kid. My grandfather, who had little more than a highschool education, took spectacular photographs. He had an unbelievable  ability to capture a mood, a feeling, or a character. I went to art school to study
 composition, design, drawing painting, sculpture, computer arts, etc. I took a class in photography to help me understand the media better, and understand what made a better photo-sans manipulation.

My father in law- an economic professor of 40 years- not a real creative person- always by the book- picks up a camera, and BLOWS PROFFESSIONAL photographer away with his skill. He ended up taking a few classes to enhace his skill, and is now becoming a true master of the art.
My point is this- you have an innate ability to take a spectacular photo- you could only enhace it with a class. Ultimately I repect your skill, regardless if you decide not to.
Dan 

[ChallengerHK]

Thanks for the kind words, Dan.

I'll tell you my thoughts on classes (I have had a photography class, BTW, when I was in film school. Taught by Cora Wright Kennedy). I think the value of a class is basic technical skills: how to make a good exposure, what different lenses do, how light behaves, that kind of thing. Once a person understands those things, on a second nature level, then the next step is to learn composition. And, honestly, I don't think composition can be taught. Maybe at a very basic level. I was surprised, when I was putting together one of my photo classes, how little training/teaching there is about composition, how little it taught, and how much what was there contradicted itself and other training on the same topic.

Ultimately, I think composition skill is either a) something you're born with, b) something you learn through trial and error experimentation, or c) something you never get, but not something that's imparted by knowledge transfer.  I'd love to hear yours, or anyone else's, thoughts on that.

[DMZ73]

david,

The best example of imparting composition is simply referring to   the "golden mean" or "golden ratio" That's probably the best way to teach composition. (The rest can be learned/honed with critiques.) The golden mean  basically descibes the law of thirds in composition. The way any professional photo image is broken up can always be measured by thirds.( Example- Your focal point is never truly in the center.)
A good image/composition with lead your eye moving into the image from the outside. Extremely successful artists tend to let  the composition work/play with the perspective in thirds.
http://www.thegoldenmean.com/
This composition is something you probably know very well, but it may fall short on those without the experience and eduation.

BTW- Here is my father-in-law's gallery page.
http://www.pbase.com/drjaysel
Enjoy!

Best,

Dan Zimmermann

[NoMope Greg]

BTW- Here is my father-in-law's gallery page.
http://www.pbase.com/drjaysel
Enjoy!

Best,

Dan Zimmermann

Wow!  I could waste all day looking at his photographs.  That's great stuff. 

[ChallengerHK]

david,

The best example of imparting composition is simply referring to   the "golden mean" or "golden ratio"

Thanks, Dan. One of the most interesting methods I did come across described assigning mental "weights" to the elements of an image, and trying to use them to bring the composition to a balance point. I think this was a renaissance idea, but I'm not sure. In this method, for example, two figures on the left toward the background would have about the same visual weight as one figure on the right toward the foreground.

I think the golden mean is a great tool, but I also think that some much of visual composition exists outside of it.

Your father-in-law's stuff is very nice, thanks much for sharing.