14 Ways To Significantly Improve Your Photography Today

A Post By: James Brandon

As photographers and artists, we all hit creative walls. We work hard to improve our skills, we learn new things and then it seems we hit a wall.
Sometimes I think we over complicate problems like this, searching for some magical trick that will give us the creative perspective we are looking for. If you are like me you know that usually doesn’t work.
Instead, here is a collection of tips you can go out and try today to improve your photography and develop your creative eye. Pay no attention to the order, they are all completely random.

1. Visit an Art Museum | Fall in Love with Art

I can’t stress enough the importance of art appreciation as a photographer. If you want to get better at photography become an admirer and student of the world of art.
Visit a museum and spend the day studying the work of great artists. Better yet, take a pen and paper with you. When a painting or work of art grabs your attention jot down why. Write down everything you love about it and the reasoning behind it. If you find something you don’t care for write that down too.
Museums are abundant in most big cities. In fact in a lot of cases they are even free. If they aren’t free, there may still be ways to get in for free. For example, if you have a debit or credit card through Bank of America, you can get in free at over 100 museums nationwide.

2. Freshen Your Perspective

Take a day and focus on perspective. Experiment with different camera angles that you may not have tried before. This tip is only limited by how far you are willing to get out of your comfort zone.
If you are shooting a portrait session, bring a ladder with you. If you don’t have a ladder, climb a tree or find a perspective above your subjects head. Not only is this different, looking up is almost always flattering to your subjects features, especially if they are prone to double chins!
If you are photographing flowers, consider shooting them from underneath. While this may get you dirty, I promise it will be rewarding. Play with the angle of the sun and capture the translucency of the flower as the sunlight pours through it.
A fresh perspective can almost always give you that creative boost you are looking for.

3. Take a Trip To Your Local Zoo

Visiting a zoo is one of my favorite things to do as a photographer – mainly because I’m doing it simply for me. There is no pressure and I don’t have a client that wants a certain type of image. I don’t feel the need to create a certain look or feel to the photos. It’s just me, my camera and hundreds of exotic animals at my fingertips! Zoos are cheap and most of them have one day a week where you can even get in for half price.
Here’s a challenge: When you go, try and conceal the fact that the animals are at the zoo. That means getting creative with the way you frame shots.
This can be challenging at times, but it’s very rewarding. If there is a fence, an obviously fake looking rock or object, or if the surroundings just don’t click, don’t take the picture. Alternatively simply change your perspective until the framing works. This mindset will get your creative juices flowing and I promise you will have a blast!

4. Minimize Your Possibilities

That’s right, minimize. While being able to shoot thousands of images is nice, it can also dull your creative thought process. With seemingly unlimited images you can just click away, firing off shots left and right all day long. With this mentality, you’re sure to get a few keepers. Right?
Consider this instead; next time you’re out taking pictures (and not for a client!) try taking the smallest memory card you have. Choose one that will only allow you a very limited number of shots – and don’t take any other cards. Alternatively, if you only have large capacity cards just set a limit in your head of only taking 50 images the entire day.
All of the sudden, there is a certain and definite brevity in the amount of images you can take. You can’t just walk around snapping pictures at everything you see. This will take you back to the limitations of film and you will have to carefully consider each shot you take. The flip side of this is that your creative juices will begin to flow and you will be more alert to what is going to make a good image.

5. Take Your Camera Everywhere

In his book Visual Poetry, Chris Orwig states that, “Even without taking pictures, carrying a camera enhances life.”
I couldn’t agree more. Carrying a camera is an instant way to put your senses on high alert. It causes you to look at the world as if your camera was always pressed to your eye. It gives you a reason to slow down, to take everything in, no matter where you are.
Commit to carrying your camera with you everywhere for a certain amount of time. Take pictures knowing full well that the world may never see them. Create photographs of everyday things, moments in time that normally wouldn’t require a photograph. The trick will be to see these subtle events in a new way and to find a way to make them interesting. Even if you just use your camera phone, this tip is a solid way to improve your creative eye.

6. Always Be a Beginner

The moment you adopt the mindset that you’re the best at something (or even the best in your circle) is the moment you become unteachable.
Great photographers like Douglas Kirkland always keep the mindset of a beginner.
I’ve met my share of people who think they know it all. You know the kind. You try and tell them something that you’ve learned and they shoot you down, saying they already knew that. Or they refuse to accept anything new because they aren’t willing to change their ways. This is a death sentence to your creativity.
Set aside your pride and be willing to learn from others, even if you feel you’re at the top of your game.

7. Pick a Color, Any Color

Pick a color and create a portfolio around that color. If you have time, do this with several colors. Go out and create images that predominately feature a single color.
If you choose blue, consider subjects where this color is evident. Focus on pictures by water, or the sky. Go out past sunset and into the realm of “nautical twilight,” when the setting sun casts shades of deep blues across the sky and earth. Find textured walls that are painted in different colors and shades of blue.
If you choose yellow, scout out a field of sunflowers. Shoot subjects straight into the sun, bathing the frame in golden sunlight. You can make the color even more obvious in post processing by applying filters of your chosen color over the image.

