How to be a better photographer

Shoot happy. Somewhere over Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia

Question, statement or suggestion and directive? Or perhaps all of the above? I believe very few people are truly 100% happy with their work. I know for a fact I’m not, and most people at the top of their game never are: that’s a big part of why they are where they are. The gulf is one of education: when you start out, you might not know what’s wrong – but you know something is missing. When you’ve got experience, you’re searching for that fifth element of serendipity to bring the magic. But what can we actually tangibly do to keep pushing the game along? I’ve come up with ten things both from the world of photography and beyond, some of which I put into practice now, and some of which I’d like to. Read on if you dare.

1. Educate yourself
The acquisition of knowledge takes many forms – not just the obvious courses/ seminars/ videos/ workshops etc. Even examining an image shot by somebody else and consciously asking yourself ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ and why is often very useful in revealing something about one’s own tastes and preferences. An effective learning process is usually pretty simple: figure out where you want to be, where you can realistically be, and where you are now. Then the gaps become obvious, and the next task is to close them. This assumes that the basics are in place: you can’t write an essay if you’re not reasonably fluent in the language. Of course, one has to be realistic, too: if you’ve only got a couple of hours a week to spend on photography and you live in a city, becoming proficient at wildlife photography is going to be a bit of a stretch. But most things are doable if one has the determination – and perhaps a little help from a customised program such as my Email School.

2. Practice
A theoretical education is only useful up to a point: you may know by heart what The Four Things that make an outstanding image are, but being able to consistently ensure that most of your images have them in practice and by design is something else entirely. Often interesting situations move and change so fluidly that there aren’t opportunities for do-overs, and small errors can make the difference between an image that knocks it out of the park and one that’s an obvious (and annoying) near miss. For example, it’s one thing to know to look for edge distractions, but quite another to catch all of them all of the time when you’re also trying to time the right gesture in your subject – that might well lie in the centre of the frame. I think the only way to be consistent about compositional hygiene is to really shoot to the point that it becomes reflexive. And that take a lot of shooting to do – much the same way as golfers train their muscle memory by practicing swings.

3. Experiment
The previous item and this one are not the same: practice is really repeating execution of a concept so that there’s a high chance you’ll get it right the first time in future. Experimentation is trying something different in the process to see how the outcome changes, and to see how that new process can be useful in future situations – whether from an executional/ technical standpoint or a creative one. You need to perform experiments first to determine firstly if the outcome is one that’s desired, then to find the best method of executing that outcome consistently. Of course all of this has to be done in a somewhat repeatable and controlled manner – i.e. following the scientific method – so that you can figure out what’s gone wrong (if so) and rectify it. I often find that the difference between an experiment being successful or not can be the thinnest of margins – a small change in angle of lights, for instance – that executional discipline is essential.

There’s one more thing that falls between the cracks of 1. and 3.: that’s seeking inspiration. Photography is a visual medium: we need to see things in order to get new ideas of presentation and new potential for subject matter. If you can’t see it, you can’t shoot it – and the more variety of work one sees, the greater potential for inspiration. Personally, I like to use painting and film as a trigger point: in both cases, the environments presented are completely imagined and must be deliberately and carefully constructed, which means there are no accidents in composition. It’s often instructive to ask yourself why things were done in a certain way (doesn’t necessarily mean they’re correct) and how you’d do them differently.

4. Focus and be objective
Though this sounds at risk of sounding in conflict with experimentation, it really isn’t if done serially: focus on one thing, objectively determine if what you’re doing works or not, and then move on once you’re certain. It means not getting distracted by irrelevant things like new equipment 🙂 Objectivity is a little trickier, because every creative pursuit – and photography is of course no different – is highly subjective and therefore not possible to assess in a quantitative manner to say X is better or more than Y*. The only thing we can say for certain is whether we prefer one or the other – and hopefully, why. If no objective assessment of one’s images takes place, then you’re forever going to be either producing the same kind of work (no change = no improvement) or being scattergun about the outcome and hoping that you get what you intend to. At very least any degree of curation is a step towards improvement because it forces you to identify preferences (I’m loathe to use the terms ‘good’ and ‘bad’ because they’re too absolute).

