Improving

Pattern 1: evolve from the technical “how” to the artistic/storytelling “why” coexisting every shot.

1. Split off the technical fundamentals: pin self-directed studies for exposure triangle, focus basics, etc. to do in VRC on the Discord channel. Getting someone to see when and how a VRCLens-like system solves actual problems virtual photographers face?
   • Could do it as a “photography newbie” event too.
   • But bear in mind the meaning of the “sharpness is a bourgeois concept” quote, ha
2. To focus on the art side:
   • Ask what you want to convey (e.g. an emotion/story), then
   • Ask how to realize it through the elements of composition, e.g. “What's [not] in the scene? Where are the lights to make the focus pop? How to pose the subject? What point of view will capture what I want from it?”
3. Review your results afterward + those of others: reinforce what works, fix what doesn’t!
   • Remember as hobbyists we aim to be “good” in our own eyes first and foremost

Pattern 2: improve by checking out works by other photographers

• Survey a diverse range to zero in on what you really like or don’t like – and esp. Why
  • Photo books, paintings, films, etc. – dissect their methods and values vs. yours!
  • Trace the lines, note shadows/angles, lens choice, why they include/exclude bits.
  • Can also look into an overview class/workshop with a diverse set of assignments
  • Find what you’re passionate about, everything else falls into place from there. For example it isn’t as helpful to be told “get this gear” vs. loving hiking, having the motivation to get up early, and then realize in looking at your landscape shots vs. others that you’d benefit from a wider lens or tripod or polarizer filter or whatever.
• Study pros but also people near your level, can be easier to see strengths/flaws in latter!
• Train your ability to articulate your critique of other images, what you like/dislike and why
  • Then revisit your own shots after a period of time to self-apply those critique skills
• Try to match an existing photo, reverse-engineering how it was shot

Conclusions on research into feedback/improving turned into action items, beyond photowalks:

1. No critique or advice is sacred / Take everything with a grain of salt. Example:
   1. Take > Make: Focus on capturing genuine moments over getting perfect pictures.
   2. Make > Take: Focus on having time to compose the shot vs. snapping it in a rush.
   3. Or someone who believed that the rule of thirds is BS!

2. Dropping the experience labels. I saw someone say they took 1000s of photos in a year, but only 2-3 were “good” and that they’d be “successful” if it went up to 1 a week… woof. Instead, I think I like this idea of letting the work speak a bit better, at least personally!

3. Asking for feedback: not “do you like this?” but e.g. “what could make it scarier?” [src]

   1. What narrowing adjectives to use? → per this stuff, land on ~3 values to convey!

   2. Or as one r/photography poster said it: “I belong to a photo club where we have a weekly salon meeting. We get together and discuss about our images. This image went through 5 revisions before I am finally happy with where it is. By describing what my vision with the image is and then getting critiques as to where I am in getting that vision across helps me to make the image better."

   3. Consider an education night or recurring challenges (doesn’t even have to be a contest). In particular, a show-and-tell of “I spent a weekend focused on X” can help you and them!

   4. Discover and share whose works click with you for inspiration

   5. “Talking about images, even non art photos, is a good way to advance your craft”

   6. One person’s progression I found notable: online forums → free YouTube communities + content → paid online workshop paid offline workshop → independent photobook studies

• Bear in mind all constructive feedback begins and ends as a personal take.
• I'll take feedback from community hobbyists over social media randoms though.
• Feedback fallback: I appreciate x, I think y is worth improving, I encourage z about the work.
  • Shoot for a sentence or less per beat.
  • Just try to be specific in your xyz > abstract or vague!
• We'd appreciate favoring those least-received first!
  • Old approach for record: give feedback to anyone + at least 1 outside your skill level.

For Hosts

• Bear in mind most are too busy to give feedback.
• Send a call for photowalk submissions AFTER the event so everyone sees it, subthread and parent.
• Lift embargo on feedback after there's been a day-ish to submit.
• Use host's photos to illustrate the process requesting/getting feedback.
• Reward people giving feedback by prioritizing them to receive feedback, to incentivize more giving.

Include...

• Personal thought process: why you took and chose this photo the way you did? Name one aspect you like about it, or would tweak if you could retake it?

• Personal goals and values: what's one thing you'd hope to learn in welcoming cc on this particular photo beyond "is it good?" (Because we all encourage one another to continue taking photos! This is asking more what matters to us individually in what we decide to do!)