8. Shadow an Admired Photographer

For the most part photographers are nice, generous and giving people. Sure, there are some who won’t give the time of day to a photographer looking for a mentor, but who wants to shadow or even follow the work of someone like that?
Find a photographer that inspires you and form a relationship with them. Offer to take them out to lunch. If you’re lucky, you will be able to learn from that person and maybe even shadow them.
Ask to hold lights for them during their photo shoots, or just carry around their gear. You will learn a lot just observing how they interact with their clients. If they shoot landscapes, the same applies. Offer to carry their gear as they scour the places they photograph. Invite them out for a photo walk and offer to buy dinner or a drink afterward. Becoming a great photographer is a tough road to take by yourself, having a mentor can make the difference between success and failure.

9. Discover the Golden Ratio

Also known as the Golden Mean, Divine Proportion, the Fibonacci Rule, the Rule of Phi, etc. The Golden Ratio is a common ratio discovered by Leonardo Fibonacci and found throughout nature, architecture, and art. The ratio is believed to make things appealing to the human eye.
In nature, it is also believed to be the most energy efficient form of design among living things. There is some debate around it but it is very interesting to learn about.
The Golden Ratio is basically the “Rule of Thirds” on steroids. If you have a few minutes, visit YouTube and watch this very interesting (albeit sort of creepy) video of the Golden Ratio. Becoming knowledgeable on topics like the Golden Ratio can drastically increase your chances of creating images that attract viewers attention.

10. Find a setting and stick with it

If there is a setting on your camera you are unfamiliar with, go to your camera and dial over to that setting. Now, commit to yourself that you won’t take your camera off that setting until you are fully comfortable with it.
If you are only comfortable with automatic, I wouldn’t suggest going straight to manual but do certainly get out of the automatic settings and into the creative ones.
You should view the automatic settings on your cameras as poison to your creativity and photographic skill. These settings take away your say in how the image will look, just short of composing the frame and pressing the shutter.
Start out with either Av (Aperture Value) or Tv (Time Value) or P (Program) mode (learn about Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes here). Dedicate at least an entire day to shooting under just that one setting.
If you need help, there is always a wealth of information on this site, but the most readily available resource is your cameras manual.
Most photographers don’t realize how much they can learn by simply reading the manuals that came with their cameras. I’ve been known to even read my manual on plane rides. What better time than when you have nothing else to do? Once you get one setting down, move to the next one, and work your way up to the infamous “Manual” setting.

11. Consider the Difference Between Inspiration and Creativity

There are a number of articles on the web similar to this one that provide a list of ways to get better at photography. Almost all of those lists will tell you to go online and troll the work of other photographers for inspiration.
While this may be a good idea in moderation, I’m tempted to take the side of staying away from it.
How are you going to develop your own style by mimicking the work of others? How are you going to exercise your creative juices when you get all your ideas off the coat tails of other artists?
Owen Shifflett of Viget.com wrote an incredibly interesting (and incredibly popular) blog post called “Consumption: How Inspiration Killed, Then Ate, Creativity,” and I think any photographer or artist, new or seasoned, should read this article.
If you’re preparing for a portrait session of a family avoid hopping online to scavenge other photographers sites for posing ideas and post processing looks. Where is the uniqueness in that?
With the age of the internet, any bit of information is available at our finger tips within seconds. When we immerse ourselves in the work of other photographers, we end up ripping off our own creativity.
Instead sit down with a pencil and paper and start brainstorming. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to take some time, but what if out of all that, you came up with something completely unique? Something completely yours?

12. Find something you’re not comfortable shooting and go after it

Getting better at anything involves getting out of your comfort zone. If all you do is photograph families and seniors, go out and shoot landscapes one weekend. All of the sudden, your images are going to require completely new camera settings. No more people to pose, no more assistants to hold your flash, no more backdrops or props, no more shallow depth of field or fast shutter speed requirements. Now you have to think about your subject in a complete new way. A landscape doesn’t listen to you. You can’t tell it to move the left or right, or use a flash to reveal a bit more light in a certain area. For the most part, landscapes require deep depth of fields, slower shutter speeds, tripods and a whole new eye for composition and lighting.
If you spend time photographing things you are not used to, I promise you will come away with new ideas for what you are comfortable shooting. You’ll also develop a deeper understanding of your camera too.

13. Use a Tripod

According to a recent poll here at dPS around 70% of readers use a tripod less than 50% of the time.
Personally, I know very few photographers who carry a tripod around with them – you almost never see it with amateurs.
Something interesting happens when you attach your camera to a tripod. Suddenly, everything slows down. There’s no more snapping photos left and right – quickly filling up memory cards. When you use a tripod, you really have to take the time to compose your image. This mainly happens because you can no longer move the camera around freely. You now have to adjust the tripod to be level with the horizon. You have to move it left or right manually to adjust the position of your subject. Just by doing this, you slow down and really think about your image.
Go out and take 10 images hand held, then immediately take 10 more on a tripod. See which set comes out better. I’m willing to bet it will be the latter.

