How I IMPROVED my PHOTOGRAPHY - The lightbulb moments
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- Over the years there have been certain lightbulb moments that have helped me improve my photography. I take a look back from the start and share these photography tips I have found along the way.
Visit Squarespace for a free trial and 10% off your first purchase - www.squarespace.com/nigel
TODAY IS LAST CHANCE TO PRE-ORDER MY BOOK, VISTAS - geni.us/vistas
Enter the World Landscape Photographer Competition - www.worldlandscapephotographe...
Get a free 19 page eBook if you sign up for my newsletter - www.nigeldanson.com/newslette...
Instagram (follow my daily stories) - / nigel.danson
Where I get my AWESOME MUSIC - goo.gl/7LWnFh
All my gear (inc. clothes) is listed here - www.nigeldanson.com/nigeldans...
NIKON GEAR (Main STILLS camera)
Current landscape camera - Nikon Z7 - geni.us/nikonz7
Awesome telephoto lens - Nikon 70-200m f/2.8 - geni.us/nikon70200
Fav lens - Nikon 24-70mm Z f4 - geni.us/nikon2470
Great wide angle lens - Nikon 16-35mm f/4 -geni.us/MCglWI
Amazing Bokeh - Sigma 24mm f1.4 geni.us/Sigma24
FUJI GEAR (Main FILM camera)
Fujifilm X-T3 - geni.us/fujifilmxt3
Awesome Bokeh - Fuji XF35mm F2 - geni.us/fuji35f2
Sharpest long zoom - Fuji 50-140mm F2.8 geni.us/fuji50140
Killer wide angle lens - Fuji 10-24mm F4 - geni.us/fuji1024
OTHER PHOTO GEAR
Kase Filters - geni.us/Kase | And use code NIGEL for 5% off
Awesome sensor brush - geni.us/brush4sensor
GorillaPod - geni.us/Kb9mV
The great printer I use Canon P1000 - geni.us/cIIc
Clever camera strap (peak design) - geni.us/PDstrap
Great bag for hiking - Tenba 24L - geni.us/orPwh
Great bag for travel (carry on) - Tenba 32L - geni.us/tenba32l
Super light Benro Travel Tripod UK - geni.us/Benrotravel
A must have for tripod (L bracket) - geni.us/myLbracket
Lightweight tripod - Benro Mach3 Carbon Fiber Tripod - geni.us/benromach3
Paper I use for all my prints - Fotospeed - geni.us/fotospeed Use DANSON10 to get 10% off your paper.
Screw on ND filter - geni.us/polarproND
#landscapephotography #photographytips #improve
If you've been watching for a while but haven't subscribed yet, please consider it! it's free! 👍🏼
Nigel Danson nice hat 🧢
Only 13% hit the bell? That’s interesting I must say. I myself did that the day I subscribed... we, the 13 percenters, are the true fans I reckon.
I never use the bell. I subscribe to channels so that I see the channel in my subscribed list. When I have time to look at TH-cam then I click on my subscribed list and there are all the new videos from my favourite channels ready for me to watch when I’m able to. I certainly don’t need notifications that new content has been uploaded when I’m at work or sat on the loo. Ive never seen the point of the bell.
Great video once again! What aboua a video on the challenge of planning and running workshops! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Hi Nigel, the bell icon is unavailable, at least for me. All other channels work ok for me. When I click on it it says: 'This action is turned off for content that is made for children'. Worth checking your channel settings perhaps??
“I just took the scene rather than compose the scene.” - That is a pearl of wisdom that REALLY resonated with me.
Someone with 200k subscribers, those dazzling pictures and with your humility...talking like a student and teaching all the way. Hmm. So rare so good! Thank you Nigel!
This is by far one of the most inspirational videos about photography I've ever watched. It's not just about how good your photos look, or how long your journey has been. It's more about the character it shows, the effort that you've made to get to where you wanted to be. If I had been in your shoes, I'd probably have thought "oh well, I know how to do B\W like a pro, therefore I must be a B\W photographer". And I would have stopped there. And then I'd have thought "Oh well, if pictures with long lenses come easier to me, that must be my niche". And I'd have kept doing that. And your work shows that you'd probably have been amazing at both. That sort of drive, that's what I've been missing for most of my life, and people like you help people like me to stop sitting on their asses and try and assess what they want to become. It's about photography, but it's about experiencing life, really.
