It only really matters what you think of your photos. But do you know why a good photo is good and a bad photo is bad? Understanding this can massively help you improve your photography.
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Awesome telephoto lens – Nikon 70-200m f/2.8 – http://geni.us/nikon70200
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#photography #photographytips #tutorial
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25 responses to “Improve your photography by UNDERSTANDING why a PHOTO is BAD (and GOOD)”
Very instructive! great video
Thank you for the lesson!
Great tips Nigel and the painterly photo has to be my favourite of yours so far. But your hands look really sore. Try O’Keeffe’s Working Hands. Not an ad, just personal recommendation 😊
Thanks for the video
I always like your videos Nigel — simple, to point with no bs and there is always something new to consider or even reconsider .
Yes; practical and personal experience is the better teacher — here are a few things I would like to share that have taken me 40-50 years to collect .
Get off face(less)book / you tube; take photos yourself .
Emotions are very blinding when evaluating your photos.
Don't hope to get a good picture by taking LOTS of similar photos.
We learn more from our mistakes than just getting lucky with one great image.
Learn photography and editing by photographing easy unimportant subjects so then the harder important subjects will be easier to photograph .
Think lots click once .
Identify your real subject in the overall scene — see that tree inside the forest .
Photography is about light; the quality of that light and shadows from that light — the gear used makes very little difference to recording that light. A phone camera and a medium format camera work the same way to record that light .
The first camera angel you decide to take a photo from is very often not the best .
A tripod will usually give you better compositions as you are free to move around away from the camera to consider a different viewpoint — a step either way; camera higher or lower can make ALL the difference between a good or bad photo.
Before clicking: Visualise your subject as your framed picture displayed on your wall — consider the cropping needed to make a better composition — I often have a name for the subject in my mind and that often leads to the better composition .
No matter how much gear you have; you will never get every photo you might see.
There should not be any bad photos as cameras are so good — I said that 30 odds years ago while shaking my head at ** photos falling out of our mini-lab!! . A lot has changed since then, yet people are still taking mostly bad photos . Yes, me too!! …… WHY??!!
Not every subject is designed to fit perfectly inside the sensor being used .
After the photography part; file cropping, and horizontal rotating is great for fine tuning your picture composition .
Dodge and burn from the earliest dark rooms is still one of the simpler and easier ways to edit a photo. The layer way is better imo. (BTW; the days of having to have Photoshop are long over)
Finally; too many “options” of anything make the final choice more confusing .
Now put those “options” as beer/ cameras/ milk/ lenses/ gear/ shoes/ subjects/ photos to sort/ editing programs /acquired presets ………………………. .
More options = more confusion = more frustration = less satisfaction
Nigel; you are welcome to freely use any of those thoughts as you wish in your videos
1 min 16 secs into your video and already I couldn't agree more.. the most important thing that makes a it a good photo or a bad photo is whether YOU like it or not! Wonderful! And yet, there are certain things that I disagree with, for instance when you talk about 'having a resting place for your eye' in a particular image. I don't really think it's entirely necessary for your eye to rest on a particular part of EVERY image, only SOME images. Personally, in certain images I actually like the busyness of them. I enjoy looking at different aspects of the image. However, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that my opinion differs from yours. I think a lot of photography, like many things is subjective.
Thanks Nigel for this fantastic educational video. It's true that we must photograph for ourselves but when you're not a professional photographer you need some good input from someone with more experience and skills ….. Honest input or critique is worth more than sympathetic likes (like you mentioned on this video). The reason that i post a lot on your Masterclass Facebook group.
at 11:24, just a comment: separation, not seperation.
Brilliant Nigel, learned a lot……………Thanks
Im more interested in what Clive Woodward would or wouldn’t do or would have done if he could have 2nd go, now that would be interesting!
You can see me?
$300 to enroll in the course?
Honestly, it's SUPER refreshing to see a vlogger actually share his images that aren't maybe super awesome so we can learn how to improve composition. So often vloggers are afraid to show anything except their best work because they're worried they might be seen as fallible. Good job m'friend! Awesome video!
What a great way to show images I may try this myself one day.
Hi Pebbles!
(Also, great video 🙂 )
I really like your videos where you go through the process of determining what you find good and not so good about the photos. And there's Pebbles too…
Hi Nigel. just enjoying your video and I wanted to mention something about one of your beautiful images. The one I have in mind is the photo with the clumps of vegetation in the foreground and the majestic snow-covered mountains in the background. I believe anyone can look at that image and feel they are standing exactly where you did when you took the shot. I would buy that image because you have captured your experience and given it to us as you would a gift. Thank you!
Thank you so much Sir Nigel for this video. So inspiring to watch because it could help as a beginner photographer like me.
Cheers from the Philippines 🇵🇭🇵🇭
Thank you — Well done Nigel
This video has come along at just the right time for me. I have just analysed a few of my recent images and one in particular was not quite right. This has helped me pinpoint the reason why. Great Stuff Nigel.
I came here for Pebbles. Haha.
Anyways, thank you for the inspiring tips. I am trying to get my creative flow on landscape photography and watching vids like these help me a lot. Thank you.
Hi Nigel, your videos stands out of the crowd because you concentrate on the most difficult and ignored part of photography – composition. However this is and will be the most important aspect in this trade. Great work, hope to see more like this
Great video as always Nigel. A really great way to improve your photography. We must ALL learn from our mistakes, that way our photo's WILL IMPROVE.
just had not the time to watch this video. I just orederd a print and hope im still going to get it. Love your work but cant afford your other prints. Keep on the good work, and greetings from germany
I agree this tutorial tip and learn it. Thank!
Merry Christmas to you and your family.🌲🎁🎅