A Hard Photography Skill that Pays Off Forever!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
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In this week’s episode, we discuss a hard photography skill that pays off forever. There are a ton of skills, techniques, and best practices one can embrace in order to improve their photography, but there is one skill in particular that I've found difficult to master yet produces the greatest results. I guess the saying "nothing great comes easy" is perfect for this photography skill because it won't contribute to an overnight improvement in your photography, but if you put in the effort over time this will eventually be a game changer for anybody - I know it has for me. I hope you find this week's video helpful and as always thanks so much for watching! - Mark D.
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🌟QUICK QUESTION: Which was the first lens you purchased, Wide, Mid, or Telephoto?
I got a 70-300 for fuji as my first non kit lens. the camera came with a 15-45 though
Technically the ef-s 15-55 kit lense, second was the 55-250 and then 10-16mm (all apsc 1.6x lenses from canon)
A Meyer-Optik Goerlitz Oreston 1.8/50.
All-in-one zoom so I would not have to change lenses on the beach or other places. 28-300 nikon. Got tired of crap getting in the camera.
Basically all of them 😅 I got the Tamron 18-400mm for my Canon 90D last year
There was a quote that goes something like this: "The novice cares about the equipment, the professional cares about the money and the master cares about the light."
This made me smile immensely! Keep on chasing the light mate
Excellent
Genius.
I would rather become a master
This clicked immediately and I can recall working through all those phases. 🙌🏾📸
Ansel Adams said, "A photograph is usually looked at-and seldom looked into." I think his wisdom is also true with the scene in front of us. We tend to look at the scene but not look into the scene. I know that I am guilty of that, and this video here is a great reminder of how I can improve my photography. So, thanks for sharing this philosophy, Mark. Another informative and inspiring video.
Awesome to hear you enjoyed it Bryan!
th-cam.com/video/1MWkCwtokyA/w-d-xo.html
I was in Iceland just a few weeks ago.
There are so many areas that are hard to get close to, having my 70-200 really helped me get closer and isolate specific areas, as you said.
I have thousands of pictures that will now take me a lifetime and a half to sift through and process.
Such an amazing country to visit and experience.
I started out with a 24-70mm and found it actually gave me the opposite experience where it encouraged me to do grand landscape where I could but also play with more intimate compositions as well.
Nikkor 10-20mm was my first landscape lens
One of the things I've learned in my photography is to not go so much for epic, but for essence. I've often been disappointed in the past that I don't have many grand landscapes in my portfolio, but I've been increasingly thankful to add many, "essence" images taken at longer focal lengths that communicate much more than a huge, wide shot ever could. One of my favorites trees to shoot is a Magnolia with it's amazing, fragrant, large flowers. If I were to take a wide shot of the tree, even in full bloom, it does not faithfully render the essence of it like a close up of a single flower. In answer to your initial question, it's always been a 50 mm. That focal length has always been one of my absolute favorites for everything.
Wow
Try going out with a 85mm. Forget about the portraiture bs that people say the lens must be used for. It will blow your mind.
100% agree about essence and 50mm and perhaps this is why I have always gravitated towards macro photography. I am a firm believer that you can make even the most mundane object resonate if you can capture it in the right way. I view it as a challenge, even... Sometimes the essence of a subject is not conveying the whole thing but the "heart and soul" of it... Like the flowers of the magnolia. The signature of many plants are their flowers so these become the focal point you are trying to highlight. Aspen are a beautiful tree, but a super wide shot may not convey its white bark which is part of its soul. One of my favorite shots is a close up of an Ash burl that looks like an alien landscape. I learned on my dad's Pentax 35 mm film camera with a 50mm about 15 years ago and only recently bought a Lumix G85 and rediscovering my old twin passions of botany and photography has been a real pleasure.
I have a 58mm for my 35mm SLR that I really like. It is just enough longer than the "normal" lens to give a more intimate feel without taking you out of the normal visual perspective.
Love your channel, there’s always good takeaways. Cheers!
Videos like this are why I follow your TH-cam channel. You always have something useful to say and communicate it skillfully.
Really love your work Mark, thank you!
Probably one of the most interesting photography video I have seen on youtube so far. You send photography to basics and not only editing as many instagram photographers are focused on, the subject, cropping and light. thanks for that
Loved this video. Thanks Mark!
Thank you for your time!
Wow Thank you Mark. I never looked at photography in this perspective. Always great to learn from your experience over time.
Love the video. Keep up the good work Mark.
Thank you! This is what I needed to spark more depth in my photography. Great content!!