14. Join a Local Photography Club

One of the best things you can do as a photographer is network with other photographers.
Yes – networking online is a great tool and shouldn’t be overlooked, but having face to face interaction with like minded people is so much better! There are plenty of ways to seek out local photographers. You can join the local PPA division in your city, or just google photography clubs in your area. One of the best clubs I ever joined was a local photography group through Meetup.com. This group has a wealth of very talented photographers and they hold around 4-6 events every month! Whether it’s just doing a photo walk around the city, or getting a VIP pass to the local sports stadiums, these groups are a blast to be a part of!

There you have it, 14 ideas you can implement immediately into your photography.
Of course you can’t do all of these at once, but any time you feel you need a boost, be sure to check back here. If you have more ideas and/or tips, I’d love to here from you. If these tips have helped you in any way, I’d love to hear from you as well. Be sure to leave a comment below or send me a tweet (@jamesdbrandon) and let me know your thoughts. Be sure to suggest this page to any other photographers you may know. Thanks and happy shooting!

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How to Improve Your Art – The Creative Process in Photography

By: Tom Mason 

As photographers, we all want to be constantly improving our work. However, often this can seem like an uphill struggle, especially when you are just starting out. As an art form, photography is all about the creative process and exploring ideas through images, but in order to really create great images you need to put a plan in place for your own development; especially focused on skills, inspiration, purpose and output. By tackling these elements you can focus your mind and develop your work, to help you produce better and more refined art every time you go out on location.

Skills – The Basics

In order to get on to the creative elements, having a solid understanding of the base knowledge first is integral to improving your art as a photographer. I’m not going to go into detail here about understanding exposure, depth of field, composition, etc., but these are key things to spend time on.
It may seem like a huge task, but with solid work you can come to grips with being able to shoot in full manual mode easily within a month. After that point, you need to understand the basics as well as the layout of your camera’s functions, helping to make it an extension of yourself and not a distraction from your intended subject. There are a large number of fantastic tutorials here on dPS that can help you to get up to speed and really understand the basics.

Focus Days

Taking your learning further is all about practice and persistence, so think about spending a few days focused on certain image types. Set yourself the task of going out the door to just shoot panning images, wide angles, bokeh, etc. This will help you to formulate the skills in your photographer’s arsenal and produce more creative images for the future.
No matter how many years you have been shooting, testing yourself and constantly putting in the time will always help you improve. If you can’t find a whole day, why not a lunch break at work? Small efforts done consistently lead to great results.

Restrict Yourself

Creativity is something people often believe thrives with options, but in honesty, having too many things to choose from can often dilute your vision and reduce the creativity within your images. Restrict yourself by focusing on a single subject for an extended period of time. Build a long term project in your garden or local nature reserve and keep returning to build upon your images.

Another option is to work with a single focal length or prime lens to explore how you can make the most of what you’ve got. If you don’t have a prime lens use a piece of gaffer tape to hold your zoom lens in position to stop the temptation of zooming in or out. These practices will enhance your skills when it comes to general shooting, as you will be able to quickly select and formulate the ways and ideas you want to shoot.

Record

In order to get the best out of the images you are taking and the skills you are learning, remember to record them. Working with a simple notebook or online workbook, evaluate the images you have taken for successes and failures, in order to cement the lessons in your mind and learn from your work.

Inspiration

Inspiration is very important for your development as a photographer. Without constant inspiration it can be hard to formulate ideas and develop on past work. Staying inspired doesn’t just mean looking at other photographer’s work, as often over-saturaturation of a single medium can result in less creativity. So it’s better to take input from as wide a range of sources as possible.

Galleries

A traditional showcase of artwork, galleries are still a fantastic option for gaining some inspiration. The variety of work on show, from ancient works such as stone carvings and cave paintings, through to impressionism and modernism, really do offer a superb variety of visual stimuli. Often, to get the best out of them, attending a tour or showcase day can help, giving you the backstories of the work as well as explaining the techniques and mediums used. This knowledge will inform, and allow you to formulate your own processes when creating images in the field.

Nature

As a wildlife photographer, nature is a huge inspiration to me. Heading out on walks, be it with or without a camera, is a great way to soak up some atmosphere. Look at light and shape of the landscape, and pull in ideas for future images.

Architecture

Buildings offer fantastic inspiration for photography. Lines, form and shape are used to make striking structures and can be a excellent source of inspiration. Focus on looking for the way the shapes are used to form elegant structures or draw your eye to a pivotal point. Additionally, take note of the way shadows form, as this will help you imagine and anticipate lighting for future images.

