10 Step Guide to Improving Your Photography Without Buying New Gear

[Herr Barnack]

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A lot of the points made in this article are basic and geared toward the beginner but there are also some good ideas to go along with the basics:
 

 

10 Step Guide to Improving Your Photography Without Buying New Gear

https://digital-photography-school.com/10-steps-improving-photography-without-new-gear/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mar-1617

 

 

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[SilentShutter]

I read a lot about photography the most was focused technical and didnt really help me feel satisfied.

Wasn´t it HCB who said "Go out and shoot something with your 50mm and when you come back and your

pictures don´t explain us the world - we dont want you here !" to some Magnum applicants ?

 

I belive if you don´t really "burn" for a theme or subject you never get the pictures you want

whatever gear or technic you use.....

[Michael Hiles]

I have just ignored one of my personal guidelines - don't read anything where the title implies a list.

 

It all comes down to the unavoidable fact that pictures are made in the mind's eye. The lesson - think. Your camera wont do that for you.

 

It is also useful to start with a basic assumption - "You're standing in the wrong place".

[Ko.Fe.]

Personally, based on my experience, I dare to recommend to ignore articles like these.

 

I was reading and following almost every advice in this article. Wasted money and time for years on buying accessories, shooting in RAW, using tripod for low angels, trying/paying for software, etc. I did HDR, over-saturating of colors, bumping contrast and placing objects perfectly in the frame. Just like pictures in the article. I was noticed and asked for pictures. Yet, it was not something I was really into. Results, while technically perfect and good for gear-heads photo forums were not something I always liked in paintings which I was coming to see in art galleries and museums since I was teenager. 

 

I switched back to film for simplicity and because of my ESL I joined Russian forum of rangefinders users. First, it was due to my need to fix my family FED-2 and my willingness to learn bw film developing. And because it was rangefinder forum I learned and became infected by Leica bug. Of course it was a lot of talks about Henri Cartier-Bresson and rangefinder masters of photography.  I started to study their works. Suddenly, been as gear-head who followed for years many articles as suggested here, I realized what out of focus and motion blur still will not destroy the picture if it has something much more important than technicalities including "thirds" and "composition". Out of the blue sky it came to me what good photography is similar to the paintings I was coming to see in museums and galleries. 

 

People who writes articles like these and take pictures like in the article are looking at the art from technical aspect of "thirds&composition" and "exposure&focus". But Henri Cartier-Bresson was not mentioning this by saying what for good picture taking we need to look at it as the artist. No. Good painting brings something which we are not able to see in reality.

 

So, my advice to the author of provided article is to read his #10 and move his RAW and processed images into computer garbage bin. Good guys are taking it in DNG, anyway