Its always a real treat watching and listening to you Mark!
Your experience is exactly my experience… My first lens was a 14 to 22 EF-s lens. I got frustrated after all my images were the same!! I have a photography friend who looked at me like I was crazy when I said my favorite lens for landscapes these days is a 100-500!
Thank you! I needed this video!
Wonderfully insightful. Thank you Mark!
Thanks Mark! Your are incredible !
Thank you for the inspiration Mark!
Learned so much! Thank you!
This is so true and the same time so hard. I'm watching your channel from some time but recently noticed that you perfectly touch the topics that I'm struggling. Really find it helpful and motivating. Big thanks for your work and help!
Thanks for the advice Mark!
One of your best videos yet! Super informative and gave me a lot to think about
Thank you, much for sharing!
In a sense, you have rediscovered some of the interest and excitement that probably brought you into photography in the first place. I have just entered my eighth decade, had a corporate career until retiring at 55, and have been developing my skills and interest in photography with a view to turning this into a career. I still have other pursuits, having designed and created some decorative artworks for clients, embarked on a novel, and tutored students in undergraduate mathematics. In this latter guise, I have always said to my students, "follow tour interest". My interest in photography is reasonably catholic: I enjoy portrait photography and landscape photography, architectural photography and close-up photography. But, these categories are all interpretive. What I see (sic!) is that I am framing images of light and shadow, shape and (sometimes) colour. I photograph out of interest and out of passion. You are one of my favourite photographers and I enjoy your simple and easy storytelling style on your TH-cam channel. Of course, your client-base needs to identify what it is you do by category but you now have rediscovered the freedom of capturing the images you want as an outdoor photographer.
Thank you Mark, this really helps to take our image creation to a higher level. Keep up the good work!
This really got me thinking about cropping some of my old photos before going out in the field again. Thank you Mark!
Thank you Mark. Your tip about looking down really got to me...
Great tips Mark , thank you for sharing this .
You have gone from photography from your head to photography from your heart. You probably started from your heart then when learning the skills switched to your head. You photographs are beautiful. I am just a novice but I get it. To lose that joy and then find it again is the greatest thing.
*The Best Photography advice of All-Time*
I have watched COUNTLESS hours of TH-cam videos so I can claim myself a sort of TH-cam Photography Video Expert.
And the advice in this Video is the Best you'll ever watch. Period
So true. Great reminders and suggestions.
Awesome advice Mark!
Learning to look for light was the biggest thing I learned to help my photography. I actually learned it from a UK street photographer named Roman Fox. I would look at his images and try to figure out the commonality that I loved in his images. He uses light so well. So, now when I'm in landscape photography situations I try to remember this as well. Sometimes those light and shadow detail shots are really nice. It also makes me slow down and look around before shooting. Really great advice Mark!!! Have a great week!
Have a look at the work of Mark Littlejohn, it may strike a chord with you.
@@iaincphotography6051 Thanks!!
This was very informative. I agree with your insights as well. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Great insights Mark, I can definitely relate.
So generous, thank you!
What a insightful and eye opening video tutorial Mark. Awesome away from regular video. Super useful. Opening the horizons of thinking when on the location. 👍😍
Thanks for the video! Great tip to photograph what is interesting, not what is boring.
Thanks for sharing. Jan.
An important and inspirational lesson. Thanks Mark that’s really useful.
This video is a perfect example of what you are telling into it: simply and basic rules, but focused an explained (substitute of used, when in shooting session) at the best, as your "looking down" in the big world of photography field, where big things, if not well implemented can becomes as a boring sky. Someone can think that today with post is possible anything and a boring sky can become a wonderful sky, (simply taking it from another place, as example), but, apart the true value of a photo and the satisfaction of the photographer when a good thing came from the field, the philosophy in this video make better all photos, the "looking high" photos too.
Super advice.. thanks for sharing 🙏🏽
Excellent video with information that I can use. Thanks.
Awesome tips! Thank you!
Excellent video thank you.
Great list!
16-35 was my first and still one of my favorite! Great video Mark!
Mark, I loved this video because i have never even heard the word Storyboard in photography! Thank you.
really thanks alot! I learned something new
thanks for creating the video Mark. it spoke right to my heart. at the moment I feel that my images look the same no matter what the subject/object is. I'm running in a circle. thanks for the reminder to look around with an open mind and try different angles and not be afraid of "failure".
Great advice. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing.
Very good and valuable advice, thank you!
