Photography is full of many “rules”. Learn when and how to break them in order to grow. Throughout my career, many people have asked me for tips and tricks on how to become a better photographer. Usually these requests as disguised as, “What camera should I get?”
But most of the time when people ask me that, I ask them:
- What are your goals?
- What are you using to edit your photos?
- What do you already know?
Learn the Basics
- The Rule of Thirds
- Repetition of Form
- Seeing in Two Dimensions
There are lots of books and literally endless numbers of YouTube videos and articles on learning the balance between ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture, the concepts of framing, exercises that help you with your conversion of the 3D world into the 2D world, etc. I would encourage anyone interested in photography to explore all of this. The book I learned the most from was probably my first photography book I purchased for a class in high school at College of Dupage called “Photography” by Bruce Warren.
You can purchase that book here: PHOTOGRAPHY by Bruce Warren
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Once you have done that, I would highly recommend a series of books called Mastershots.
These books are targeted toward filmmakers. But within them is the process of thinking about why framing is set up the way it is. Why does a character appear small in the frame at the beginning of the conversation and then as the characters move, they appear small and artificially framed in the doorway? These books reveal the shot selections that motivate narrative flow, and you can bring those lessons into filmmaking or photography.
Learn When and What to Forget
My mantra aligns with this famous quote:
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
- Pablo Picasso -
Once you learn everything you can about photography, you can then start the long journey of knowing when and how to LET GO. These lessons can be conscious decisions or mistakes that happen along the way. Maybe you bring the wrong lens. Maybe you forget your card and have to use your phone. Or maybe you decide you want to blast everything with a speedlight just to see how it looks. Your results may surprise you.
Learn from Mistakes
One of my favorite “chance” photos is this one where I forgot to bring a sandbag to weigh down my reflector. Since I didn’t have an assistant that day, the wind kept blowing over my stand with the umbrella. Instead of using nice soft diffused or reflected light for the fill on this golfer, I was forced to shoot the fill light at him full blast from a Nikon SB-800 speedlight. I would usually never use this sort of hard light for fill, but once I took a look at it, I loved it.
This “mistake” situation reminded me that I should not be so dedicated to my previsualized shot and instead be open to new ideas that come to me in the moment. Our brains work on patterns; pattern recognition, pattern formation, pattern breaking. It’s through these patterns that we can help spark mirror neurons in other creatures, i.e. the formation of empathy, the triggering of the gag reflex… We exist and survive because of patterns. But we shouldn’t allow our pattern-rigged brains to be closed to The New.
San Diego 85mm
When I flew to San Diego from Chicago, I brought along an assortment of prime lenses. One night, I went to the oceanfront to capture some street photography and only wanted to bring my 35mm f/1.4. But when I crawled out of the taxi, I realized I had only brought my 85mm f/1.4. I considered going back to get the 35mm. I was so bummed. I was going home the next day and it was such a nice night. I decided to make the best of it. I went around capturing natural scenes and foggy scenes and I even asked a few people to pose and got some great portraits. It ended up being one of my favorite shoots. I learned so much, not just about challenging my own expectations, but about what I am capable of when painting myself into a corner, so to speak.
Dragging the Shutter
Fashion photography has often embraced the mistake-riddled “paparazzi-style” in advertising because that style has been associated with fame and fortune. As photo and lighting and styling technique becomes more perfected, it becomes more closely associated with ads which most of us skip as much as possible. Mistakes can grab attention, if done correctly.
For this photo shoot, I used a simple on-camera setup, dragging the shutter to bring in the colors of the room (lots of gelled ambient stage lighting). The frontal flash kept it solidified while the colors in the background could do their own thing. The idea is that you, as the viewer or as the photographer, are interrupting a different world.
The on-camera flash is often still listed as the number one sign of an amateur (usually a criticism leveled by advanced amateurs only). But this is truly wrong.
Embrace Vernacular Photography
Vernacular photography is similar in that is takes the ordinary or mundane photo and elevates it to high art status because of its very banal nature. Some of my favorite images are of things I see everyday. Even if the scene or object of my eye isn’t that great, something about the way the light hits it impacts me. So I capture it as best as I can and share it, or not. If you can make the everyday look good, then you can make something beautiful look spectacular.
These photos from one of my trips to the Philippines shows my love for Vernacular Photography. This love stems strongly from the inter-credits photos shown at the end of Rain Man created by Unit Stills Photographer Stephen Vaughan.
With the democratization of photography, everything is up for grabs if it is done well. And anyone criticising another photographer’s technique or style at this point is saying more about their experience than they are about their knowledge.
What about you? What are some mistakes you have learned from? What are some ordinary scenes that really made an impression on you? Post in the comments and let me know what insights you are learned.