Perfectly stated! Ditto!
I hope that one day I am as good as you were when you were bad!
Just what I was thinking 😄
And me!
Me too...
Same...
+1
Nice to see when the pros share their lightbulb moments and "failures". Just goes to show that even the best learn through failing.
LMAO! The face he makes when he says, "Things kinda went downhill because I had three kids." :D
Hah! I understand completely!! 😃
One of the best and most inspiring photography videos I have seen for a while on TH-cam
The feeling one gets watching your videos resonates clearly your desire and efforts to make us ALL better photographers. Your passion is contagious.
Thank you for sharing your beginnings! I'm a brand-new photographer that has fallen in love with landscape photography and I've been watching all your videos and it's helped me so much already.
Great idea for a vid - I'd have to say that the biggest progression for me was getting non-family/friends to critique your photos. Your Mum is always going to love your photos!
LOL, when the lightbulb turns on! 👍
Hi Nigel. It’s great to see your trials and the success & failures. I’m certainly on the same road as you once were. I’ve only been learning for 3 years now & I’m in my 70’s. Trying. Failing & doing it all again. I appreciate your commitment and it gives me the strength to keep learning. Failing and trying. Thank you. Neville.
Tracking your journey as a landscape photographer from the 80's to the present was an excellent idea. Self reflection and honesty goes a long way to revelling the passion you have
developed into becoming a master craftsman. I really look forward to watching your weekly thoughts and ideas. Best wishes!
That photo of your kid being scared by that bug is amazing. I love it!
Great to see your journey in images Nigel, always interesting to see how we progress and develop!
I see from your knuckles that you entered the Canon/Nikon debate. Always risky!
nikon won the bout
Awy Nikon hit em with “da canon” 💥🔫💨
Look what you have started, Ian ;)
@@SFbayArea94121 that's the point Canon is so good even Nikon uses a canon😉😂
No, it's the DSLR vs. mirrorless debate. 😀
Love your channel, love the calm atmosphere you create when narrating. I love also the way you connect to your audience on such a personal level. I am sure so many of us watching can point on at least one thing in each one of your videos where it feels like we once were in our lives. Keep it up! Glad to see you're say and doing well :)
I certaintly think b/w shots give more atmosphere. I have never really done much in b/w but seeing yours has given me some inspiration. And its barley cos it flops over, wheat stands up.
Midway through grasping the lightbulb, and enjoying my photography more and more because of advice and encouragement from ND and his peers! Great!!
catching up with many of your videos, you generosity of sharong is amazing, thank you. So many things you've said in this video is so easily identifiable to me.
Another great insight Nigel, the photo of the waterfall in Yosemite I saw in one of your other videos and I just love it, i have never been there but you get a real sense of the size and power of that waterfall through the black and white image and the tree just gives it such a scale, thanks for keeping us going! Look forward to the mid-week installment! All the best.
That was great to see your progression and how you have changed. I really like how you explained the changes you have made in order to get where you are now. The photo with the sun inside it is amazing! Thanks for sharing and can't wait to see your next one!
I think this is one of your most helpful videos. Thinking about what needs improving, and showing what you've done is key. We all need to do that.
Really appreciate the honesty here, so useful to see others have been through similar struggles.
Thanks for sharing Your older images. I guess this show that anything is possible if you just work hard for it. "Never give up" fits in Photography just as much as every other places. Best wishes to all.
I love watching/listening to your thought process. Thanks so much for your knowledge!
An inspirational episode Nigel as it demonstrated that we all start from a point in our photographic journey and patience and perseverance will be necessary companions in order to undertake the journey and improve, which by your candidacy showed some of the key stages you have went through
It's great to see your old black&white photos. I don't know how popular photography was in the 80's, but would you have thought that in a few decades photography will be so popular? I mean with a smartphone everyone is a 'photographer' nowadays.
Storytelling is so important, in connection with technical elements that develop through ‘getting out’ in the field. Great to see how success unfolds through the hard yards of environment and experience. Thanks, Nigel 🙏👍🏻
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey through your evolving experience and understanding of landscape photography. Instructive and inspiring.
