Never stop learning. No matter how good you think you are will never know everything.
I have spent years learning my craft but it has never stopped me from a desire to learn more.
I think it is because photography is both an art and a science and, as such, presents many questions about technique and style that fascinate me and feeds my passion for this incredible medium.
 |
| Dylife Gorge, Powys. ©Joe Purches All rights reserved |
The internet is a fabulous resource for the photographer, both amateur and professional, and whatever you want to know, its out there somewhere. But having spent more hours than I care to recall trawling the web for techniques and tutorials there are still some techniques that have remained elusive.
There are hundreds of individuals who create YouTube movies explaining methods, both in camera and in post production, on how to get amazing results. And these tutorials range from the completely brilliant to the total shite!
As and when I find really good ones I'll ensure to put the links on my blog.
Although I don't condone the replication of styles it is always interesting to ascertain how a particular photographic artist has managed to undertake a certain style.
Lets take the amazing work by
Dave Hill and
Andrzej Dragan. Both create the most incredible body of work, and both have hundreds of people attempting to explain the way they do it, to varying degrees of success. The reality is you will never be able to fully replicate their work, and why should you? Its their style, not yours. But it is a great way of creating your own style and getting artistic inspiration. If you can understand the processes by which these masters of Photoshop arrive at their finished work then this will help steer you towards generating your own individual style.
Even tutorials by one of the great teachers of photography
Scott Kelby doesn't even come close to matching Dave Hills work and there are also some mediocre individuals who's tutorials are laughable in there aspiration.
The reality is if you do want to emulate someones style you have to start with a bloody good image. This has to be a professional quality image taken with careful planning and the best equipment. An image that would probably cost loads in time, if not in money.
Going back to Dave Hill again his images are created with a big budget shoot, with the best equipment and many assistants. Almost like he is shooting a movie.
With money, help, time and patience, and not forgetting access to great studios or locations, the raw image is going to be fantastic which will be reflected in the final piece.
My advice is to study peoples work, not copy it. Sure there will be some cross-over. There is in all art. But if you truly understand how a photograph works then you can see how the light is, how the contrast is and how the composition is.
