This category includes articles about the art of photography. By that I mean moving away from simple technique towards the process of making a good photograph. The choices that the experienced photographer makes both on location and back in the studio.
Of all the essential photography skills you should learn, composition is probably the most important, swiftly followed by narrative. In this article I’m going to try to convey how this works in real life and why it is not to be confused with narrative. Composition and Narrative When you first pick up a camera, having…
Happy New Year! Today I’m looking at why shooting familiar locations is so difficult and how leaving can open your eyes. There’s something mysterious about leaving that refreshes our view of a location. I’ve been in the UK for the New Year and visited Brighton, where I lived for a few years and found myself…
Why A Complete Workflow for Photography? As some of you will know, I’ve been busy producing videos for YouTube, describing in detail how to use DxO PhotoLab 7. One of the takeaways was you should create a workflow that is repeatable, that will take you through the editing process irrespective of what software you are…
In this post I’m going to discuss how to find new views of honeypot locations, and how a byproduct of doing this will enhance your photography and even attract more views. Honeypot Locations Honeypot locations draw photographers, tourists and day-trippers like flies to the proverbial honeypot. There are reasons to try that much harder in…
A Shared Visual Language The premise of this article is that understanding and absorbing visual patterns will help you to share a common visual language and take better photographs. Let me explain. When I was at film school, I was frustrated by what I perceived to be the relegation of technical skills in favour of…
Composition in Photography is the most valuable skill we can acquire. And one that I touched on in my previous article How to Develop a Photographic Eye and in more detail in How to Take Better Photographs using a Shared Visual Language. But the question of how to approach composition is often misunderstood. In forums…
For some people, the idea of street photography is a trigger for excruciating self consciousness and massive anxiety. Indeed, street photography for introverts can be as painful as a trip to the dentist. Personally, I’m more afraid of dentists than I am of people, but approaching strangers is definitely out of my comfort zone. The…
This post attempts to draw some strings together and define what is meant and what I mean by the Art of Photography. A difficult task as I am ambivalent myself about self styled Fine Art Photography and especially the contorted artistic statements made by so many practitioners. Spurred on by having been recently invited to…