Online

In the modern world the internet has a huge amount to offer, and with so many fantastic resources it is full of inspiration. Taking a look at photographers’ portfolios, or the feeds of 500px, Flickr, etc. offer superb images that can be the perfect inspiration for your own work. One thing to avoid is that of visual trends, copying styles just because they are popular. It is always worth noting that just because an image doesn’t have many Likes or Favourites” does not deny its worth as inspiration, as images will always mean different things to different people.

In person

A great way to find inspiration is to become part of a community. Heading to events in the photography world such as exhibitions or trade shows can provide a great way to meet like-minded people as well as see some excellent work. Also, think about looking for a local photography group or club. Many areas have these and they offer a great chance to meet up and discuss work and camera techniques with your peers, all the while helping you improve and develop your skills.

Record (again)

Just as above, it’s very important to also record your inspirations. Write down the names of artists and photographers you want to look up, and make notes on what you like and dislike about certain images and media. All of these thoughts and feelings are great to revisit when creating to help formulate and focus your own work. Remember to keep that notebook handy!

Purpose

Creativity often needs purpose and so do your images.The most powerful images almost always have a purpose behind them, be it to tell stories, stir emotion, tempt us, or give us a glimpse into something we’ve never seen before. Images with purpose have greater strength.
When wanting to improve your own images look for purpose within your shots. Tell stories through single images or start to work on documenting a larger idea through multiple images. Have the story in your head and shoot frames to help tell it pictorially. Stories don’t need to be huge photojournalist essays, instead start off by just showcasing the mundane, everyday occurrences.
Training yourself to make powerful images of these situations will equip you with the necessary skills for more exciting opportunities in the future. Working on a local project, be it in your back garden or local community, means you can spend a great deal of time focused on your images as well as developing your story and vision.
Always ask yourself the following;

• Why am I creating this image?
• What am I trying to show?
• What are the key elements in this story?
• How can I find a unique angle?

These thoughts will help you work toward creating stronger images with purpose and meaning, leading to far more creative photography.

Output

Art deserves to be shown and deciding how you are going to output your final work is a great way to focus your creativity. In the modern world, most images just end up on a hard drive, away from the light of day where no one can see them. With all the work and effort you are putting into them, they deserve more.
In terms of being creative with your work, think about how it should best be shown. Often people lean toward online media, showcasing work through the likes of Flickr or Facebook, Although these are a great way of getting work out there, they can numb the creative and learning process somewhat.

Think about outputting to hard media, printing out your work as well as online platforms. There are loads of great ways to produce photo books, magazines and gallery style prints that will look far better and suit certain bodies of work far more. The creative process of learning to design a photo book, bring together a 12-part print collection, or design a magazine spread, will also be an excellent learning curve to help you when working on future projects.
In addition, there is something to be said for holding a final piece of work in your hands. A finished print really is the ultimate moment for an image. Having passed through all of the creative stages from conception and execution, through to editing and final completion in your hands is a great feeling, and one every photographer deserves after finishing an image.

In order to produce more and more creative work it’s all about focusing on the process. The skills behind creating, the inspiration and purpose behind projects, the final results and how they are output. By taking time to think through these stages you can really focus your mind and produce refined work to be proud of, as well as constant develope your skills and grow as a photographer in the future.

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5 Benefits of a Self-Portrait Project

By: Anna Gay 

With the new year here, many of us are making resolutions and setting goals for the coming year. As photographers, we are always striving to hone our skills and learn more about our craft, and the start of a new year is the perfect time to take on a photography project.

Photo by Cara Farnell

Now, there are multitudes of daily, weekly and even monthly projects to choose from, but a popular choice is a self-portrait project. Whether you commit to a daily 365 project, or a 52 weeks project, let’s look at the benefits and possible challenges of a self-portrait project for 2012:
1) With self-portraiture, you have the luxury of being able to work at your own pace, in a safe environment. You are exploring self-portraiture for you, and only you, which gives you the freedom to experiment with lighting, posing, post-processing and so much more, without the pressures of needing to please a client.
2) Whether you are a portrait, landscape or nature photographer, creativity and originality play an important role in your work. If you are not used to being in front of the lens, exploring self-portraiture can open your mind to new creative possibilities. Each of us has our own unique form of creativity, but the more we stretch our creativity, the more we grow as photographers. We can easily fall into a creative rut, but sometimes, trying something new, like self-portraiture, can help us avoid that dreaded rut, especially if you stretch yourself on a regular basis.
3) If you specialize in portraiture, experimenting with self-portraits will give you new ideas that you may then want to apply when you are photographing another person. Practicing self-portraits on a regular basis will help you narrow down what type of posing, lighting and composition will work in a given situation. That way, when you photograph another person, you will spend more time photographing them and interacting with them, rather than scrambling to set up the technical aspects of your shoot.

