As a preface: While this post is primarily directed at other image-makers, since that’s where my knowledge lies, it can very easily be taken as advice to any artist, regardless of medium. Also bear in mind that the following is a blog post from a twenty-two-year-old human, and thus is prone to inaccuracies, mistakes, and just plain biased opinions. Take what you read with a grain of salt, whether the words come from a favourite classical author, or a twenty-first century internet-user.
Now on to the main points, and what will likely involve some ranting. The simple reason being that I see all too often people focusing on what, in my eyes, are obviously the wrong things, in order to get noticed. Firstly, if your goal is merely to garner attention from the watching world, you aren’t going to be satisfied, even if you do reach a million followers on social media. Creating art needs to be something you do for yourself, at least to a point, and if the real driving factor for you is how others perceive you, then it simply isn’t going to be worth it. That’s one obvious mistake people fall into in this world. It’s something that I’m guilty of, and something that goes far deeper in the human soul than a mere desire for attention. But I won’t go into that right now. Since I’ve put forth what I think is a core issue that most people run into during their pursuit of art, I’ll move on to listing what I think are the most important things you can do to really be good at your craft — in particular as a photographer, but more generally as an artist of any kind. After the list, I’ll give some explanation as to why I believe the way I do on this subject.
Firstly, and likely most obviously, learn to understand your tools. In photography, this of course means getting to know your camera and lens, but even more importantly, it means understanding light, and composition.
Secondly, read the Bible. Yes, read the Bible. Certainly as a Christian I believe this is important (crucial in fact), but even if you don’t believe in God right now, this can still apply to you.
Thirdly, and relating closely to the previous statement, read good books. Not just articles in newspapers, journals and blogs, not just the latest New York Times best seller. I mean really good works of literature: pieces that have stood the test of time because they have offered something more substantial and important that topical commentary on what’s going on in one’s own time and space.
Fourthly, and lastly in this list, rest. Without your phone, without your computer, without your mind on social media or popular entertainment. Getting out into nature is a great way to do this. And I’m not just talking about resting your body.
Now, some elaboration.
The first point I made is something that people, shockingly, often don’t seem to think about. Part of the problem is that technology is advancing at such a rapid rate, and people get so distracted with the new and exciting stuff that they spend all their time deciding what piece of gear to buy next, instead of practicing with what they already have. Not too long ago (though still before my time), the only “kit” lens most manufacturers offered with their cameras was a 50mm, something fast and versatile. And that was enough for photographers then. I never talk with someone interested in stepping into the photography world without recommending getting a fixed lens like this. I could write for so long about why, but that isn’t what this post is about, so I’ll keep it short. Firstly, photography is about capturing light, and fixed focal length lenses (for the most part) are able to let in more light that zooms. This matters a great deal, and if you don’t know it already, you’ll learn later. Next, let’s think hypothetically for a moment. Say you have a huge zoom lens — Nikon makes an 18-300mm, so let’s go with that. You get the lens and think, “I have every focal length I could want covered with this one lens, now I don’t need any others.” Now, let’s say you’re asked to shoot some senior photos. Easy enough. But, what focal length should you shoot at? You’ve got quite a range available to you. But where’s the sweet spot? Should you just go all the way to 18mm, and get super close to your subject? Should you stay far away and go with a longer focal length? Should you stay somewhere in the middle? When should you change from one focal length to another? How are you going to know? There’s a huge difference between a wide angle shot taken close and a telephoto image taken from a distance. But what is the difference? And how are you supposed to know? And right now I’m just speaking from a technical perspective; you have to take into account the location, and weather, and how your lens’ aperture will play into that; you have to understand what distortion is going to be like at difference focal lengths; you have to know even the kind of resolution (not megapixels) that you can expect from your lens, and with a lot of zooms this is going to change throughout the focal range. Then there’s the artistic side of it, which I won’t go into, because that doesn’t matter until you know how to use your tools. So learn about them. Read your manual, play with your camera, learn what all the different settings and functions mean, and how to use them. Stick with one focal length, and understand how it behaves, how it impacts an image. And learn composition. The reason we have things like the “Rule of Thirds” is because people have noticed throughout history that in design, and in nature, there are certain things that just naturally attract the eye; beauty does tend to look a certain way. Until you train your eye to see things from a framed, photographic perspective, your photos are going to lack. You also can’t bend the rules until you know them. There aren’t really rules in a strict sense in photography, since it’s an art, but there are very helpful guidelines, which are in place to help people along the road, help them grow. Equally important to composition is exposure — those being in reality the only two things that make up an image. Photography means “light painting.” If you don’t understand light, and don’t know how to make use of it, how will you make photographs? If I hand you a fully manual camera, and put you outside at two o’clock on a cloudy day and say, “Take a properly exposed image; I don’t even care about the composition, just expose it right,” what are you going to set your camera to? Light meters are amazing (not to mention electronic viewfinders), but they’ve taught us to be lazy, often to the point of not even knowing what ISO, aperture, or shutter speed mean, or how they interact with each other. Any camera that is released these days will have fully automatic modes of operation. I would encourage you to ignore them, and learn the exposure triangle for yourself. Right at this moment, I’m inside a coffee shop, it’s sunny outside, and there are three large windows in front of me, with a counter and stools placed in front of them. I picked up my camera a few minutes ago to take a photo, moved my ISO down to 400, kept my aperture at f/2, and slowed my shutter speed to 1/250th second to take a photo of a guy sitting on the stool in front of me. All I had to do to get my exposure right once I looked through the viewfinder was increase my shutter speed to about 1/400th. I could never have done that three years ago, because I kept my camera in auto mode. So, learn your camera, learn your lens, and learn composition and exposure. After you learn them, you can do what you want with them, but not until then.
