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4 Tips to Becoming A Better Photographer



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I know some of these may seem kind of simple, but if you really think about them and put them into action, you will see results.

I can not stress enough that practice has made me better and can do the same for you. Mind you, I was practicing at a time before digital was affordable, where I was limited to 36 shots and could not see my results instantly. I am not saying you are at a disadvantage for shooting digital, but I can say you can borrow from the past to help you learn in the future.

1. Cover up your LCD screen with an index card and some tape so you can avoid seeing your settings or the images you capture. The challenge here is that it forces you to use your light meter to determine your settings. Limit yourself to 36 shots, just like we used to do with film, when we were limited to the amount of frames per roll. Only when you’re done shooting, either at the end of your photo shoot or when you reach 36 images, should you sit down and review the results. You can learn so much just from waiting until the end to review your results, even if your shots are not to your liking. Imagine how you will feel when the majority of your images are keepers and you didn’t rely on looking at the LCD screen after every shot.

2. Don’t be afraid to learn from other photographers. There is nothing better than being able to pick a professional photographer’s brain. If you find one who is willing to share their knowledge, you stand to learn a lot! I am not saying you should only look for professionals, either. Look for other photographers with similar skill sets as yourself and start a photo club. Just from the discussions and photo excursions you can plan, you will all continue to learn.

3. See the world around you and capture it with whatever camera you have, or just capture it with your mind. When you start to see images around you and try to figure out their settings, you are learning. I walk around and try to guess what the settings would be for the room I am in, along with what lenses I would use. Training yourself to see the world that is around you will allow you to get your settings correct when you do have a camera in your hand. As I said, capture the world with whatever camera you have. No matter whether it’s in a cell phone or a top-of-the-line DSLR, a great image is a great image, no matter how it’s captured.

4. This one always seems to get some feathers ruffled; I personally do not crop my work, and have not since my high school teacher said “crop in the camera, not in the darkroom.” This made instant sense to me. He preached that getting it right in the camera not only saves you time in the darkroom and at post-processing, but it saves your image quality. The same loss of quality occurred with film as it does with digital images when you crop. I say, challenge yourself not to crop. Go on a photo shoot and every time you say to yourself, “I will crop this in Post,” take a few steps closer or change to the proper lens to capture that image.

My suggestion is to try all of these out over the next month. Accept the challenge and tell me the results. What did you learn from the experience?

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37 responses to “4 Tips to Becoming A Better Photographer”

  1. Man, I did not expect much of this really. I only wanted to watch this video to see if it was a beginner video and what you are telling them, but man was I wrong. The first and the last tip is so good I'm simply just going to do it. You show that you really care about this passion, and you show how others can train their mind into caring more about the mental process of each photo. Thank you for being a human being that actually do what you say. This is why I trust you. Keep it up.

  2. Maybe I missed the point, but not using the LCD because "photographers didn't used to" or (to paraphrase) "it hinders the skill of manually adjusting settings" logically concludes that we should all be shooting film cameras in manual mode. This is just really poor advice that feels contrived.

    The benefits (e.g. confirming composition, exposure, etc.) of using the LCD FAR outweigh YOUR perceived negative(s).

  7. The first and fourth tips are exact opposites of what I was taught by my mentors.
    1. Use the screen. It's better to know they're good than to hope they're good.
    4. It's okay to capture a little more information because you can always crop it down to what you need.

    I understand that Jared is pushing the viewer to develop their photographer's eye. These tips will work, but I suggest doing them for practice shoots, never for actual gigs. Bring the skills and eyes that you gain from the practice shoot, but don't limit yourself when you have a job to do. Use both technique and technology together at their fullest.

  10. For the people that are taking offence to Jared's points, particularly the one about covering up the LCD, I think what Jared is referring to is that you should never, as they call it, shoot and chimp. Especially when you're on a shoot which can cause you to miss moments. Reason I say that is because Jared does go on to say that you should get your composition right as well as your settings in camera which DOES require to you use your LCD or EVF (whichever you have). As for what he said about limiting yourself to 36 shots, like he said it's a challenge. Photography (to a point) isn't about aimlessly walking into a scene and just shooting willy nilly. There has to be thought put into it. Sure, you're shooting digital which means you have the power to shoot and delete photos as you see fit if there aren't you don't like, but like Jared said, it's a challenge.

  13. I can understand how much you like yourself now, based on this lack of confidence and how bad you felt in your own body before. But dude, you are pushing the narcissism way too far… Not only because you have a portrait of your own face in your house, but just in general. Instead of having the image of a nice confident guy, you are more like a jerk who see himself above the people and masturbate on his own photography. (Ok, I exagerate a juuust bit :p I raised the contrast to pop up the image ! :p)

    I wish you could cool it down a bit and find the perfect spot between too less and too much confidence. Humility power ! <3

  21. I got an x-700 for the adaptive lenses but I really enjoy shooting the film because $20-30 developing cost makes me act like an engineer while shooting. Great tips, thank you Jared!

  23. Just don't learn much from frillo's talking hair, not that you really could…. though i have to admit these are good tips, i keep coming to his chanel because although he is 98% BS, there are some good things… sometimes, well rarely, but still.

  25. Oddly enough, I stumbled on your channel five minutes ago, though your first point was something I began doing a couple years ago. I ewanted to kind of challenge myself as though I were shooting on film again and being in a photo shoot seting with a model, it was kind of of way to get me back in the habit real fast. Also, shooting tethered helped me not be able to see the LCD screen. In any case, doing so actually brought me back a bit in a rather short amount of time.

  26. I recently started shooting film. I realized after just a few rolls that digital has made me absolutely lazy. Film is much more fun (and way expensive! — I need to start developing it myself… Allan's Camera is the cheapest around) than digital. You can get a great little 35mm film camera for dirt cheap at a thrift store. I've bought 5 of them so far. They cost me $4 to $10 each. It's addicting.

  32. Yeah, I'm definitely not on board the no cropping train. But that doesn't mean I'm choosing my composition wholly in post. I just don't like being limited to the camera's inherent aspect ratio. Sometimes I want a square 1:1 composition, sometimes I want a very non-standard shape which emulates a cinematic aspect like 2.75 Ultra Panavision. Sometimes I'll use in-camera overlays and sometimes I'll eyeball it, but in either case it will need to be cropped in post.

  33. Honestly I got better by stating out with a crappy camera on my old cell phone. It really helps teach you stabilization, as with the low resolution, the slightest movement will cause the picture to blur.

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