Photo by Dina MacLeod

4) If you commit to a 365 project, good for you! You are in for an extremely rewarding experience. But, let’s be honest here – a lot of us are too flooded with work, family and life to make that sort of leap. If you do not see yourself undertaking a 365 project, then you may want to consider a 52 weeks project. There are just as many photographers who have completed the 52 weeks as the 365 project, and at the end of the journey, they have come just as far as the people in the 365 camp.

Photo by Lee Jeffryes

5) Finally, self-portrait projects offer you a regular dose of self-expression and exploration. With a creative medium such as photography, even if you do not regularly take self-portraits, each of your photos is a reflection of how you see the world.  It is nearly impossible to explore self-portraiture without growth on a personal level, and personal growth, as photographers, almost always equals new creative horizons.
Want to learn more about HOW to take great Self Portraits? Check out Anna Gay’s eBook on the Art of Self Portraiture.

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5 Ways to Challenge Yourself as a Wildlife Photographer

By: Tom Mason 

As a wildlife photographer, often it can seem challenging enough just to find your subjects out in the field, let alone get close enough to take that perfect image. However, to develop as a photographer, constantly challenging yourself is a key ingredient to learning and growing, helping you to tell stories in a more meaningful and creative way through your images.
In this article, I will give you a few ideas to explore when you next head out on a nature photography shoot, to keep you challenged and growing as a photographer.

1 – Take one lens

Restricting yourself is often a great way to encourage creativity. Working with constraints can help you to think outside the box and explore ideas or ways of working that you might have missed in other cases. As photographers, having a boatload of lenses at our disposal means we have options to capture the world in a multitude of ways. Yet still, within this, we often become restricted within our view, choosing to consistently work with convention rather than explore creative options.
For example, if you are going to work with birds you will likely select your long telephoto, whereas, for insects or flowers, the obvious choice is a macro lens. However, if you decide to restrict yourself to a certain lens or focal length you have to use that in order to explore and create a photograph. That means that sometimes you’ll have to work in a new way, choose a different composition, or go for a different type of image than you would normally attempt.
For example, taking a macro lens out for a full day of shooting you might feel restricted. But the 100mm focal length (common for most macro lenses) is actually highly adaptable for working with a variety of subjects from landscapes to tiny insects, or even people and street images. Prime lenses further enhance this restriction, forcing you to zoom with your feet.
However, after a number of days solely focused on each lens in your bag, you’ll have a much greater appreciation for the wide variety of subjects and images it can produce. Thus helping you to be more creative with your choices in the future.

2 – Work wide

For most wildlife photographers, the long telephoto is our safe haven. We know that when using a 300mm, 500mm or 600mm lens we can frame up our subjects and get wonderful clean portrait images. Allowing us to concentrate on our subjects and not necessarily needing to worry about the other elements in the landscape.
The thing is that, although telephotos are fantastic for filling the frame and showing close details of distant creatures, they don’t give an impression of scale. Images show with a long lens almost seem less immersive than shots taken with shorter focal lengths.
Of course, one of the biggest problems is that shooting wildlife with a wide lens is often a lot harder, (depending on the subject) than your traditional long lens wildlife photography. But this is a great learning curve. Yes, the complexities of predicting animal behavior, working out positioning for remote cameras and triggering them at the perfect time without always being able to look through the viewfinder is difficult. But the struggles will certainly push you to be a better wildlife photographer in the long run.
Try working with a wireless remote in the garden to get started. A simple bird feeder or setup for urban mammals is a great way to hone your skills, to add another string to your photographic bow.

Remote-triggered wide-angle shot.

3 – Add movement

Often, I hear wildlife photographers talking about always getting the image tack sharp. But in reality, how much in nature ever freezes dead still? Adding motion to your images is a great way to explore and develop your shooting style, adding drama to images and also helping the wildlife you’re recording to come alive in your frames.
When working in the field it can be tempting to always have that 1/1000 of a second shutter speed dialed in. Learning how and when to slow your shutter to display movement is a great skill, but it takes practice to get it right.
Often I find that for large moving creatures, such as deer, a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second allows enough movement into the frame to make great panning shots. In contrast, birds with their fast-moving nature mean that often 1/100th or 1/60th easily provides enough movement within the frame for lovely streaking effects.


Of course, in addition to panning with slow shutter speeds, keeping your camera dead steady and allowing the creatures to move is another effective technique for creating unique and captivating images of nature’s patterns and movements.

4 – Pick a theme and stick to it

Another way to challenge yourself as a nature photographer is to set yourself a theme to work on. This could be a practical theme like birds in flight, animal portraits, or in the landscape images. Another option is exploring a certain location or place with a geographical theme or even delving a little deeper to explore emotions or feelings as a base for a set of images.
The reason for shooting around a theme is to train yourself how to showcase and express your ideas through images more effectively. As a photographer, you are a visual storyteller. So being able to draw from inspirations, ideas, and emotions and express them photographically helps you to tell better and more powerful stories through your images.
Aim to develop a couple of small bodies of work, maybe three sets of three images, each with a different focus as a training exercise. It’s a great way to focus on areas where you’re less confident and give yourself a mini-assignment to develop and shoot to keep you focused on improving your work.

