How to Develop Photography Skills

Find someone who can help you buy a good, usable camera. Maybe your dad or your photographer friend has an extra film SLR. If you don’t have a camera, borrow it until you can. Most digital cameras from the last decade, and used film cameras, are good enough for you to take great photos. Having your own camera would be a big help.

Learn the basics, if you don’t already know. The basics of photography include composition, which is basically how to arrange a subject in a frame, lighting, and basic camera operations. See How to Take Better Photos with basic tutorials.

Ready. At least half of the time, the difference between a good photo and a regular one is appearing in the right place at the right time, with the camera in hand. Always carry your camera with you. Make sure to use the camera regularly. Just bringing it along is not enough.

There. Ready is not enough. Ken Rockwell shared his first experience, You know what’s wrong with my logic, “anything speaks for itself?” I was a viewer. I thought that photography was about taking pictures of subjects that fit together. ARE NOT! You have to go out and find. Finding and finding is the hard part… taking pictures of what you find is normal. ^[1]

• Get up, go out and take pictures. Go out at all times of the day, every day, and look for objects. Don’t wait for the opportunity to come (but be ready when it comes!); Go out and find them . Look for opportunities wherever you go (whether downtown or elsewhere in the world), and travel to many places to find them. If you can see something in your head, chances are you can compose and capture it!

Stop looking for your subject and learn to observe.

• Find colors. Or vice versa: find a completely colorless subject, or take a black and white photo.
• Look for repetition and consonance. Or conversely, look for an object that is completely isolated from its surroundings.
• Find the light, and the lack of light. Take pictures of shadows, or contrasts, or rays of light passing through something, or subjects in complete darkness. Many consider the ‘golden hour’ (the last two hours before the sun goes down) to be the ideal lighting conditions for photography. This is due to the direction of light, which can create depth when photographed properly. However, this does not mean that you cannot take pictures in the middle of the day and still be able to find good light. Direct sunlight can be considered very bright, look for foggy conditions or turn on shade mode for a nice soft light. However, the rules are meant to be broken, so don’t apply these rules too rigidly!
• Look for emotions and gestures if you’re photographing people. Can they express happiness? Mischievous? Sadness? Do they look pensive? Or do they look a little annoyed with the camera pointed at them?
• Find textures, shapes, and patterns. Beautiful black and white photos are great because black and white photos force the photographer to look for these things.
• Find contrast. Find an object that stands out from the rest of the photo. In your composition, use a wide field of view (or wide angle lens) then get closer and shoot. Find the contrast of everything above: colors in a gloomy scene, light in the dark, and so on. If you’re photographing people, try putting (or finding) your subject in a context that makes them stand out. Find happiness in unexpected places. Find someone who stands out from the crowd. Or ignore this and take them out of context entirely by opening the lens all the way to blur the background. Brief…
• Find anything that captures your viewer’s interest but is n’t a traditional audience . Once you find your subject, you’ll find yourself just shooting these subjects over and over again. This is good. Finding off- topic subjects will improve your photography unlimitedly, you’ll soon see a whole different world.

Keep your photos as simple as possible. Get really close to the subject. Use a tripod, and a zoom lens (if available) to adjust the composition. Avoid unimportant objects in the scene to fully understand the image.

Film photography. If you took film photos, then also take digital photos. Both film and digital cameras have their place in a novice photographer’s arsenal. They each have their own pros and cons, and both will show you the characteristics of taking a different set of photos. The worst feature of digital cameras is that the balance is not as good as film cameras, and vice versa.

• Digital cameras give you immediate feedback on what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. They also don’t cost a test shot. Both are invaluable to the novice photographer. However, the low cost of digital cameras makes it easy for photographers to get into the habit of “indiscriminate” shooting and hope to get a good photo in the end.
• Film cameras force you to be more careful with what you shoot. Even a millionaire was reluctant to sit on his yacht taking 36 pictures of his towel with film. ^[2] The cost dynamics of taking more photos can lead to inexperience (which is not good), but it does make you think twice before shooting (which can be good, if you know well what to do before taking a photo). What’s more, film stills have a look of their own, and you can also upgrade to high-quality professional film equipment from ridiculously cheap.

Show your best work to others. In other words, Find your best photo and show it to others. Even the best photographer doesn’t get the best shot every time; they just very carefully select what they have for others to see.

• Be strict about this. If you don’t think they’re pretty , don’t show them to others. Your standards will improve over time, and even photos you once thought were okay may look like crap after a few months. If this means that all you have in a day’s worth of photography is one or two photos, then that’s fine. In fact, it could mean you’re just being too hard on yourself.
• Photos should not be viewed at full size. Ken points out that the most important part of an image is what can be seen through the processed dimensions. Many people will catch mistakes when they can only see your 100% uncropped photo. That’s okay, because they’re not worth listening to. Feel free to cut out anything that doesn’t look good when it takes up 1/4 (or less) of your frame.

Find and absorb the criticisms of others. Don’t fall into the trap of posting “comment my photos” or thoughts online; they are usually the photo-lovers mentioned above. Still, it’s fine to seek constructive criticism, as long as you’re cautious of the person giving it.

• Get ideas from artists. If someone has great works of art to display: photos, paintings, music or whatever, this is reason to take them seriously, as artists understand the influences. instinctively, whether it’s in their field or not (and if your photo doesn’t have any impact, it’s better off getting it removed). Most non-artists have that ability, even though they don’t know the composition to show you where you’re good (and they’re more likely to say nice things to you to avoid hurting your feelings.
• Ignore those who criticize your photos but don’t have a good photo to show. Their views are simply not worth hearing.
• Realize where you are right and where you are wrong. If someone likes your photo, what makes them like it? . If not, what did you do wrong? . As noted above, other artists should be able to tell you these things.
• Don’t be too modest if someone likes your work. This is normal, photographers like their masterpieces to be complimented just like everyone else. But don’t get too cocky either.

Find works that inspire you. This is not meant to be purely technical; any (rich) clown can attach a 400mm focal length, f/2.8 lens to a SLR camera over VND 67 million, take a picture of a bird with good exposure, super sharp, but still not do it. they become Steve Cirone. Instead, look for works that make you happy, laugh, cry, or feel anything , not ones that make you think of good exposure and clarity . If you like photos of people, check out the work of Steve McCurry (author of the Afghan Girl), or the studio of Annie Leibowitz. If you use Flickr or any other photo-sharing site, pay attention to the people who inspire you (but don’t spend so much time on your computer that you forget to go out and take pictures).

Learn the technical minutiae. No, this is not the most important part of photography. In fact, it is one of the least important parts, this is why everything is like this; A good point-and-shoot without these is much more enjoyable than a boring photo with perfect sharpness and exposure. It’s also a lot nicer than the photo that wasn’t taken because someone was too busy to care about this little thing.

• However, you also need to know a lot of photography knowledge such as shutter speed, aperture, lens focal length, etc. and what effects will be in your photos. They can’t turn a bad photo into a good one, but they can sometimes help keep you from losing a good photo due to technical problems and can even make already good photos even better.

Find the shooting subject. You may find yourself good enough at communication to photograph people. You may enjoy being outside no matter what the weather so you can take pictures of the landscape. You probably have a long focal length lens and enjoy motor racing so much that you get excited about photographing them. Try all of these! Find a subject you like, and shoot well, but don’t limit yourself either.