• src for more: https://joeedelman.com/constructive-criticism

Specific event ideas

Photo Review

For the photowalk, if a person has agreed to it; then could open the floor

Gallery world visits

e.g. the Re:Collection series

Challenges/Projects

• “There are some good ones that are weekend projects, walks you through the concept and process of achieving results.”
• “You’ll start to look at your photos and think about why or why not a shot works."
• Example project curriculum: composition assignment on landscape → one on perspective → on street photography (explaining different subtypes) → lighting assignment in still life/studio/product work → portraiture. The idea is to expose folks to as many as they may then know what to go + do more of.
• Splitting specific projects/challenges/exercises to its own section

Photo studios

Specific worlds named as such for this purpose, or just bringing an avatar with adjustable lighting systems to have folks use.

vrclist.com/world/54127

vrclist.com/world/357821

Tricky worlds

• EDEN's caves
• Sournetic's high-blooms
• DrMorro's warped vistas
• 6G Experience madness
• Vket, other expo worlds

Topic show-and-tell

volunteers or me doing R&D deep dive !ted talks

Todo

Subreddits

r/photography
r/photocritique
r/itookapicture
r/askphotography
r/begging_photography
r/photoclass20## (added per year, cf. r-photoclass.com)

/r/photography/comments/16d5az/what_is_something_you_wish_you_were_told_as_a/

/r/photography/comments/56w0l5/official_what_is_something_you_wish_you_were_told/

/r/photography/comments/csk4cw/what_do_you_wish_you_knew_when_you_were_first/

Subgenres / Movements

Historically, some see photography as reproducing what we see vs. as altering that reality to convey your interpretation of it (“making the scene a reflection of who you are and how you felt”)

“Initially shot more portraits and landscapes. Now I do more modern art, conceptual stuff”

“From photography history and studying the cultures around the subject.” (my Half-Price buys!)

“Use landscape photography to inform your street photography, use portrait photography to inform your event photography. (Study classical art too, while you're at it.)”

For landscapes, don’t forget to take in the experience’s views and beauty around you too!

For portraits, don’t forget to help people relax and have confidence when in front of the camera!

Blogs

• Ming Thein
• Digital Photography School and Picture Correct

Books

• r/photography/wiki/recommendations/
• Henry Carroll's "Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs"
• David duChemin finding vision
• "read photography magazines until they start to repeat themselves"
• Northrup's "Stunning Digital Photography"
• Kodak books from library
• Life Library of Photography: The camera
• Herbert Keppler’s The Honeywell Pentax Way
• Judith Hacking’s Photography the Whole Story

YouTubers

• Peter McKinnon the most
• B&H free seminars
• Mike Browne
• PhotoExposed
• VistaClues
• adoramaTV
• JaredPolin
• DigitalRevCom
• steeletraining
• Practical Photography
• Thomas Heaton
• The Photographic Eye

-- but vs. this critique: “What I've noticed from a lot of people who learn through YouTube is that they're missing some of the foundational stuff that you get in the first photography class or the early parts of a comprehensive book. I had a student come for a portrait lesson and he had a prism to add cool effects to his shots from a YouTube tutorial, but he had no idea that his camera had different focus modes or how to meter for specific parts of a frame. None of this is to say that there aren't amazing photographers who learned by watching YouTube videos, but I definitely recommend trying to learn from the ground up and take some time with the very basic aspects of photography before jumping into YouTube tutorials about specific techniques. That way, when the technique doesn't work the way you expect it to, you know why and how to fix it. I think it's also worth being aware of how many YouTube tutorials come from trends or just try to rebrand common techniques for the sake of marketing. I had a student try to tell me about the "Brenizer Technique" as if multi-shot panoramas to simulate a wide lens with a super-wide aperture were something he invented and not something people had already been doing forever back to the film days.”

Courses

(need to vet all still)

Udemy

LinkedIn Learning (prev. Lynda.com)

Creative Live

petapixel.com/2014/07/03/best-free-online-photography-courses-tutorials/

morguefile.com/classroom/

Resources

📸 Projects, Challenges, Exercises

A. https://members.kelbyone.com/course/

2. Lightstalking: Locked Zoom, Mundane/Ugly Subjects, Alphabet, Water, Low/Special Lighting, Monochrome,

3. 30-day Breakdown: natural framing, still life, 3-shot essay, rule thirds, Starburst (vrcl), small f-stop (vrcl), connection (?), negative space, depth, fill the frame, landscape, symmetry, low light, backlighting, candid, leading lines, mood, silhouette, Self-portrait, reflection, bokeh, Monochrome, food, dramatic light,  indoor natural light, portrait, street, minimal, patterns. (Also todo: how others overcome creative fatigue in pic-a-year challenges?)

6. Canva: Strangers, Gear limit, Self-portrait, Polaroid, Essay, Zine, Pinhole, 1-Subject, Joiners, GIFs, Cinemagraphs

+. 58's story: require participants to hold off on taking photos until after a time limit (maybe helper shader message).

+. Many at bottom: 3-shot photo essay, no processing or must-have processing, composition-aspect subfocuses, shoot street portraits with strangers until you get 5 no's as a reverse-psychology goal, swap your usual photography subgenre. Sum up the season, the week, or the month in an image. Focus on reflections. Pick 3-5 shots from archives you hadn't looked at for potential curation before. Capture an idea or an emotion, e.g. silence. "Grateful photography" project to capture moments, things, people, places you appreciate! "Day in the Life of" photography all day. Send a letter with a single person focus accompanied by a photo for it. "100 paces" challenge of taking a photo, then walking away 100 steps to take another, repeat 4-6 times.