5 – Shoot like you have one roll of film

A final way to challenge yourself is to go out on a shoot and pretend that you only have 36 images or a single roll of film. This is to force yourself to be more critical and picky with your images, choosing the perfect moment to get a shot rather than just taking a number to be sure one will be okay.
Shooting with a limit slows you down and makes you consider things more intently, thinking through your exposure, composition, and technique before shooting. The idea is that you only shoot one frame per subject, aiming to get it perfect on every image.
You can do this even more strictly by getting hold of an old school 1gb or 2GB memory card, the modern equivalent of a single roll of film. You can pick them up cheap on eBay and they are great training aids.

Of course, if you want even more of a challenge why not try shooting an actual roll of film. With each frame literally costing you money, you will soon focus your shooting in order to make sure you nail it out on location. It’s good fun and a really great learning tool!

So there you have it, a quick rundown of five ways to challenge yourself as a nature or wildlife photographer to help develop your photography.
By focusing on specific challenges and setting yourself goals and tasks, you’ll certainly see your photography improve. As well, you will have more confidence going for those creative images when you’re on your next shoot.

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Creativity: Accident Or Skill?

by Kyle Miller from Photography Tips.

Canon 5d Mark II ISO:125 Shutter:1/250th Aperture:f5
Clients today are in love with creative and candid portraits. The day where you would take the same posed shots with every client is far out the window. To advance in a highly competitive market place you have to have images that pop above the rest. With that said my question to you is creativity an accident or skill? If you are shooting the same portraits with every client are you being creative?
With all of my clients:

• I first take time to build a relationship with them
• Feed off them during the portrait session
• Work off their personality and add my artistic twist
• Use photography rules and techniques to enhance images

Taking creative portraits is much more challenging. I believe if you follow a few pointers or incorporate a few of my ideas into your shoots, your pictures will improve while you and your clients will have a blast.

Interact with your clients

Canon 5d Mark II ISO:100 Shutter:1/500th Aperture:f7.1
I am, like most photographers out there, a wedding and portrait photographer. Being a wedding and portrait photographer I spend most of my time working with subjects that are not models. Since my subjects they will usually feel uncomfortable in front of the camera. They don’t know how to act, where to put their hands, or where to look. Do I look at you? If that is not challenging enough your subject doesn’t really know who you are, because you may have met them only once or twice before the shoot. I don’t know about you but I would find it difficult opening up to a camera when I don’t know the photographer.
You need to spend time building a relationship with your clients. When you meet with your clients don’t only talk business, spend time sharing stories, because the more you share the more they will open up to you. My photography company shot 71 wedding this year, and as you can imagine you can’t always find time to meet with every couple multiple times before the wedding day. That’s OK, before you start your portrait session spend time just talking with you clients even if its for just a little while. It will make you seem more personable. As a side note I should mention that I believe for a client to be photogenic its not based on how somebody looks its based on their emotions and interactions with the camera. Remember it’s hard to open up to a camera and photographer if you don’t know or trust them.

Feed off your client

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The hard part is over, because once you have laid the groundwork and your clients feel comfortable around you they are much more likely to play during their photo session. As a good photographer you will need to take that positive energy and feed off it. I encourage my couples to continue talking with each other and often I have a close friend of theirs poke fun at them to spice things up. By creating this fun positive environment your couples will enjoy the portrait session which is a good thing but they will be more likely to flirt with the camera. If you are constantly just posing people your pictures will become boring, and you will actually start to kill the mood you work so hard to create. I am not saying you can’t pose, just set the pose up loosely so the background and light look nice then build from their.

Work their idea then add your creativity

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When the couple opens up the camera, and the groom give his bride a kiss on the cheek, try to encourage them. Play with the couple and have him dip her back, as it creates shape and is a great way to show off a vial. This is all great as you will get a good picture out of it, but the magical shot is just after that as they will giggle. If my couple is a very shy I could ask the groom to kiss her again, but to close his eyes. Its just a simple change but the message in the picture is so much different and stronger.
I tell photographers to treat your portrait sessions like it was an improv act. If you don’t follow theater let me help you out. Improv is unscripted theater, where actors feed off each other. The actors may or may not know where their skit is going but its the journey or how they get there that is a surprise. With portraits watch how your subjects behave around each other and just add your twist. When you add to the picture your subjects will start to work back and forth with you. Please keep in mind when you are working back and forth with a client you can’t pass on an idea. If your bride floats an idea and you crush it you will destroy everything. You have to take her idea and build on it even if you don’t like the idea at first, as its just a building block. Remember all creative candid pictures have to start somewhere.

