Copyright 2005 Scott Bourne - All Rights Reserved
It doesn’t matter how good your camera is if you haven’t got a good photographic eye. You have to know what to point the camera at in the first place. Here are five quick tips for developing and improving your photographic eye.
a. Get serious about photography. If you want to develop your eye you need to look at thousands (yes thousands) of published pictures. You need to eat, sleep and drink photography – not just on vacation, but every week. The old saying “practice makes perfect” is true. Look at lots of pictures, and throw yourself into it. Don’t just pretend. Dig in. Really apply yourself. Study other shooters’ work and ask yourself why does that picture work?
b. Start trying to see things in a new light. If you’re used to doing x, y and then z to get a shot, change it up. Vary the order. Throw something new into your routine. Start earlier, stay out later, go somewhere new, set goals, challenge yourself and experiment. Experimentation and refusing to fear failure are two big keys to developing a great photographic eye.
c. Know your gear backwards and forwards. While this doesn’t seem to be related it is. Here’s why…if you know your gear like the back of your hand, you can use all of its features without thinking. Remember when you first learned how to drive a car and how much concentration you had to muster to keep from crashing? You really didn’t have time to enjoy the scenery back then did you? Well the same goes for photography. If you don’t know your gear, your mind won’t be free to explore and create. You’ll be too busy trying to remember how to format your memory card!
d. Go out shooting without your camera! Yes I know it sounds crazy, but freed from the confines of worrying about your gear, your mind opens up to new possibilities. You have the ability to see things you might otherwise miss. Carry a GPS and/or a notebook and take notes. You can always go back and get the shot of that mountain later. It’s not going anywhere. Ansel Adams went scouting and kept extensive journals sometimes before actually making a photo. Learn from the master.
e. Finally, stick with it. Persistence and patience count when you’re trying to develop your photographic eye. You must dedicate yourself to improving, even when it’s hard.
These are all pretty ethereal concepts. If you’d like to chime in with some more concrete examples, feel free to leave comments below.
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Just wanted to chime in with a couple of things. First that practice doesn’t always make perfect – perfect practice makes perfect. This is why the rest of that paragraph is really important – if you practice by going out and taking little snapshots, you’ll end up being great at little snapshots. If you want something more, that’s what you need to practice and work hard to do it well.
Personally I try those things you mention, then refer to my wife since she has a better developed artistic eye than I have. I sometimes disagree with her (beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that), but her comments keep me going in the right direction.
Nice tips
LOL you win the award for this month’s most pedantic comment!
I think the big difference between master photographers and the rest of us is the development of the “photographer’s eye”. Knowledge of gear and technology can be achieved with finite study, but the development of the “photographer’s eye” involves lifelong study, in my opinion. In addition to incorporating Scott’s advice, I’ve found Michael Freeman’s book “The Photographer’s Eye” to be a useful tool for achieving this lifelong goal.
Not the first and certainly not the last time!
I only brought it up because practice does hard-wire knowledge and skills into the brain, almost literally, so as a teacher I try hard to ensure practice is always relevant, correct and/or reflected upon.
But Scott, work always gets in the way of my photography!!
As far as scouting and looking at the scenery for different artistic ideas while driving, I really need to to watch the road to at times! I get deep in thought and forget I’m driving… ooops.
Thanks for the tips.
As a new photographer these were very helpful tips.
I see the point you’re trying to make but it makes want to caution the rest of my readers. Perfection is often the enemy of good. Pedantic types often get so lost in the technique that they forget to “see” the picture.
Study Light.
“Start seeing the Light.” I’m amazed by how many photographers really don’t know much about the behavior of light. Just as painters must know paint, sculptors must know clay, photographers must know light—it’s the material we work with.
In the words of George Eastman, “Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.”
Very good tips Scott. I have a suggestion than incorporates a lot of these tips as well as many other mentioned here, try doing a “365″. A “365″ is simply taking a picture everyday for a year, you can theme it like I did with birds being the focus or simply leave it open. I started mine back in October and skills have evolved much quicker than I expected. In doing one of these you essentially have to force yourself to shoot on a daily basis which in turn forces you to get creative or your shot of the day will look the same as the last one. I found myself continually challenged to come up with news ideas, approaches and ways of using the camera. Also I found uploading the shot of the day to a place like flickr also is usefull in refining your PP skills, and at the least give you a diary of the project. I probably could write an essay on all the benefits that doing this has provided me but I need to get work :)
I think looking at photos is important. But to add to that, you should look at your own photos. Try to see them as other people see them, and criticise them as you would others.
Thank you – very good post. I’m still a hack, however one thing that has helped me over the past year is very similar to item d. I have been going out with the sole purpose of “hunting light”. I really look for places at different times of the day that offer interesting lighting possibilities. I make notes and return with my camera. It is all about finding interesting light for me…
Perfect practice doesn’t mean you have to make perfect pictures. It just mans being serious about the process and try to execute it as well as you can. You then can seriously evaluate the results and learn from it.
Yesterday, I saw a really interesting falling down building. I only had my long zoom with me, when I needed wide angle for what I wanted to do. Still I worked the site as best I could. I learned alot from what I captured. When I go back with my wide angle I will be better prepared to capture the image my mind sees!
