Everything You Know is Wrong: Busting the Most Deceiving Photographic Myths
One of the most popular quotes from Mark Twain is, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Except that Mark Twain never said that, and, worse, there was no such person as Mark Twain. As it turns out, much of the conventional wisdom applied to photography is more conventional than wise, and, unfortunately, there are too many photography myths that are wrong, and can get us into trouble.
Exposure meters are not calibrated to 18% gray. Your camera’s ISO 100 “base” setting won’t necessarily give you the best image quality. Shooting movies with faster shutter speeds may actually give you terrible-looking videos. A filter provides absolutely no protection for your lenses from the most common type of impact damage. Avoiding the use of large memory cards may actually increase your chances of losing photos. Crop-sensor cameras don’t “multiply” your lens’ focal length. Some 48 megapixel cameras have a true resolution of only 12 megapixels. And these are only the most common misbeliefs that are commonly followed – and taught – by people who should know better.
Our speaker, author/photographer David. D. Busch has been lucky enough to make his living taking photos, making horrible mistakes, and helping others learn how to avoid them since December, 1965. He’s written 350-odd books on various topics (and a few that are less odd) that have sold more than 3 million copies and have been translated into nine foreign languages. He’s better known to Cleveland Photographic Society members as “that guy Dave, who does the Special Interest Groups meetings the first Thursday of each month” and who featured the work of CPS members in two international non-bestselling books, including the “Digital Photography Bucket List.”