Sometimes when you buy your camera and if you don’t have a specific goal (i.e.: I’m going to be a wedding photographer or I’m going to take pictures of my new baby), knowing the path to move forward and become a better photographer is sometimes hard. There is a lot of advice out there on what to do with your new camera and I thought I’d come up with a bit of a simpler list. If the list feels like it was written with a bit of passion it’s because it was.
- Take lots of pictures
- Move from green mode to Av early (have your images defined by the depth of field)
- Then shoot in manual mode
- Understand manual mode
- Shoot more pictures
- Read the manual
- Yes, it’s boring and isn’t a shiny new toy but read it anyway
- Take pictures of your friends, your family, your pets
- Make silhouettes of your friends and family
- Make high key images of your friends and family
- Read on the internet how do high key, then low key
- Notice how a well lit image looks awesome
- Start looking at light. Every day. Every where. Look at how shadows look on a cloudy day and a bright day. Look at how people’s faces look in shadows and light, and remember that.
- Realize that the best camera in the world with the best gear will take a shitty picture if you don’t know what you’re doing (case in point: the tons of photographers out there with $10k rigs using it to take pictures that you can take on your iPhone)
- Notice the light when you see a random scene and think how gorgeous it looks
- Realize (hopefully before you’ve been taking pictures for 10 years) that IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LIGHT
- Take more pictures
- Bring your camera with you everywhere
- EVERYWHERE
- Read the manual again
- Start to figure out what you want to take pictures of
- Take more pictures of that thing
- Reject an offer to shoot a wedding for $100 “because you have a good camera”
- Take more pictures of the things you love
- Realize it’s about capturing moments