Thanks for this video, to me it's one of your best. I've been watching and learning for a long time, but seeing your older images along with your descriptions of what didn't work well and how you've improved over time with thought and practice is a really powerful motivator. The first 12 or 14 minutes has a lot of similarity with my own photo history. I have photos that fit every stage you went through. I have old b/w film shots that are better than anything I took in my early DSLR days. I remember being really proud of some photos with my 20D that I no-longer much care for as well as being disappointed I couldn't capture a beautiful scene in a photo that had any impact approaching what it was like to be there. Everyone knows that time and practice help and seeing someone with great skill comparing old photos to new ones is always going to be interesting, but the details you included make all the difference. The timelines for the changes in format/cameras, that there was a period where you were using a lot of contrast and saturation or over-darkening the sky because dramatic felt like it meant good are all things I, and I assume a lot of your viewers, went through as well. It's really inspiring to see that while I/we may never have the same dedication to practice and improve, we have the potential to keep learning and improving with the work and thought we put in to it. Thanks for not just reminding us that learning and growing is a journey, but by grounding that story to what I assume are many of our shared experiences to help it really hit home.
It is lovely to hear your progression as a photographer, which gives me hope that I can arrive at a similar point. I have found that the big struggle has always been balancing the time commitment for family and hobbies to allow for improvement of my landscape photography. On the up side, as my kids grew up, my sport and portrait photography skills grew by leaps and bounds and that has still allowed to grow as a photographer. Love your videos Nigel.
I enjoyed watching, I think it's always a worthwhile exercise to go through your library of photographs. It brings back a lot of memories and you can learn a lot from it.
"Fantastic to see you again" Loving the channel Nigel, thanks for sharing all you do! Loved seeing your early photos, proof it's a lifelong passion! I miss my D200, at it's base iso (200) it had fantastic image quality. Cheers.
Great to see your journey Nigel
I've been taking pictures for a long time, since I was about 11. When I first started, as with most people, I took pictures of what was in my limited universe. Eventually I started looking at things differently, and bought many art books by various masters to get a perspective on the way they viewed their universes. When Lautrec paints people in a cafe he saw it very differently than those people sitting in that cafe and that was part of his brilliance. I'm certainly not putting myself at that level of artistry of course, but your point is well taken that it takes a lot of learning to look at things a in a way to be able to express them truly artistically.
Thank you for this! Been a big fan for about a year now. As a photography novice, it really helps to see your tutorial videos and also see how you started out and improved.
I loved this episode! Sometimes it feels like I am not improving as much as I would like but seeing your pictures really showed that it takes time to gain experience and get better at it! I think this video also recaps pretty well the most important lesson I learned from your videos: your need to see a photo as elements in a scene, not just seeing it as a beautiful scene.
Great video Nigel - useful to understand the progression and the road you've taken! Thank you for that! Bell has been clicked here for many moons - always look forward to the videos! All the best!
Incredible self-reflective piece perfect for me as I struggle the most with landscape. Thanks for your honesty and pro tips. I also struggle with getting out due to family/busy city life.
It makes so much sense Nigel, can't wait to try and incorporate the foreground approach to my photography. Thanks for the video, it's really informative.
Thank you so much for posting this really thoughful and helpful video. Really great to see how you evolved and improved--truly inspirational!
Thank you so much for your honest story, Nigel. This is one of the videos I enjoyed most on your channel so far!
Congrats on improving your photos over the years. Thanks for the great examples and explaining them.
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge, great video!
I appreciate your humility at being able to criticize your own work. A few years ago I took a design class (helped my photography a great deal) and black and white photography class. I thought I knew quite a bit, but realized I had a lot to learn. Also the "crit" session in both classes where the instructor and other student comment and criticize your work was pretty humbling--and instructive.
This is probably the best 19 minutes I've spent in many years learning about photography. At last I now believe I know what "telling a story" means in the context of landscape photography, and come to think of it, some other genres as well. Thank you, Nigel!
Indeed interesting to observe the learning process. Thanks Nigel for sharing this.
After 7 years I see the same mistakes in my works and the way of thinking. Great to see the progress - the best reward is to know You are improving in something You love! Stay Safe Nigel!
Very nice presentation of your progress/evolution over the years. Gives me hope, thanks.
Thanks Nigel, as always you are very interesting and have such great experience to share with us. Keep up the great work!
I've just started watching your videos. Besides being interesting and helpful to me, you come across as being sincere and humble - a good human.
