In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:

The "grunt work" (metering and focusing) is a part of the actual photo.

composition is part of the photo.

metering and focusing is not, and is something that a camera can do
better in nearly all situations.

Metering and focusing are all part of the art of composing a
photograph.

no they aren't.

composition is choosing a vantage point, choosing and/or posing the
subject, ...

... making sure you have the bits you want in focus and the bits you
don't wasn out of focus ...

which the camera can easily do.

what it can't do is position the subject in the frame.

properly lighting it, ...

... and making sure you have the correct exposure for the light level

which the camera can easily do.

what it can't do is arrange the lights for whatever effect is desired.

... clicking the shutter at the optimal time, etc.

a camera can't do any of that.

Mind you, camera manufacturers are trying to achieve this by giving
cameras the ability to recognise scene types. My old Nikon 801s film
camera had some considerable ability to set exposures on the basis of
automatically determined scene types, but it was by no means perfect.

nope, but it's a start.

all a camera can do is determine the focus and exposure.

All a camera can do is determine _a_ focus and _an_ exposure. They
arn't necessarily the optimum values. Thats why cameras are now trying
to rcognise faces, give you a choice of exposure points and the
ability to +/- exposures.

most of the time it's optimum and likely as good or better than what
the photographer would have chosen on their own, but nothing is
perfect.

technology is advancing and as you say, it can recognize faces and use
that as focus targets (which is wonderful, especially when they move).

however, what a camera *can't* do is choose the subject, get it to pose
(if it's alive) and click the shutter.

there's always the possibility that the photographer may want to
override the focus or exposure (which they obviously can), but that's
the exception.

It might be an exception for you but the majority of photographs I
took with the D750 on my recent trip were deliberately under exposed.

so what? that's what exposure adjustment is for.

they can also bias the automatic modes for specific
situations, such as shutter priority with a fast shutter speed for
stopping motion or choosing a specific autofocus mode for subject
tracking.

good luck trying to maintain focus on a moving object without autofocus.

Louis Klemantaski seemed to be able to manage it
http://tinyurl.com/nptnnqc

if you're going to post a link, post the actual url. do not hide it in
a url shortener. usenet s not bandwidth constrained.

anyway, let's see him track-focus a hockey game.