This is starting at the end really, but it is also the simplest
and most useful tip to improve your photography.
Tip - select only the best of your
pictures to show to others and leave the rest in the drawer. Showing
someone every picture you have taken dilutes the effect of the best
pictures and gets very boring. You may want to show twenty pictures
of little Johnny at the park because they are all quite good and
you can't decide which are the best but, trust me, you will be better
off making that decision and showing only the few good ones.
Hey, you're thinking, I came here looking for a course in photography
and I get this, this isn't photography.
|
Don't show all your junk, be selective.
|
|
| Yes it is. Presentation is an essential part of photography and what
you don't present is an essential part of presentation. Follow
the advice above and you will immediately be promoted from 'photo bore'
to someone who looks like they know what they are doing.
Your friends and relatives will beg you to see the rest of the
pictures, resist at all costs. If you give in to their demands,
you can regret at leisure as you watch their initial enthusiasm
lessen with each photo they turn over. You've already shown
them the best, what do you expect?
This advice is not just for beginners, although old hands
will probably have learned the hard way already. I have
taken many tens of thousands of pictures over the years
but, if I was asked to mount an exhibition of my best 100
photos, I would be thrown into a blind panic. As each new
'great shot' comes along, it moves the goalposts, and last
year's great shots don't look so great any more. That's
why this is such a great hobby, there is no finish line,
even the best photographer in the world can still aspire
to produce a better picture next time. Having said that,
some of the shots I took over twenty years ago are still
in my pile of favourites. Learning and improvement are not
always linear. |
