Over the years, how do you think you have improved as a photographer?

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Did digital photography contribute more or less to your improvement than film photography?

And, based on your experience, what advice can you give to other photographers seeking to improve their photography? What has experience taught you to be the best single step for a photographer to improve their photography?
 
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I started out with film and slide so I guess I learned "almost" all I know back then. Everyday's a school day though. We're always learning.

Best piece of advice I can give is practice, practice, practice and when you think you've nailed it, practice some more. Take advice from established photographers but figure out what works best for you. We all have our quirky little ways. Especially with digital.
 
The biggest thing I learned was that I am not the most brilliant and creative photographer ever! :D friends and family will have you believe this when you start out, they think it's helping, but it would actually be more helpful if they were a little harsher and more on the constructive criticism side now and then.

If you've only ever received praise, and then hit the forums across the net and look for C+C, you can get a bit stung. As fellow photographers will be the harshest critics. Learn from any pointers and suggestions rather than getting offended or hurt by comments. this is one of the toughest things you learn IMHO.

read, read, read, and when you think you know it, read over again. As mentioned, you will never stop learning in photography, nobody knows it all, but others may know a lot more, listen and learn. Watch all the tutorials you can cram in, practice what you've read and watched and heard. Over and over.

Trial and error is your friend, we rarely get it bang on first go.

Never give in.

Those are some of the things I needed to get into my thick skull along the way.
 
Best Lesson?

Stop Trying to take 'good' photos.

Pick up the camera and then go try find something to take a photo of:
1/ you are likely to be frustrated in your hunt, and be disappointed in the available subjects
2/ Whatever you take a photo of, is likely to be 'contrived' or 'forced' or basically un-interesting, as you try desperately to 'make' something worth pointing the camera at.

Get on with your life. Go do stuff. Take camera along for the ride.
1/ you might not be much more likely to find anything worth pointing the camera at, though you probably will. But even if you don't, at least you wont be returning home disappointed, as it was your only reason for going out. You'll still have done 'something'.
2/ Whatever you take a photo of is going to be more 'natural' or spontaneous, and almost certainly 'interesting' in some way.... even if it's a shot from the hip 'Grab', of poor technical merit or consideration to perfect composition and exposure....

The Camera should not be your life, but be your companion in life; to capture and record the stuff that interests you.

The lens points OUT, not in.

Go Live, and the photo's will appear for you to take.
Go Photo, and you'll constantly be searching in vein.
 
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That's all very profound, but photography is a very enjoyable hobby for most of us outside the pro's. It is part of our lives ;) not a burden.
 
I'd say go out especially to shoot. Yes you may be disappointed with the results sometimes but then you can study the photo's at home and see how you could improve, that's the same for all us. All landscape photographers come home disappointed half the time. Conditions not right etc. That's what makes getting the shots you're happy with worth it.
There is a small amount of luck with landscape but we increase our odds by studying the location, weather and getting up at stupid oclock and by going out especially to take that shot.
 
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Cagey75 said:
The biggest thing I learned was that I am not the most brilliant and creative photographer ever! :D friends and family will have you believe this when you start out, they think it's helping, but it would actually be more helpful if they were a little harsher and more on the constructive criticism side now and then.

If you've only ever received praise, and then hit the forums across the net and look for C+C, you can get a bit stung. As fellow photographers will be the harshest critics. Learn from any pointers and suggestions rather than getting offended or hurt by comments. this is one of the toughest things you learn IMHO.

read, read, read, and when you think you know it, read over again. As mentioned, you will never stop learning in photography, nobody knows it all, but others may know a lot more, listen and learn. Watch all the tutorials you can cram in, practice what you've read and watched and heard. Over and over.

Trial and error is your friend, we rarely get it bang on first go.

Never give in.

Those are some of the things I needed to get into my thick skull along the way.
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Couldn't have said it better.
 
My current set of equipment have enabled me to shoot subjects out of my reach with my old 35mm gear, but then I'm fortunate to have more disposable income to spend on it than I had thirty years ago.
 
I thought I was a reasonable photographer, that was untill I joined a photographic society and entered competitions, but a lot depends on the Judges is it their subject.

Did win the novice section first year. Not getting good results since.

