Last Updated on 10/12/2017 by Chris Gampat
Screenshot image from the video by Nico Mojica
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re still figuring your way around the wonderful yet perplexing world of photography. After laboring through the search results of “best camera for photography beginners,” next comes yet another important question: How do you get better at photography? Nico Mojica of CamCrunch shared with us his easy photography tips for beginners, which he also wished he learned about when he was still starting out.
Master Your Tools
It doesn’t matter if you decide to start your photography adventure with a film camera, your smartphone, or a top of the line DSLR. Nico echoes what many experts have done to get to their skill level. Know your camera well enough that you’re aware of its capabilities, and its controls become second nature to you. This will make it easier for you to use your equipment to achieve the style or vision that you want.
Learn From the Masters (And Your Peers)
Fortunately for today’s generation of creatives, we have many photographers and artists from the past to look up to and learn from. Nico suggests taking a closer look at the works of the master photographers who have made a name for themselves in a specific genre or style. For example, learn from Richard Avedon if you’re into portraits, Bruce Gilden for street photography, and Dorothea Lange for documentary photography. There’s also always something you can learn from your peers, ideally those just one or two steps ahead of you.
Learn to See Light
Much of effective photography is playing with light, so Nico’s tip to learn how to make use of light is spot on. It affects not only your exposure, but also your composition and the overall mood of your photos. To start, it can be experimenting with the time of the day you shoot, the type of lighting that is available to you, or even the city lights when you’re shooting at night.
Learn The Rules (And How to Break Them)
This is something we hear a lot, but at the risk of sounding cliché, rules are necessary because they serve as foundations of your craft. When you’ve learned them, it will be easier to experiment and “break” them so you can create your own style and use what works for you.
Shoot a Lot
Again, here’s another cliché that always works: practice makes perfect, and shooting a lot is a form of practice. As Nico pointed out, shooting a lot means applying what you’ve learned from your research, and being purposeful with your shots as opposed to being shutter-happy.
Share Your Work
Nico believes that photography is meant to be shared, and I’m sure he shares this stand with many other photographers. It means allowing other people to appreciate and interact with your photos, which in turn allows you to get fresh perspectives about your work and help you improve further in the process.
Always Have Fun With Photography
Last but not the least, always have fun. Need we say more?
If you found these easy photography tips helpful, Nico has a bunch of other photography videos for beginners on his CamCrunch YouTube channel.