*This is the source of a lot of the disconnect between the artist and the engineer, and a perpetual tension in photography: think about those chasing megapixels and ISOs vs those who just care about a particular look that’s only obtainable with a certain iPhone filter.

5. Get feedback from the client
If you’re shooting for yourself, you are the client. Getting feedback returns to the initial objective of being objective; the client can also be your intended audience. It doesn’t necessarily always mean the audience is right; they may need education, or they may well be pointing out something you might not have considered. It’s important of course that the people you are getting opinions from have opinions that are worth listening to.

6. Agonise less
I find a surprising number of photographers overthink things: both from a contingency/ ‘what if’ point of view with hardware and composition, which often leaves you completely unprepared for what actually does happen. I prefer to go into a shoot with some idea of what outcome I would like, pack accordingly, and be fluid enough to improvise around the rest. You’re far more likely to get a good image if you shoot and experiment more in an unexpected or unfamiliar situation rather than wishing you’d bought that 800mm. In short: work with what you’ve got, and remember that a large part of the enjoyment of the photographic process and results stems from serendipity.

7. Use the right tools
The wrong tools can create both frustration, anguish, elevated costs in the long run, and simply kill any desire to photograph because the process is not enjoyable. Unless you are doing this for a living, and unless you have no easier options to make money, then photography is almost certainly going to be a recreational pursuit: challenging, yes, but ultimately still fun. If it’s not fun…then you’re probably going to give up and do something else. Once you’ve figured out what you want to do from a creative standpoint – the kind of images you want to make – then it’s easy to determine what the best tool is likely to be, within physical and budget constraints. Be objective, ignore the badge, and then get back to the creative process with confidence that you’re already using the most suitable tool for your intention.

8. Don’t compromise
This is in reference mainly to curation. If you’ve noticed that we keep coming back to objectivity and assessment, that’s deliberate: you can’t improve if you don’t know what’s wrong or missing, and if you don’t know what’s missing you can’t improve or fix it. If you have a niggling feeling that something isn’t right with an image, then it probably isn’t; don’t be afraid to not include it in the final presentation. Showing 10 outstanding images is better than 100 very good ones. And also be aware that one’s thresholds and criteria for ‘good’ and ‘good enough’ will change with time – hopefully upwards.

9. Print
I believe the ultimate arbiter of curation is printing: for the simple reason that when you decide whether to convert that digital image into a physical one, you are committing both time, space and money to the process, and that investment somehow makes one think a lot more carefully before pulling the trigger. Not only is you curation process suddenly tightened when you go through what you previously thought of as your ‘final cut’ with the filter of ‘which ones would I print, and large?’ – but you’re also forced to consider which images are likely to stand the test of time, and you’ll find that the number drops significantly. It’s also probably the only output method in which the complete amount of captured information is visible and absolute – when two people look at the same print in the same light, they’re looking at the same thing. And unless it’s a small print or a low resolution camera, there’s going to be stuff visible there that isn’t on screen.

Lastly (and the most counterintuitive piece of advice of all): 10: Stop when it’s no longer enjoyable. Photography is a creative, not repetitive, pursuit, and if you’re in the wrong frame of mind – it’s simply impossible to produce anything worthwhile. There are exceptions to this, of course – being on an engagement is the most obvious one – but that’s where being a professional comes into play. I think for the majority of this audience, the fun factor shouldn’t be ignored: creation of images is meant to be enjoyable, not stressful! MT

__________________

Ultraprints from this series are available on request here

__________________

Visit the Teaching Store to up your photographic game – including workshop and Photoshop Workflow videos and the customized Email School of Photography. You can also support the site by purchasing from B&H and Amazon – thanks!

We are also on Facebook and there is a curated reader Flickr pool.

Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reserved