If you haven’t done so recently, now is a great time to see how much you’ve improved as a photographer. One of the best ways to see how you’ve grown is to recreate your old images.
It can be hard to see how you’ve progressed as a photographer. With every image you will get better, even if leveling up happens in small increments. The way you get on stage and style – when not collaborating with a stylist – how you shape your light, the choices you make about aperture and focal length, all of these improvements can happen without There’s no need to fully appreciate how far you’ve come.
When recreating your old photos, set some ground rules. Recently, I decided to recreate some of my old photos. The rules I laid out were very simple. The results were impressive. Tailor my rules to your photography genre.
Recreate the layout as closely as possible
This is the easiest place to start and end. You may not have the same camera gear or props, but you can recreate the general composition rules you followed and the approximate placement of the props and heroes. Also, recreate the direction of the light, as much as possible. The results can be surprisingly dramatic when all you are left with is how you adjust the lighting and the choices you make about the lenses you use and aperture.
Recreate Propping as much as possible
When you’re just starting out, you use whatever you have on hand to support your photography. You may still have those entries, or they may have been edited. It’s always fun to reuse those old props or mix old and new. When you pair this rule with using the same layout as the old image, you’ll see how much you’ve grown as a stylist. You can also see with more certainty how lighting and lens choice affect your photography. You’ll also have a really good idea of what the choices you make in post-production have developed.
Create something similar but different
This rule is a bit more difficult to explain. But the gist is, recreate everything as much as possible to the original, then make one big change and one small change. The big change could be in the form of prop swaps that contribute to the story. Small change can be a small change in camera angle. The goal is to capture the feeling/story that you tried to capture for the first time but didn’t quite get it. You’re giving it a little zhuzh.
As I recreate my old images, one of the things I become more mindful of is how quickly I come to decisions now. I also noticed how quickly I achieve the desired results. These are also improvements. I kept the raw file of every digital image I took.
The original chicken soup image, for example, took over 50 shots before I got what I’m most satisfied with. When I look back at those old files, you can tell that every change I made between shots was based on hope and prayer that it would work out. The updated version was taken on eight occasions, with very intentional and intentional changes made between each shot.
What other rules will help you see how you’ve improved? What are some other things you do to determine your level of development as a photographer?