Thank you so much for sharing your photographic journey! It's very inspiring and helpful! Love it and subscribed! Keep up the great work!
Really enjoyed listening to what you’ve learnt over the years and how. Nice bit of info before your book arrives. 👍🏻
Hello Nigel. I’m somewhat ‘tired’ of this kind of improve composition videos, but, this one was great to watch. Really enjoyed, maybe because In some extent I reviewed my own story! 😊 This was an excellent insight and still learned something I think. I took a lot of inspiration from your work, photos and videos. Well done and thank you! 😉
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us
Seeing the development in your images and style across your life like this was a real learning experience. Thanks.
It's really neat to see the 'before' vs the 'after' and see the changes and evolutions! Really inspirational.
Nigel, thank you - this was such a valuable video.
Great video and it was fantastic to see your evolution ! Congrats
Nigel.....thank you for sharing........awesomeness at its best Friend.
I think the one way people can really improve their photography is just by shooting. I ran into the same brick wall myself when starting out where I would read all I couild about photography, the techniques, the genres, and even followed on social media, famous photographers online but I realized after a while that while I had the technical skills down and could calculate equivalent exposures for example, I needed to get out and shoot. And I think that's where the "good/great" photographers improve and everyone else sort of gets stuck... they know the technical, now they need to go and apply it and challenge themselves. Even if you're new, I'd say go out and shoot. Once you have basic exposure theory down, and even before you learn about composition -- just shooting will help you improve because you'll learn and develop as you go, as I feel photography is one of those things that you learn by doing, once you have the foundation (ie. basic exposure theory) mastered. Composition will push you even further too, but you have to get out and shoot first, and continue to shoot, learning from your mistakes and trying new things. You can only do so much by just reading and following others on social media and videos.
I would even go as far as forget about the gear, or more rather, the brand or how old your gear is. As long as you have a camera that's maybe made within the past 10 years, and a set of lenses (primes or the trinity of lenses or something similar) that's all you need. The improvement will be made through experience, and whether you're shooting with a 10 year old kit or a brand new kit, the same photography principles still apply. So "forget" about the gear and focus on your shooting. Over time you will find that you need to add or remove pieces of gear from your kit, but that's part of the learning process too. Figuring out what you need for the types of photos you want to make, but you won't figure this out unless you go out and shoot.
Thanks Nigel, this video was great. 🙏
Love this, very relatable!
This is great Nige, so good to see your journey, Iv pretty much covered the same steps myself except the nirvana stage towards the end! This gives me faith and hope in my own journey, thanks very much 👊
This current situation has at least provided me with opportunity to go through the hard drives and look at and reprocess a range of photos I've taken over the years. My process then compared to now has noticeably changed. Enjoying the trips down memory lane too. Good to see your journey through photography also Nigel.
That's the most informative video ever. I needed this one, thank you
Very inspirational Nigel - thanks.
That was a great video. Thanks for the undertone of patience which is something I struggle with regarding my photography. I am also a dad with two kids and struggle to get out to do landscapes. It was somewhere reassuring to see you have been through the same challenges. I learnt allot from this!
I enjoyed watching your progression as a photographer Nigel.... tks mate
Another great video, as always
amazing as always.
Really appreciate this video - as well as many others of yours! It's really helping me look with a more disciplined perspective now, after so many years of dabbling in photography.
You journey thru you photos are an amazing one... Thank you for all your insights... such a journey it is... have a fantastic and safe week:))))
Really good. Hits home to me and my photography journey.
Nigel, thanks for a really good post!
Nice Nigel, appreciated to hear about your photography story. Very Interesting.
Awesome! Love your images!!!
This is immensly helpful for me as a starting photographer thank you Nigell, all the best.
Thanks Nigel,
I thought I would share a couple areas over the years that has made a difference for me, and to see overlap or if anyone can benefits from my2 cents:
To have enough light on the foreground (90% of the time).
Getting color balance right for each scene - often when a shot has a great composition, but it just does not look right on the screen, the colors are off.
To open up scenes. Particularly in Capture One when lens falloff is not automatically corrected, the first thing I do is bring it to 100%. This then changes the overall balance in the scene. I have found that for landscape, most of the time I want an open look from no vignetting.
