Professional photographer Federico Alegria has put together a great list of tips over at Light Stalking.
Following these tips you will improve your photography skills and stay motivated. Trying out new techniques or challenges is very inspiring, and that’s exactly what you need to succeed in this business.
Shoot from the hip
For people who love street photography (like me), you need to start practicing shooting from the hip to achieve better-looking images. Using this stealthy technique, you’ll be able to get many great images.
People’s true nature will be captured by your cameras when you shoot from the hip. This is not easy, and you need to practice a lot. Since you need to know your focal lengths almost by memory, your wrists will essentially be your eyes, so you need to know how to aim – and again, this is a matter of practice. Another great trick is to use cameras with flippable screens.
Create a “favorite photographers” list
Create a list of favorite photographers. It can include great masters or modern great photographers. Study their images, read about them, and make these photographers your great source of inspiration.
Plan
Even if you’re a street photographer or a portrait photographer, you should always put a lot of thinking into the planning of your images. Plan your routes, plan the message you want to achieve in relation to a particular situation in your city.
Planning should always be a big part of your images. The more you conceptualize your images, the better the results you’ll achieve.
Challenge yourself
Challenge yourself with personal assignments. Challenge yourself to only shoot with film for a month, challenge yourself in the hardest way you can manage. With few resources, you can achieve amazing images.
If you don’t believe me, please check out the work of Alexey Titarenko. He created amazing images during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991-1992 using very limited resources.
Embrace your backyard
You don’t need to travel to legendary locations in order to achieve the images you’ll be proud of. Your hometown has an enormous potential, explore it, capture it, and embrace your backyard. Juice it out, believe me, there are infinite stories cooking at your block. Traveling is beautiful, but is not the only way of capturing great images.
Watch movies
Learn to see movies through a cinematographer’s eyes. Think about the points of view, the angles, the focus, the light and the intended messages behind particular scenes. I’m pretty sure that Wes Anderson’s movies would be completely different without the cinematography of Robert Yeoman.
Just imagine Birdman or The Revenant without that wicked and ingenious cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki. Cinematography is a great source of inspiration and photographic knowledge.
Get even more tips over at Light Stalking.
Source: Light Stalking
