It's not learning the technical aspects of photography although it's important. Knowing how to use a camera in not necessarily a real step in becoming a good photographer. It is progress but good photography is not a technical issue. The first real step is learning to recognize a good image on an intuitive level. In other words, you know a good image when you see it. This is not the same as liking an image or being impressed with an image, this is more a photo editing skill, recognizing images that work, have impact, and represent a skilled photographic eye. And it is only the beginning, for recognizing a good image as I described doesn't mean you can go out and create one yourself. But this skill of understanding good photography helps train your eye when you are shooting, makes you more aware of how you view the world, gives you confidence and enables you to evaluate you own work. If you don't know you are good, chances are you are not. So how is this skill developed?
You have to shoot a lot of pictures and study a lot of photography. And, for most of us, there is no way around this. The rationale for shooting a lot is obvious, you can't get better at anything unless you practice. What is the current thinking, 10,000 hours at anything for you to become skilled. Quite a mountain of photography. The second part is also key, you need to be a student of imagery. You need to study images from historical greats, modern notables, national contest winners, and most importantly current advertising. You need to constantly be looking at good images, images that have intent, images that represent a certain perspective and body of work, images that sell, images that tell stories, .....until you begin to see a yardstick for your own work. The interpolation of this learning into your own photographic eye is important. I don't mean you will copy but you will be better able to judge your own work based on this study. Most people judge their work by what others say about their pictures. It might be a photo contest, comments on Facebook, Flickr, or some other forum. This affirmation is critical to their confidence. I'm advocating a different approach. I'm not dismissing the reaction of others as important, only emphasizing the importance of developing your own internal yardstick to know when your work is good. You need to rely on your own eye and judgement and begin to think in terms of a body of work not a single image. This is a much more complex and sophisticated approach to good photography and it takes a great deal more time and study. There is nothing wrong with learning how to take a good picture; but good photography is more than a good picture. It is at the root, a perspective that you develop to express yourself. You own way of seeing the world, you own story through imagery, and the journey is arduous, frustrating, and never ending. The critical issue is that if you require outside approval to stay on course, you may never finish. Sure some feedback is critical, but the most important critic must be yourself and to do that, you have to up your skill level and understanding of imagery. To use a sailing metaphor, the seas will not always be calm and you must weather these storms.
I don't mean to over dramatize becoming a good photographer. Bottom line, you need to know a good image of your own when you see it, understand how it fits into the body of work you are creating, have photographic eye that you have trained for your unique perspective, and be confident in these three skill levels. Getting on this path, is the first step.
Thanks for the words of wisdom, Bill!
Posted by: Andra | March 20, 2013 at 03:45 PM