Trevor
 
Moving from film to digital made a big difference for me because Id have rolls of film that just sat collecting dust. Where as with digital its all uploaded and sorted very quickly. Photoshop also made a difference in cleaning up your work and it getting the how you want.
As a tip Id say always look for ways to improve. Look at your images, including ones you like and look for what would make it better and try and keep that in mind for next time. Ive known a few photographers that seem to think every time they press the shutter its a master piece lol and have a huge ego. They have been told by friends etc. how amazing their pictures are so start to believe they can do no wrong. Look for the negatives and you'll produce more positives.
 
Take a lot of photos.

Forget all the rubbish like pretending you have one roll of film so you can only take 36 shots today, "so you better make them count".

Don't worry about whether it may or may not work out. That goes for film and digital equally (though it may be more expensive for you on film).

If you have an idea, shoot it. If you have 40 ideas for how to shoot a scene/subject, shoot them - even if 39 or 40 of them turn out crap, you haven't lost anything, and you stand to gain a fair bit.

If nobody experimented photography would be very boring.

Edit to add: Oh, and listen to what other people say and look at what other photographers shoot. Or, don't listen to what other people say, and don't look at what other people shoot - go out and shoot your own stuff. As someone alluded to above, photography exists in the world, not in and of itself. So chances are the more you know about other things in the world, the more interesting your work will be.

As Alec Soth once said, "I would advise [new photographers] to read a lot of literature and look as little as possible at other photographers."
 
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Although I had film cameras in the 80's and 90's (everyone did, there was no digital), it was only when I bought a digital camera in 2002 did I start to take it more seriously and improve. I guess this was because I had access to better equipment than before, as well as more time to indulge in photography, as well as access to more learning materials on the internet.

That said, I did make leaps and bounds when I went to nightschool and started using the darkroom to develop film and process prints. I then applied that learning to Photoshop, and so one informed the other. Maybe if I'd have gone to nightschool ten years earlier, things would have developed differently, who knows.

There's no one tip I can offer, especially as people learn in different ways, the things that worked for me were:

1) Look at lots of images - properly look not just a cursory 3 second glance.
2) Study your own work.
3) Get constructive feedback from others with a qualified opinion.
4) Entering competitions.
5) Reading books
6) Go to nightschool and get some practical and academic learning.
 
Learn through other people's work... for example when I looked at Anton Corbijn's work it tought me a lot about lines and contrast. Yeah I'd heard people talk about using lines in photography and read articles about it, but until I saw his pics it didn't really hit home how to use them and how effective they can be.

i.e this is my favourite Corbijn pic... not only does he have lead in lines in the foreground but also in the background either side of Tom Waites

46012


You can learn a huge amount by studying the work of others who shoot the type of subjects you enjoy shooting.
 
That's a great portrait of a rock star, I love B&W portraits, and also B&W rock photography. Keep meaning to buy a good book on the subject- if anyone has any good suggestions?

It is what i would love to do, combine my love of music and photography and shoot the stars some day :) sure we all have a dream.
 
PhotographyBuff said:
Did digital photography contribute more or less to your improvement than film photography?

And, based on your experience, what advice can you give to other photographers seeking to improve their photography? What has experience taught you to be the best single step for a photographer to improve their photography?
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I've just thought about this and my situation is odd.

I used to shoot film and early in our life together [when she still wanted to flatter me ;) ] Yv used to compliment me on my "eye".

Now, if I'm out with my pro-tog partner and we both point cameras, she's still flattering about my pictures but I'm horribly aware that she'll see a better composition and capture it with a better exposure and produce a far more exciting photograph and more of them! :dummy:

I guess it is practice makes perfect and to that extent, obviously, digital gives far more opportunity than film for instantaneous feedback and self examination.
 
Cagey75 said:
That's a great portrait of a rock star, I love B&W portraits, and also B&W rock photography. Keep meaning to buy a good book on the subject- if anyone has any good suggestions?

It is what i would love to do, combine my love of music and photography and shoot the stars some day :) sure we all have a dream.
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If you like that shot then definitely get one or more of Anton Corbijn's books... also there's a documetry about him on Netflix if you have access to that.

He basically shot everyone from Bono to Kurt Cobain to Tom Waites and many many others in between.

He is THE guy for modern music photography, or at least semi-modern anyway
 
Get stuff printed . . . . big!

And don't pixel peep!!!
 
Shooting, Shooting and shooting some more. Read as much as you can and look at as many photos as you can. Inspiration comes from many places. Most importantly, when you start out, forget about rules and learn your own style.

This helped me to identify what I liked shooting and also what I shoot that other people like.
 
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