Great video, subscribed. Thanks for the inspiration and guidance
Headed to western NC on Friday for 6 days in our glorious mountains. I look forward to using your ideas to look at different ways to look at possible landscape photos on the trip. Great ideas as always Mark. Stay cool down in the Sandhills!
One of the best informative videos ever Mark, you just explained exactly my photography work flow, heaps of images of the same thing and waiting for the light to change. I now will have a different approach in mind, thank you for the inspiration. My first lens was a Sigma 24-105mm f/4 art lens, I've since purchased a 16-35mm f/4 and a70-200mm f/2.8.
thank you very much, everyone around me is obsessed with compelling photos of light and sunsets and sunrise, I feel like I have a better idea for my next photography trips, I appreciate your video, thank you again
You make excellent and valuable points about looking for the light, looking in all directions, finding different compositions, and experimenting with focal lengths. What has helped make that work for me was getting rid of the tripod unless absolutely necessary for low light or long exposures. Some studio shots and pixel peeping convinced me that I did not need to use a tripod for the vast majority of my shots.
This video needs to be viewed at least twice. There is so much valuable information which can save the day when the light is not right. Getting a good shot when the sky is not right is so frustrating. It would be nice to get one or two shots almost every time is a great skill. Well done!
Thanks so much Jim!
I love that shot of the fog and the red cliffs in Moab! I also really like the one of the little pool in Iceland. I can’t wait to get out and find something to photograph!
More and more often I'm pulling out the 70-200 in the field. I find it just brings the subject of interest into frame more effectively. Great conversation and great examples, Mark.
Loving your attitude.
My first lens was a 70-200mm. As a novice, having a zoom lens sounded the most versatile and made composition easy as a beginner. I still use it when I do landscape photography today if I want to photograph places in the distance or isolate a feature of the landscape without including foreground.
Thanks!
That geothermal hot spring drone shot you took was great! At first, I was convinced it was one of the enormous ones!
Some great nuggets of useful advice in this Mark, thanks.
Glad you think so!
Great advice. I’m still taking 100 pictures of the same scene. I’ll put into practice everything you said. Thank you for your videos!
Good talk. Very helpful tips.
Sage advice, my friend. You inspired me to dig deeper into compositions a while back, and it has served me well, especially in poor conditions, like you pointed out. Thanks!
Mark, I may be wrong but I believe you just helped me both improve AND enjoy my photography. Thanks!
Spot on thanks
Enjoyed your video …very helpful
Excellent insights
Another really great video and commentary. Yes, photography is supposed to be FUN! Thanks for the encouragement to look for interesting light in any condition or location. :)
Completely agree with what you're saying here. I was given some great advice to buy a nifty-fifty lens that had a really wide open aperture, but sat at around 50 mm full frame equivalent for doing my nature/landscape photography. It forced me to focus more on specific details in a shot, rather than trying to capture "everything". The advice was that "photography is about eliminating distractions" (James Popsys).
At first, it was really hard to put this into practice, but now I find myself using portrait and telephoto focal lengths out in nature far more often. The reason being is that I don't walk around going "oooh ahhh... this whole setting is amazing" instead I am walking around constantly going "what catches my eye?". When you do that, you tend to find a lot of "puddles of light" (as you've put it). Then I hone in on that and attempt to find a good angle of composition + exposure to create a solid foreground/background (bokeh) and then once I do that, I keep trying to add interest while also eliminating anything that doesn't add to the shot.
Once you start doing this, I think many folks will agree with your other comment that you're "having more fun with [my] photography". Focusing on reducing and capturing interest is what really turns photography into a creative exercise instead of a technical one. It also makes the photography all about what YOU notice and find interesting. It also connects to your other point of "telling a story". Many folks may wonder "what story?" and I always say, "the one that involved me walking through a forest and seeing a cool thing!" (hahaha).
This is honestly a great video and many other exemplary TH-cam photographers agree with you. Thanks for sharing your perspective on what is in my opinion the most important part of photography. The main skill which will transcend your gear and make you feel like an artist.
Definitely something to think about. 🎯👍
Thank you so much. I like very much the idea of story telling with 3 pictures out of a single landscape.
A true lesson 🙏🏼👌👍
This video certainly reinforced my belief in being versatile in my photography. I’ve watched yours and other channels for years hoping to be an excellent landscape photographer. While I still strive for greatness in that, I’ve really embraced exactly what you’re talking about and I’ve had the same result… I am having so much fun with it.
Thanks Mark. I've gone through much of the same issues with my photography. I was focused on capturing the grand scene, fixated on the weather, etc.
I love the storyboard idea.
