Today I thought of writing a little insight about improving your own work. Maybe you want to improve your photography as well but wondering what needs to be done as the first step. Maybe you think of investing in major schools or buy a camera which will cost you a fortune. But from my own experience I set those goals to a later date. Read along and see why.When I was shooting here and there for fun using a very limited featured digital camera which I bought for a cheap rate from the corner Chinese gadget shop all I wanted to do was shoot as much as I can. I had no idea what I'm gonna shoot or was completely stoned and energized by anything which I though suits a second glimpse. So with that in mind I went on clicking till my batteries run out. And most of those shots when I checked on the pc was blurry, grainy, shacked or even blank beyond recognition. But I didn’t stop. Because digital technology made me try over and over on the same thing without an extra cost.
With time I realized that if I need a photograph to be different then I should look at things in a different manner. The equipment for example. Does my equipment fits what I want do was my first question. And then does my knowledge sufficient for what I want to do. Do I need to dig on some papers or magazine or internet to find more great photos or should I dig more to find articles on how to make good photos. And then I thought if the amount of travelling I do which puts me in a photo worthy situations are enough. So I started to work on these points one by one.
First I bought a small yet a bit sophisticated camera. Which actually didn’t cost me much because I was not dreaming of owning the world’s best DSLR at that time. (Even now I don’t) Just a point and shoot camera with all settings automatic which just gave me enough freedom to learn composition and focus than worrying about ISO,exposure, apature,lenses blah blah. At that time I even didn’t knew why people carry big black cameras around with silly looking huge lenses when such lovely small camera miracles are readily available. Well that’s how I saw things.
And soon I realized that digital photography opens the doors for a wonderful opportunity called POST PROCESSING. I read several articles on basic photo editing. Thanks to my keen enthusiasm in graphics and art I was already a bit fluent in using Adobe Photoshop and other image editing software’s. So I thought that I should learn this in parallel to taking photos because I knew its where the world is heading and its where the edge is. So I bought some self learning adobe dvd’s and spend long hours in front of the computer doing tutorials. Soon I learned the basics and then a bit more than the basics which made me combine my talent in photography and the talents in imagination and art together to create.
In the mean time I subscribed for several photography magazines and bought one or two good books about basics in photography. There are many good books out there which will teach you the basics and that’s all you need to know. Believe me when I say it. Books cannot teach you to create magical, jaw dropping photographs. That you have to do and learn for yourself.
While all these happening I worked on the other few aspects as well. Which was travelling to places with likeminded people so that I get more opportunities to explore more on techniques and spend more time shooting. And I went on upgrading my camera to a semi SLR which is still not a highly technical gadget but gave me a bit more space to play with shutter speed, white balance , iso and aperture since I have already learnt the basics of composing and focusing via my point and shoot small camera.
And the other important thing I did was sharing my work with others who will give me honest critics and appreciate what I try to achieve. This I did via creating my own PowerPoint presentations and sending them via email, uploading on internet etc. I did this knowing that some of my work can be used by others for various reasons without my consent but art is much better pirated than not seeing at all. Soon I started to get feedback from around the planet and some told me stuff to improve my work immensely. There is nothing that encourage you than a word of appreciation from someone else.
After doing all these as time went by I invested on an SLR. By the time I bought the SLR I knew most of the end to end image processing techniques and post processing methods + a great deal about on site photography that helped me to get the optimum use of the wonderful SLR equipment. From what I remember it took me a span of 6-7 years to shoot via an SLR from my basic point and shoot camera. And I don’t regret that time spent because I had lot to learn and even I had a SLR I would have used it on the auto mode just like a small cheap digi cam.
Even to this date I don’t think I have a good collection which is suitable to be printed and exhibited where for people to spend time and money and come and look at. That’s the experience you get by doing what you do consistently and by not trying to jump when the path is set to walk. I always look for faults in my photos. Still I do. Because more than anyone else I know what my lapses are and I can work to eliminate them.
The road in front of me is of much length than the few steps which I have already travelled. But I travel it one day at a time. For everyone who loves the art of photography .. Keep shooting and good luck!!
All photographs belongs to Priyantha Bandara.
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