Great stuff and all good points.
One thing I’ve found helpful is not just “looking” at thousands of pictures, but trying to figure out the settings used to capture it. When available, I check the EXIF data for Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO Etc… of a photo to see what was used. It’s not an exact science and there are unknown variables, but it’s a good exercise.
Rich I hear this all the time but frankly just don’t understand it. I have been photographing this bridge near my house for 10 years. I have it day and night, all different times of the year. The ISO, f/stop and shutter speed, etc are always different. How would it help you to see what I did on any given day? If you go, you won’t be able to use those settings to recreate the photo. Other than generally realizing that I might have used a wide aperture for instance to blur the background, I find the data useless. And even then, it’s not like I need to see the EXIF data to figure that out. I can tell by looking. I wish I could understand what people get out of seeing that – how they process it into something useful. For me, it’s a waste of time.
I had wanted to ask you if you could just look at a photo and know the focal length, f/stop, ISO, etc. Just from looking at it.
Is it a bit like watching slight of hand? If you don’t know how they are doing it then it is magic and if you know how Pen and Teller do it then you can watch and say “wow those two have skills.” It is a different kind of admiration.
Thank you, Scott. I appreciate your willingness to share your experience. You teach well.
Scott,
I now find I can look at a scene and ballpark my setting and get decent results, but it was not always like that. Back a couple years ago I moved from a point and shoot to a DSLR. I knew precious little about Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO, let alone how to mix them together to get the desired results. I wanted to shoot sports and found EXIF data of similar events a good starting point. I found good shots of similar events (Outdoor football, soccer and Indoor Basketball, Volleyball Etc…). I examined at the EXIF data for like photos and made a mental note of the key settings. No, they’re not exact and do not guarantee a good shot, but it gave me a foundation to start.
I wanted to shoot fireworks last 4th of July. I had no idea what the settings should be. High ISO or Low, how slow a shutter speed would give me the desired effect. Exposure compensation ? Reviewing the EXIF data of 10 or 20 good shots, I got a good idea of what the basic setting should be and adjusted as needed.
Here’s an example from earlier today. A friend of mine was down at the space shuttle launch Sunday night. He brought back some decent pictures from the launch, but most were dark images with an orange blob in the middle. I did a quick search on Flickr and found a whole group of pictures of the same launch… some from the same general location. Some were good, some very good and some not so good. Looking through the EXIF data we saw some similarities with the very good pictures that were missing from the others. Exposure compensation seemed to be the big one.
I found the data very helpful when used as a general guideline.
Great tips Scott! OT, I think I would have cropped the photo for this post though so that the bird’s eye wasn’t dead center of the frame. Rule of thirds! Hahaha! ;)
Gary I know you were joking but since folks of all levels read these comments I’ll clarify that the bird’s eye is ok in the center as long as the bulk of the bird comports with the rule of thirds.
I know. The photo works great as is. I just had to insert some jocularity ;)
This gave me a chuckle… To tell the truth, when I first looked at this photo without my “photographer’s eye,” I thought “Nice shot!”
Then I got to thinking about it, and I noticed that the bird’s eye WAS dead center, a blatant rule of thirds violation, and I thought “Why does this shot work, despite the fact that the eye is dead center?” Then I got to the next level of detail and noticed that the bulk of the bird’s body was on a rule-of-thirds intersection, which helped; also, that the bird’s back and the branch made nicely complimentary but not quite perfectly parallel lines, which adds tension; and that the splash of color underneath the bird’s wing fell almost directly on a rule-of-thirds point…
I can see all that AFTER the fact… Now, if I could see all that in the few seconds that are available to set up and capture a shot like that, I might be able to claim I really have the “photographer’s eye.” Practice, practice, practice, I guess…
It’s a very nice article, but there is one problem. What if you’re under 18 and can’t get around for photos? I need my parents to get me around and it’s sorta of ‘me’ thing when it’s scouting places. How can I do that?
What’s working for me is to pick a regular event or something that keeps you shooting. I’m doing my school rallies which are a huge deal (well 5 a year) and in Chemistry our labs. With each lab we must make a cover page with ANY picture, and I always chose one of the ones I took during the lab. I guess it’s my little weekly project.
Also, something else that shooting my schools rally last week. Check your camera through the event!!! My exposure compensation was set to +1.3 and later +1.7 – and not by me! I must have bumped the button while running around. And yes the gym is dark, and yes it SUCKED. all I have to say is: blur. Learn from my mistake and keep an eye on your camera.
Great tips Scott, I really like the idea of going out without my camera to concentrate on what I see. I know when I first got more serious about photography, I would spend so much time staring through the viewfinder that I would miss the rest of the scene. Now, I am getting better at observing the scene to see the image I want before even lifting the camera to my face.
Steve
Staying local can be a great way to improve your vision – you can see everyday things in a completely new way.
Nice tips Scott, thanks.
I’d like to second Brett’s comments regarding knowing light. I’m still at the beginning of the process, but starting to understand and work with light was a huge step for me.
Ben
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo