As photographers in the modern age, we’re exposed to a lot of digital learning resources. While the only resources available in the past were books and magazines, modern platforms like YouTube, Flickr, and 500px have allowed photographers to teach, learn, and interact with each other. Commercial and fine art photographer Chrissie White who learned a great deal of her photography from free, online resources shares some of her key tips for aspiring photographers and discusses what it means to be a photographer in the digital age:
Try New Things
Never let your skills stagnate. Avoiding new things is a dangerous sign. As an artist, you may fear failure and that will keep you from trying new things. Keep on trying until you get the result that you desire. Sometimes you can surpass your own expectations and end up getting a masterpiece.
“If you never fail, you will never learn new things.”
Use What You Have
Don’t focus too much on what you have or don’t have. Instead, make the best use of what’s with you. Keep on photographing with what you have and learn to master your gear.
“The camera is just a tool and it’s not a master. Learn what your tools can do for you and use them to your best advantage.”
If you don’t have professional lighting equipment, learn how to use the light you have around your house or even natural light as an alternative. Speed lights can do the trick if expensive lighting is out of your budget. When out in the wilderness, even your car’s headlights can do wonders.
Keep Your Eyes Open
Always be aware of your surroundings and the changes that are happening around you. Notice how the lighting is changing the mood of the environment. Keep an eye out for interesting compositions and have a picture in your mind about how you can make the best of it.
“As a photographer, you get used to seeing the world in a way that other people don’t.”
Show Your Work
Social media these days can really work for you as long as you’re active. If you feel that your work is good, have the courage to approach brands online and set up a meeting. Face to face interaction is crucial. Or send them a creative promotional card.
“If you make something that is beautifully printed, someone’s more likely to hold on to it and pin it up above their desk or their office.”
As an artist, it is quintessential that you put your work out there and expose yourself to the world. It is only when others see your work and like it that they will want to work with you.
These are really some awesome tips from a digital native. Do you believe that the digital age has helped in mainstreaming photography?
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Digital age has “mainstreamed” the variety of photography that camera marketers assume everyone takes. It’s been disasterous to those who haven’t aimed at “mainstream” subjects.I learned photography from a photojournalistic perspective, an got irritated when my “snapshots” were eliminated for not cropping out things I couldn’t avoid getting in-frame (I considered a “snapshot” to be a mostly-unaltered print of the negative–editing was for enlargements). I used to be fairly competitive at my county fair, back when 95% of photos were film. Now that it’s 99% digital, I’m constantly getting eliminated because I don’t have the latest-and-greatest editing software, or have too much “noise” in an image I have to shoot at 1600 ASA just to get. I used to shoot infrared–for a film SLR, that’s just an IR filter and a slight shift in focus–but I gave up because shooting digital IR pretty much requires a dedicated IR camera body. I’ve been forced to post-process almost everything I shoot because of the expectations of “digital natives”–a complete 180 from what I was drawn to about photography in the first place. My photography has changed from the kind of photography I want to take to the kind of photography digital is good at.