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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Horoscope Fish" data-source="post: 640814" data-attributes="member: 13090">I think there's a subtle distinction that needs to be made and it's crucial to Tony's point. What Tony is saying, in so many words, is that while looking at the EXIF data can be helpful in understanding certain concepts in a general sense (e.g. "Oh, he used f/11, that's why there's such a deep depth of field in that shot.") that's pretty much where the usefulness ends. I think he's addressing what I call the Recipe Card approach to photography (I'm coining that phrase right now).The Recipe Card approach to photography is the mindset that excellent photography is a matter of knowing what settings to dial in for a shot. Like a recipe for your grandmother's totally amaaaazing spaghetti sauce; if you, or someone else, just had that recipe card anyone could make the same amazing sauce. Except that even with the recipe card you won't be able to make the same great sauce because what makes that sauce great can't be found on the recipe card. Ask your grandmother for the recipe card for her totally amazing spaghetti sauce and she might have it, but it will probably come with the caveat that she long ago quit looking at it and her version bears little resemblance to what's on the actual recipe card. Her years of experience come into play with every batch of sauce, her understanding of what makes the perfect spaghetti sauce is honed by years of experience and she can adjust on the fly if, say for instance, the local market is out of oregano. She understands the "rules" that make good sauce so she knows not just how to break them but how to break them effectively; because there's a huge difference in just breaking a well established guideline for the sake of breaking a well established guideline, or doing so out of ignorance, and doing so by creative design borne of true understanding. So while the recipe card, or the camera settings for a particular shot, can be helpful in a general sense, what Tony is saying is that there is a strict limit on just how useful seeing the EXIF data on shot can be. Primarily because the settings used are SO dependent on the EXACT circumstance he was shooting in that discussing details is almost irrelevant. He's urging you to  stop obsessing over technical details and instead look to understand the deeper concepts that make for really good, powerful photography. But I also understand that things like settings are easy to obsess over and discuss ad naseum because those things are relatively concrete, mathematical. And people easily (lovingly) obsess over numbers. What's difficult to discuss, what makes photography a lifelong pursuit that you never truly Master, is the art of photography, the "squishy" stuff that Photographic Engineers like to dismiss because it can't be reduced to hard numbers. Left Brain vs Right Brain stuff. The difference between Knowing and Understanding.</blockquote>

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