Thanks for sharing Mark. My first lens is a kit lens f24-105. I am still learning and your video is a great input for my learning curve in photography.
That Icelandic hot-spring shot fooled me - I thought it would be 50 yards across at least! But all good advice. I've been trying to "look at the light" for years now after attending a seminar by Michael Freeman but it's so easy to be fooled by only seeing the landscape. Definitely a hard skill to master. The other one is seeing an image as a set of shapes rather than objects, I'm still working on that too.
Shoot film. Film expresses light in a way that digital doesn't hit without a great deal of image editing.
Color film responds better to highlights and overexposure while digital responds better to underexposure and dark scenes.
@@Superbustr Depends entirely on the film. Positive films work differently to negative. Some only have a DR of 5 or 6 stops, others up to 12 or more. I started off with film in the 60s, even working briefly in a darkroom as a technician's assistant, but I only use film today for a few specific shots where I think it will suit the subject. Digital just offers so much more control and so much more comfort in so much less time. But understanding light and structure in composition is a skill that applies regardless of the medium.
@@alangauld6079 With digital you get the speed but give up physical ownership of all of your photos. Without being physical, digital photos get lost in the ether due to technological hardware & software changes.
Digital photos and film photos take essentially the same amount of time to process, the caveat with film being that you really need your own dark room and scanner to be able to process your photos same day since quick turn around labs are few and far between.
For me digital allows be to spray and pray, taking hundreds of photos in one day of which only a few photos may actually be any good. I would rather take less photos that are of better quality on film to reduce the amount of time on the computer selecting, processing, and editing.
@@Superbustr Not if you print them - as I do. I have framed prints all over my home and in several albums. Some are from film others digital. As for 'spray and pray' that's down to the photographer! I rarely take more than 50 shots in a day which is about the same as I did with film. Most trips I only take about 10-20 (I'm primarily a landscaper). The discipline of composing a shot and working out the light you want doesn't change with the media, that's down to the photographer. But digital does make some things much easier, like HDR and focus stacking both of which were extremely hard (often practically impossible) with film.
Great video Mark!! I am guilty of the same thing, taking way too many images of the same scene. It’s all about growth and learning. Thanks for sharing!!
Go Mark. We’re watching your growth in photography. Yes still growing. And it is many times very interesting for viewers. Today is great example. Many ask “can I just be a fly on the wall while photographer works”. We are the Fly today. Thanks
I love using long lenses for landscapes! Whether it's for honing in on details and light or compressing the whole landscape to make it appear larger. Always great to have it in the bag! Comes in handy when encountering wildlife on the trail too!
I have always learned something from every single one of your videos. I also used to have 10s of photos of the same composition, and only recently I have started to look around for different frames/perspectives and not jump into taking photos right away, as you had suggested in your other video. Those small lessons are helping me grow my skill over time. Much respect to you, Mark :)
Yup. Best tool you have is your brain, then your feet. Brain to predict what might be happening worth taking a snap, feet to move the viewpoint and calm down the brain. PS - I noticed a tendency for Mark to have a strong central vertical feature in his images, hence the sameness across them. That and an absence of animation. I was led to believe that diagonals led the eye into the subject, and that animation appealed to emotion. But hey ho, modernity. (Lenses - 50mm and 135mm on chemical SLR in 1979, supplemented by a 28mm in 1982)
my first lens for landscape, 70-200mm F2.8
Started out with a 10-20mm lens some 6 years ago and it used to be my go-to lens for a long time. After discovering Mark's channel and realising how dependent of the conditions I, or I should say the lens, was, I started experimenting with 24-105mm and 70-200mm lenses. Nowadays 70-200 is my most used lens, by far. Once again, thank you Mark for all your hard work and suggestions we keep giving us every week.
Fantastic advice. Subscribed 🙂
thank you
Oh my Lord Mark. Your video took me back 45 years when I took photography in high school. Mr. Heckman, our teacher, taught us the same thing of "looking for interesting light" and "always look down and all around". Those lessons have always been a part of my checklist when at any location. Keep the great videos coming. I always look forward to watching them. By the way, my first landscape lens purchased, was 20mm. Soon afterwards, a 70-300mm.
Sorry for the previous comment. My big fingers swiping on a small keyboard accidentally hit the send arrow. LOL
Very inspirational video. Great tips as usual
Thanks Michael!
Great tips! As always. Now... if only I could remember it all when I'm in the field. I get wrapped up in keeping up with the changing light and all thought of composition goes out the window.
Good points.
Great video!
Really interesting approach.