Computers waste your time

photogdave said:
People are so reactionary here these days. He's more or less saying the age-old axiom: "get it right at the time of exposure".
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I hope my "witty retort (not so much)" was not taken as reactionary. I use computers and I do things without them. Including photography.

No biggie. However to someone who was growing up during the run-up to the digital age, we were lead to believe that once computers became common-place that all the tedium of jobs, etc. would be done by these machines. There was a lot of talk about "what would we do with all the leisure time we would then have".

Well, the future didn't work out that way, we need to work just as hard with computers as we ever did with typewrites, copy machines, and spectrophotometers, in fact there seems to be less general leisure time now than there was in past decades, often due to computer issues. (Anyone who has spent hours on the phone with a help desk can attest to that!)

And wait a minute! Cars were supposed to fly in the future too!
 
kshapero said:
Specifically, I agree with Jay Maisal who says, while first playing in Photoshop "...there's one of the great lies of all times, that computers save time. They don't. They're time suckers. So, I'm trying not to get involved in the Photoshop."
Just a discussion piece not a screed.
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Computers are just a tool.
It all depend on your skills and knowledge of the tool, to do something productive.
In order to use a tool, you first need to learn to use it.
And it takes time, but it is not a waste, if you continue to use the same tool...
E
 
Like Bill, these "time-wasting" contraptions pay the lion's share of the bills here as well. Yes, they can kill a lot of my time, but I'd much rather have 'em than not.

Much prefer film to digital, but I use both. Like to scan. Like Photoshop. Love my HP 8750 (to the point that I bought a second one).

I even like ranting with you guys about it. Only a bit, though. ;)


- Barrett
 
Dave: everyone has the right to change his/her mind. It's just that the memory of Maisel's words glow like little embers. He was going on as if he'd struck oil in the basement of his firehouse/home/studio. Mind you, I like Maisel. I'm not picking on the guy for sport.

photogdave said:
People are so reactionary here these days. He's more or less saying the age-old axiom: "get it right at the time of exposure".
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Ironically, I feel this is a concept easier to accomplish with film than with digital capture. In fact, if you shoot RAW, that concept gets virtually torn to shreds: other than keeping your highlights under control, almost everything is "in play" until you get it in the computer. Which, in fact, is fine by me. I approach shooting digital in an almost entirely different way from shooting film, and each approach has its virtues, but neither allows shirking work. Make a half-assed effort, and that's likely what you'll wind up with visually, regardless of medium. I take it that this doesn't sit with Maisel too well anymore. You do what you feel is important. (And, yes, he's famous, and I'm not.)


- Barrett
 
I guess it depends on if you are getting paid to work with the computer or not.

Writing Code pays the mortgage, bills, and some nice cameras.
 
Hmmm, the time a novice wastes learning does not automatically imply that the tool is flawed.

"Never judge a philosophy by its abuse" or a computer.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
No different than the time one 'wastes' in the darkroom. Really, these kind of anti-digital screeds are just silly.
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I think computers absorb more time than we'd like to tell... Than we'd like, period.
Maybe he referred to a waste of time in terms of hours of photoshop vs. hours of shooting, not photoshop vs. darkroom... Many photographers consider they should not use photoshop, but someone else... As for darkroom work... It's usual amongst pros, at least here in Europe, even if they handle the program very well,,,
 
mabelsound said:
Didn't somebody on here say they had a 60 seconds per photo post-processing policy? I have adopted that for the most part, and it keeps the computer in the realm of useful tool, rather than time-sucker.

Internet forums, now, that's a different story.
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Using Lightroom, I hardly ever get in the 60-second-per-photo realm.:cool:

Using internet forums, I never get out of the 60-second realm.:D
 
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