How to Learn Photography
Sunset, Walker Lake, California, October 2022. Snapped with Canon EOS R6, RF 15-30mm IS STM and Skylum Luminar Neo software. bigger.
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Good photography, the kind you want to see, is art. Art is not the duplication of reality. Art is the expression of imagination. A great photograph or other piece of art leads you to see and feel what the artist saw and felt that compelled him to create that image.
Art doesn't subscribe to analysis. It can’t be created by applying formulas or ratios or rules. There is no Rule of Thirds. Applying these old wives' tales allows one to rise quickly to a basic level of camera-club mediocrity, but one gets stuck at that mediocre level once all the rules have been followed and there's nowhere else to go.
Art is about breaking the rules. If you look at the work of the painter Mondrian you’ll see that he learned to do straight landscapes in art school, and as the years went on his work gradually became more and more abstract as he worked alone until he arrived at his famous few squares of primary colors and black lines.
People (including myself) have noticed how my work often has similar shapes and ratios to other pieces of mine. I just tend to see in certain relationships — but using the same shapes and ratios I do won't make your pictures look like mine.
The best way to learn photography is not by the analysis of the work of others. Analysis is completely opposite from synthesis. Knowing the breakdown or stats for any artist’s work won’t let you create anything of value. The magic that makes a piece sing always goes deeper than its outward form, shapes or other components that can be analyzed. Ditto for music; using the same notes and patterns of your favorite song won't create another song with the same magic. It's called magic for a reason; it's very difficult to create and requires deliberate, original work.
The best way to learn this is to take art classes at your local community college. Unless you go for a serious MFA degree at a place like Yale, local colleges usually have much more practical teachers than formal universities, where the professors tend to be more academic, pedantic and analytical rather than creative - and local college classes are usually close to free and easy to get into. Heck, local communities often have adult-ed art classes taught by very good people. These basic introductory classes are the best way to start learning and meeting genuinely creative people.
Avoid "photography" classes and books loaded with computer screenshots. These are just trying to cover technique and tools — but almost completely forget that the only thing that matters is what's actually in your picture, not what settings or software you used. It's not 1958 anymore; cameras and especially phones today take care of most the technical part so you can focus on what's most important: what's actually in your picture. Worry about your picture first. You can fine-tune your technique after you've learned what it is you're trying to show.
Painting and drawing classes will teach you how to see and synthesize starting with a blank sheet. Art has nothing to do with technical application of paint and brushes or cameras; it’s all about developing your vision. Cameras make it much easier than painting, however it all comes down to seeing the final picture in your mind’s eye and then doing whatever you need to to make the final work match your image as you've imagined it.
Start to learn and see what excites you, identify and distill it into a strong style — your style.
When starting avoid cameras that need settings or otherwise distract you from your picture. Ideally use your phone so you can concentrate intently on what's in your picture rather than worry about a camera or settings. Only when you start encountering situations where your phone just can't cut it, then and only then consider fancier cameras. Personally I've been shooting for well over 50 years and I still prefer cameras that do as much as they can automatically. Most of what you see in my gallery was shot in Program Auto exposure mode if possible, and if shot on digital, shot in Auto White Balance and Auto ISO. I let the camera set all the basics, and only if my camera isn't doing it right will I have to set something manually.
Analysis of other people's photos is for coffee shop discussions and doesn't help in learning to create your own great images.
To create your own uniquely great images I’d suggest art classes rather than analysis and technical classes. Avoid photographers who usually just want to talk technique and gear; go to local art gallery openings and talk to the artists. You’ll discover they speak about entirely different things, mostly what’s actually in their pictures rather than how they made it. By all means ask artists what they think of your work. An artist will look at your picture rather than its technique, and often have very relevant and productive suggestions that a technical photographer would never see. For instance, show an artist at a gallery opening a photo on your phone and he might notice how your image is a little off-center, a little too blue or that there's distracting light, while someone in a camera club is more likely to try to impress you with their own vocabulary and go off on depth-of-field or bokeh or distortion or other things that don't have much to do with how good is your picture.
Shoot what you know and love. If you're a chef or a shepherd, shoot food or shoot sheep. Shoot what you know. Shoot what you think about all day and night. Ansel Adams was an avid outdoors man who was out backpacking all the time and lived in Yosemite full time, and showed us what he knew and loved. That was Ansel; don't think that great photography is having to shoot landscapes. Great photography is shooting and sharing what excites YOU.
Don't try to copy anyone else's style. Only you are you. Follow your heart, FART a lot and have a blast!
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
Thanks for helping me help you!
Ken.
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