As photographers looking to improve our skills, we watch YouTube videos, buy online training, read articles, and maybe even take a class or two. We can pursue all this information seeking and absorbing all this training and never see significant improvement. The key to getting better? Bring those representatives in.
About a year ago, a landscape photography studio client noted that I helped him “get the reps” he needed on his camera to improve his photography skills. This comment gave me pause at first, but then I remembered that he was a college athlete, and the number of repetitions was his way of talking about the amount of training he needed.
As any athlete knows, you can watch your sport of choice on TV and replay it online, but you won’t get better by just watching your sport. You won’t even get better by reading books about your sport. You must practice to improve. If you don’t practice what you’ve seen, read, or even what your coach has told you, you won’t improve.
Photography is the same. Not only do you need to absorb information about the skills you’re looking to learn, but you also need to actively practice them and gain interest. That’s how you see progress and start building a solid foundation.
Portrait photography
Although most of my work these days is landscape photography, I have done quite a bit of portrait photography, from fashion to executive portraits to corporate portraits. When I was new to the genre, I watched YouTube videos on how to light people with strobes, bought tutorials online, and even attended workshops that focused on off-camera flash.
But what made the difference was practicing what I learned as I learned it. I’ll install a strobe light in the living room and bribe my kids to stand there while I practice with the light near them, moving it away and adjusting the power of the strobe light. This is where I ask reps to practice what I’ve seen or read.
From there, I was able to watch more videos and push my growth even further. Then I go into the studio to do more repetitions. I will add lights and continue to experiment with the size of the modifier, the intensity of the strobe, the distance from the light to the subject, etc. I continue to invite representatives to participate to reinforce the skills. This helped build a basic foundation and opened the door to learning more advanced lighting concepts.
Take landscape photos
As I invested more time into landscape photography, I followed the same process. I would watch the videos, buy the instructions online and then go find the reps. I will practice using the histogram to get the right exposure. I will make changes to the camera settings until I am confident about how each setting affects the exposure and histogram.
Again, as I get reps, this will build my basic foundation in field techniques and camera usage, while also opening up opportunities to learn more advanced techniques, e.g. such as exposure bracketing, focus stacking, panorama, and other techniques.
Real growth in my photography pursuits has always come from practice, repetition. Yes, the information I used helped inform my practice, but information alone was not enough to develop my skills.
A word of warning
One factor to be careful of is to make sure you are practicing good form when performing your reps. Continuing to practice poor technique will create a weak foundation rather than a strong one.
For this reason, I recommend you go out, practice a little, and when you return home, learn more information about the topic through online videos and articles or reinforce it through workshops. After practicing, things you may have missed the first time will seem clearer to you now and may correct the poor form you picked up during practice. Or maybe practice makes you realize you’re weaker in a certain area than you thought and you’ll be able to be more proactive in finding information to close that gap.
Gathering information about the profession and attracting representation goes hand in hand with making fundamental improvements in your skill set. Now, get out there and start practicing!