Good technical background

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If you handle your portrait sessions in a cookie cutter approach where you use the same wall or background every time, technically speaking, things will become very easy. You know if you use this magical wall, that every time you should put your key light to camera left, and it should be at 1/16th power. When working with your subject(s) you need to have a strong technical background as you will never know what situation you will get your self into. I think a great example of my point is a groom I had earlier in this summer.
After our portrait session with the bride, groom and full bridal party my groom tells me he has a concealed weapon permit which he is proud of and wanted to know if I would be OK taking picture with him and his gun. I personally was against the idea but just like I mentioned earlier, you have to take the idea and build on it. So building on this idea I said we can make the photos have a Godfather feel to them. I knew if I shot with a shallow depth of field I could create a strong image with him looking down gun. I also remembered an amphitheater just down the road that would create a great monochromatic image with amazing lines. You have to take the idea and apply standard photography techniques: exposure, framing, composition etc… I say this because if you are only thinking about the idea your images could look boring. You are a great photographer use your knowledge and make the pictures amazing!

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With all of my clients I flow the same system every time:

• I first take time to build a relationship with them
• Feed off them during the portrait session
• Work off their personality and add my artistic twist
• Use photography rules and techniques to enhance images

It takes a lot of energy becoming emotional involved with all of my clients, but the pictures show the hard work. Your pictures will have so much emotion and life to them, and your clients will enjoy the experience so much more. I hope this helps
Happy Shooting
Kyle Miller has been a professional wedding and portrait photographer for several years. He shares his knowledge on his blog Photography Tips where you can also download his eBook 7 Essential Photography Tips for free.

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How to Tell a Story with Portraits by Using Creative Composition

By: Oded Wagenstein

In this article, we will explore new ways of using composition and creative framing to tell a story in your portraits. We’ll do so by understanding the marvellous ways our brain (as viewers) construct a sense of story.
The common principle of the techniques I will describe here, is that they are all based on our mind’s ability to fill in missing gaps of information. A skill that helps us survive in a world of uncertainty.

Two things to note about creativity before we start

Skill, is not just a talent: Just like working on the flexibility of a muscle, I believe we can work on our creativity, with the “muscle” being our vision.
Being creative for the purpose of being creative: Creative compositions should be a vehicle for a purpose – an emotion or a story you want to evoke in the image. If you choose to add creativity to your images, just to be more creative, it will be an empty gimmick.

Half close up portrait – a full story

By showing only half of a close-up portrait, you stimulate the viewer’s mind and almost force it to delve into the image. We do so by activating their mind’s need to fill in gaps of missing information. This ability is rooted in us since ancient times, from which we evolved to understand that the two blurry spots between the trees, could be the hidden face of a tiger.

Good to know:

For best results, you can practice framing this kind of composition by using the crop tool in your editing software. Once you become comfortable with this technique (and framing); it will be easier to achieve a “half close-up portrait” in the field, without the need to crop it in the post-processing stage.
This kind of framing is like an exclamation mark, which one cannot ignore. Therefore, use it only on the most interesting faces, and not on every portrait.

Environmental portrait – a person in context

For me, this the most challenging and rewarding portrait framing style, the environmental portrait. This shows not only the person, which is the hero of your image, but also his or her environment: home, work place, country, etc. By doing so, you use the mind’s ability to conclude and understand a situation by connecting pieces of information.

Good to know:

The biggest challenge in this type of composition is the balance between the main figure (hero) and environment. Keep in mind that the main figure must be dominant, and not overtaken by the background. Use light, color, and sharpness to make your subject significant.
Using a wide lens (below 50mm) is recommended for the environmental portrait framing, as it will allow you to capture the environment of your hero, even in small spaces.

Detail portrait – telling the story with small details

Like with the half portrait technique, in the detail framing we use the brain’s ability to fill in the gaps, by showing only a small fraction of the entire story. For a good detail shot, choose some with a connection to your subject. It can be a connection of similarity or difference. For example: take a close-up shot of his or her hands, shoes, the reading books on the shelf, the subject’s regular chair or smoking pipe, you name it! As long as this object, represent something which is bigger than the object itself.

Good to know:

A good place to start is by examining your subject from head To toe. Looking for anything that other people might miss in that person. Did you spot anything special? Like a unique piece jewelry, a tattoo, or just a hole in their shoe.
Some of my best ideas came from my subjects. Ask your subject to show you an object to which he or she feel a strong connection. You do not even need to have any human presence in the detail shot, as long as the object represents or tell us something about its owner.

Kuleshov effect – creating a meaning by interaction

In this technique, based on the groundbreaking experiment by the Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov, we will use the brain’s ability to derive meaning from the interaction. Kuleshov demonstrated that the audience constructs the story not only by the content, but also by the order in which the images appear, and the connection between them.
In the experiment, Kuleshov used two different shots, which he put in sequence one after the other. The first shot, a close-up shot of the face of silent film actor Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin, remained the same throughout the experiment, while the second shot was replaced with every round of projection; a plate of soup, a dead young girl, a woman on a divan (sofa).
The audience praised the actor’s ability to express different feelings such as sadness and even hunger, using only his facial expressions, without knowing that they watched the same shot over and over, and the only thing that was changed was the second image.