Next is a much less obvious tip. Read the Bible. Simply put, the reason for this is that your photos are going to reflect who you are, and if you don’t know who you are, your images will probably look like someone else’s. In the year of 2018, we are confronted with an avalanche of content made by other humans on a daily, hourly basis, through the internet, television, and advertisements of all kinds. When you constantly consume others’ work, it will bleed into your own, most of the time unconsciously, but sometimes intentionally. Every image that you scroll past on Instagram is going to affect the way you take photos. This can be helpful, just as gathering advice from other people can be helpful, but it can also be a hindrance, in making you think things must be done in a certain way. As a Christian, the Bible is what I define my life by, because it shows within its pages a God who is unchanging, unique, and who calls me unique. I learn who I am by learning who God is, and understanding how He has created me specifically and intentionally. Everyone is different, but if we all look to each other all the time to learn who we are, we just end up copying each other. While imitation may be the greatest form of flattery, it isn’t a very creative act. You have the capacity to see life and your surroundings differently than anyone else who walks the earth. To make really good images, you need to be able to embrace that, and look at the world from the light of your experience, and your uniqueness. Put ten different photographers in front of the same scene with the same equipment, and you should get ten totally different images. Yet in such a social media-centric world, those differences are in danger of shrinking smaller and smaller. As a photographer, your images should showcase, even in a very subtle, small way that most people won’t see, who you are. For that to be true though, you need to know who you are. And the best thing I can recommend you do to find that out, is read the Bible.
My next bit of advice, which runs in the same vein as that previous one, is to read good books. Really good books, powerful books, books that have been around a long while, and are still read, are read for a reason. They’re really great to get your mind working, to learn how to look at things more creatively and understand people from a perspective that you may not have considered before. This is another thing that isn’t always tied to photography or artistry, because it doesn’t seem to relate directly, but it does change the way you see the world, and thus, the way you take photos. It let’s you see people and places that you might not ever see otherwise, and forces you to think differently about them. So put down the camera, and pick up a good read.
The last tip I have is to simply rest. Slow down. We rush through a lot of our lives, and miss a lot of the details because of it. I know I take a great deal of things for granted, simply because I don’t take the time to think about them. In addition, my mind is usually so crowded full of noisy stimuli that simple, ordinary things like the colour of the sky, or the way the sun shines through a cloud, or the feel of the wind on my skin, often go completely unnoticed. But a huge part of being a good photographer is being observant, being able to see things others don’t, simply because you have your eyes open. Getting away from your usual, hectic surroundings is a great way to slow down and refresh your perspective. And you don’t need to have a camera with you either. You can pay attention to light and learn how to use it without being able to capture it in that specific moment. In fact, deliberately leaving your camera behind can be incredibly helpful in learning how to use it, since it forces you to really look at what’s around you, instead of just shooting. That way, when you do have your camera in hand, you’ll be more thoughtful about where you point it. There are too many photographers out there who’s work takes no time at all to create. In most cases it isn’t because they’re especially gifted, it’s just because they’re lazy.
You’ve probably noticed that three of the four things I recommended doing to become a better photographer don’t even involve a camera. That’s because being a good photographer, or artist of any kind, is as much about being a complete person as knowing how to use your tools. Perhaps more. Cameras and lenses don’t make good photographs, people do. Advanced and progressing technology is fun and all, but there’s really nothing new under the sun; humans have always seen light, technology has just changed the way we capture it. But you have to see it first. You could be completely surrounded by beauty right now, but if your eyes are closed, you won’t know it.
— Joel