A couple times I focused on the same scene like every day for a month. Different moods, times of day, light. My purpose was not to try to get the best shot ever (although of course that is always nice), rather to really understand the nature of light, color, contrast, softness, hardness, hand-held, tripod, etc. When I first did this, my photography jumped to another level. It brings cognition. It is like riding horses, in the beginning we work to get everything right, and then on a long trail ride in the mountains where you are beyond sore, you have to relax and let the rhythm and connection take the lead. That is when you become a good rider. I believe the same in photography, where the connection takes the lead, and you intuit the lens choices, the moments, the composition that is natural for the connection, and the abilities become second nature to make it so.
Doing my own printing (with pigment inks and a good assortment of papers on hand) has really improved my photography. On screen, because we can move so easily from one picture to the next, an image can look great for the short time we are viewing it. But on a print, we sometimes look at it for like an hour, absorbed in it. We both see its beauty and nuance over the details to bring it to perfection. A shot that stands well in print, is a composition, lighting, texture that can endure.
Really enjoying all your videos and tutorials, Nigel. I've been a new subscriber since finding your channel just after lockdown. Thanks for the effort you put in and for sharing your knowledge.
Excellent video! Thank you for sharing this inspiring story of self-improvement! Can't see the end of this lockdown to get back to take photos ...
Enjoy your photography path from the beginning. I have only been an amateur photographer since 2017 but can relate with my early quality and the progress I have made up to now. I have learned from your TH-cam videos along with those from Thomas Heaton, Mads Peter Iverson, Mark Denney, Simon Baxter and others. Of course, I learn the most from "playing" with the camera and LR/PS. Thanks for all your help. I enjoy your videos very much and look forward to a new each Sunday.
Great video, a lot of inspiration. Thanks 🙏
I always enjoy your videos, keep up the great content. Right now I feel like I am in a photography slump. I have only been taking pictures since Christmas of 2015, but I feel like my progression has almost stalled. I want to improve, so I keep studying others work, watching videos to get ideas to try. You are an inspiration for me.
Thank you another video that will help me up my game, pleasure watching you as always
Great video. That Yosemite shot is really amazing.
Enjoyed listening to your journey. Interesting tip about using a long lens. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by large landscapes and not sure where to focus. Thank you!
Thank you for this Nigel. Combined with a local gallery’s weekly subject-specific contest, this is forcing me to take a longer view of my work. I can see several avenues for improvement - very exciting!
Love the early B&W shots, and the "exif book" ;)! It's great to see the path you went through to have the skills and portfolio you do now. Thanks for reminding about Vistas, I was planning to pre-order it and always got distracted; this time I managed to finalize the purchase. Can't wait for May now :D
Another great vlog Nigel. I loved your photographic journey of discovery, some beautiful shots in there. Some great tips and advice. I’m slowly learning from the likes of yourself and other vloggers and magazines. There were a few things in there that I had not considered. Shooting the scene for example, now I understand. Great bit of gold dust. You lived in California, now the baseball cap makes sense, mystery solved, great video.
Really helpful and inspirational for us amateurs that are still early in that journey. Thanks!!
Nigel, your authenticity is one of your greatest strengths. Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Very helpful. Some of my current landscapes look like your old ones, so I know there is hope!
Thanks so much!
Great discussion .. and great photos of course
Read some of the reviews, people can be so cruel. I’ve learned a lot from your videos, keep them coming. Good job Nigel.
Nice reflection Nigel. Lots of points ring true here too. Successes on film were few and far between and I don't understand why people would want to go back to those days when the learning curve was so long, and so so expensive. Looking forward to seeing what images have been put in for the competition. Hope you raise lots more!
Really enjoyed this! Fantastic to see your journey. I put out a video this week about my first year in photography and all about beginners photography so it's a great time for reflection.
What a fascinating insight into your photographic journey, amazing what people go through for their art, glad you came out the other end as you did. 😎
Wow. I have followed you for some time now and I learn much from you. But, this video is especially meaningful to me. As you share self-critique of photo images of the past, you really did a nice job of explaining the whys and wherefores of what you saw then and how you would do it differently now. For instance, I could understand your struggle with seeing in color but thinking in B&W and trying to figure out why the color image disappointed. I am there right now! Composition and contrast, too. I think it's that you are being candid with insight into your thought process then vs now more than a 'dry' offering of technical instruction. It's like, we're sitting across the table and 'Yes, you're answering questions I didn't know how to ask', if you know what I'm trying to say here. Thanks Nigel!