To use this effect in your work, just place two images side by side and try to evoke a connection between them. In the example, I combined between the portrait of Net, which I did with the half close-up composition, with an image of a swirling sea. Where does it take you?

Good to know:

You will be amazed by the power of creative composition. Challenge your audience. Don’t be afraid to create a connection which is too complicated to understand.
A good creative exercise which you can do is by collaborating with a different photographer. You will provide the first image, he or she will provide the second. In there you will have a connection, not only between the two side-by-side images but by two different points of view.
The author would like to thank Nicholas Orloff for his assistant in writing this article.

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Why You May be Failing to Reach Your Potential as a Photographer

A Post By: John Davenport

There are a number of reasons why someone might not succeed at reaching their full potential, more than I can cover in this article, so please feel free to add to this list by telling us what obstacles get in your way. If you have solutions to someone else’s problem, feel free to offer up some advice, and help out a fellow photographer.

What does it mean to reach one’s potential?

Reaching your potential can be a bit arbitrary as everyone has different ideas of what success means. In order to simplify this article a little, let’s make a couple of assumptions to define the photographer we are talking about.
Assumption #1 – The photographer in question is someone who wants to improve their work through the long haul. This photographer may or may not want to become a professional, but they do want to look back on their portfolio and be proud of what they have accomplished.
Assumption #2 – For the sake of this article things out of the control of our make believe photographer – i.e. financial situation, health, and social/family aspects of life – are not the cause of their failure to reach their potential.

What then, are the obstacles that may be holding you back?

Lack of confidence

Think about learning a new skill. At the beginning you’ll most likely have a low level of confidence, but this is off-set by a high level of excitement to try something new. As time goes on though, that newness wears off and you’re left feeling like you’ve gotten yourself in over your head – does that sound familiar?

With photography there is so much information available on the web, so many people to compare yourself to, so many clubs to join, and so many things to buy, that it can become overwhelming for you to figure out the right path to take forward.
This frustration can lead to confusion, or even doubt over the decisions you’ve made, making this a common question, “Did I buy the right lens/tripod/software?”.
The simplest advice that can be given in this situation is to try to block out the distractions around you. Try to focus on your own improvement, and benchmark your current photography against what you did last month, or last year. This will help showcase your personal triumphs, allowing you to stay confident in your progress.

Lack of Motivation

If there’s one thing that will stop you from reaching your potential, it’s lack of motivation. Photography requires a lot of time and energy. You have to plan shoots, find subjects, work with models or nature, often travel to a location – a lot goes into photography.

To compound this, motivation will often peak when something is new, but as you visit the same location a few times, use the new lens repeatedly, or master the new technique you read about, the level of motivation you get from these things starts to wane.
In order to avoid stalling out due to lack of motivation, one thing you can do is to keep trying new things. One of the best ways to do this is to participate in themed challenges, like those here on dPS weekly. Another option would be to join a local photography club, or even an online community, to allow you to meet other photographers and share ideas.

Not investing in the right gear

You probably know that gear alone can’t make you a better photographer, but the wrong gear can certainly hold you back.

Trying to cut corners on cheap tripods, poor quality bags, or inferior lens filters, will do more harm than good. One could argue that poor quality gear will actually hurt your photography, more than high quality gear will improve it. So invest wisely, but be careful not to fall into the next hurdle.

Relying on gear to carry you

As mentioned above, some investment is necessary in order to set yourself up for success. However, too much reliance on the gear you buy will only hold you back. Thinking that upgrading to full frame will improve your photography is not the right reason to buy a new $2,000 dollar camera.
When it comes to investing in new gear there are two questions you should ask yourself:

1. What is the driving force behind your desire to upgrade?
2. How will the desired upgrade fill a need in a way that your current gear cannot?

Hopefully by answering these questions you’ll be able to find out whether or not the gear that you’re inquiring about is a want or a need, and how big of an impact it will have on the photographs you produce.

What else stops you from achieving your potential?

Let us know in the comments what hurdles you face as a photographer. What stops you from achieving your potential, and maybe we as a community can help you find ways to tackle that challenge.

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Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of articles this week that are Open for Discussion. We want to get the conversation going, hear your voice and opinions, and talk about some possibly controversial topics in photography.
Let’s get it started here – do you agree or disagree with the points in the article above? Do you have any others to add? Give us your thoughts below, and watch for more discussion topics each day this week.
See all the recent discussion topics here:

• 7 Commonly Accepted Photography Beliefs Debunked
• Is HDR dead? Some dPS Writer’s Thoughts on this Controversial Topic
• How to Find your Personal Photographic Style

John Davenport is the creator of PhoGro an online community that aims to help you grow your photography through engagement with other photographers. Join today!
John also offers a free email c