📸 Projects, Challenges, Exercises

• Wherever photo essay ends up:

  1. That book I have

  2. Kuleshov effect from cinematography also true in photography

• Wherever boring challenge ends up:

  1. Work with boring subjects can be made to look amazing. Angles, lighting, composition… Looking at other photos to dissect how and why they were taken really helps in finding more options.

  2. Wherever photo essay ends up:

     1. That book I have

     2. Kuleshov effect from cinematography also true in photography

  3. Wherever boring challenge ends up:

     1. Work with boring subjects can be made to look amazing. Angles, lighting, composition… Looking at other photos to dissect how and why they were taken really helps in finding more options.

📸 Projects, Challenges, Exercises

📸 Projects, Challenges, Exercises

• WIP condensing gdoc

on Composition

• Refresher: here

  • Frame-filling: with subject in portraits, or background patterns

  • Headroom, Third-safe Intersections, Framing/Leading

  • Visual Hierarchy for Points of Interest (gaze guiding)

  • Uncluttering background (via shallow focus, a dummy card-back)

  • Symmetry v. Asymmetry, Depth

  • Break them - e.g. this against rule of thirds or this

• (41b) Balance colors that complement the subject.

• (48) "Composition and perspective have to be considered before you press the shutter, because you can't fix these in post. Move yourself around to change your perspective - side to side, up or down, closer or further. Pay attention to the background - some would even say START with the background and then find your subject, foreground, composition, etc." -- "I agree. I have now gotten to the point of: 1 find interesting subject and light 2 look at background and see if it's simple or interesting or if I can reposition to make it better 3 if so take it quick before it changes, if not walk away"

on Lighting

1. Guru: strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

2. (29+86) Why study exposure 🔺️ settings: "Manipulating the quality of light, source and direction of light, intensity, color temperature (as well as for B&W) all will help you achieve the aesthetic [emotion, or mood] you are trying to create." – Don't just say it's important or to chase it; say to use it! Practice in different conditions!

3. (55) "I realized that not everything in the frame has to be well lit. Not lifting the shadows gets me a more dramatic mood, and also adds mystery." //Strobist page examples!

4. (94) "Once you learn the lighting part, your photographs start to look more  [""professional"", i.e.] lively and have 3-d like depth which remarkably differentiates your photographs from others."

5. (94) Learning about what good flash use gives insight into non-flash shots too!

6. (99) Lighting, re: how to light + pose, <https://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/8w83th/comment/e1thvev/> and thread <https://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/8w83th/comment/e1thh7f/> and <https://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/8w83th/comment/e1typ1j/> + [?] ||"All light is not created equal. For my work, slanting light works the best, so I'm simply not bothering to shoot during the height of the day."|| + <https://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/8w83th/comment/e1tnobb/> +||"1) Recognising great light, good light, normal light, and terrible light. 2) Being able to shoot in any of the above types of light, whereas when I was starting out I assumed that "blue sky and sun" meant "good light" and anything else meant "put the camera away""|| + ||"two types of photography natural no artificial lights. Or using lights simulating sources of light key, fill and catch etc The key to photography is knowing your camera to the T and using/ shaping light to capture what you want. Also learn how to use Filters properly and do research on color theory. Last thing your camera lens is greatly affects your picture in many ways look into why."

on Editing, or my mindset trying it

• Only worry about it after taking the photos–not during!

• A “style” should amount to more than just your Lightroom settings.

• Sometimes a shot just needs to be scrapped, not “saved” with overediting.

• (52) Can improve ["most"?] photos: "Recovering shadow details and correcting white balance are common examples of that you can do in post editing. Most cameras default to JPEG, so teaching newbies how to switch to RAW and take advantage of it is a good idea. However, there’s no such thing as right or wrong in art, and if you like what you have taken there’s absolutely no reason why you must do further editing. But people get too caught up by the basic rules and stubbornly insist that only photos that follow the rules are good photos."

• (57) It is a craft in itself: "Editing with intention. Not just pushing sliders back and forth to see what looks good. Looking at the raw, having a plan, executing the plan." + (59) "Editing is one aspect. For years I struggled with editing my raw files. I made several attempts and everytime I moved a slider it looked worse than before. About a year ago I started to watch lots of editing tutorials and finally it started to work out for me. Not saying I'm any good at it but it gets better.”

• (64) Can start simpler: about editing, I still haven't figured out or used photoshop Or lightroom, I just use mobile apps and do a lot of trial and error and find the best looking one. //Echo's!

Misc.

• Finding Style: https://ayearwithmycamera.com/blog/what-is-photographic-style-and-how-to-find-yours
• ""Professional"": https://improvephotography.com/35020/how-to-make-a-photo-look-professional/
• That old series I never got all the way through: https://improvephotography.com/category/beginning-photography-tips/
• I personally disagree re: “only show your best 10%,” but I’m a hobbyist, the photographer who I read that from might not be?