Quickest way to improve your photos?

[kevinkt]

Just thought I'd start a discussion on what you think is the quickest way to improve your photos. Let's share and bounce off ideas from each other.

My idea - photography meetups - you get to learn from other photographers, shoot talented models, and gain a lot of insights from better photographers.

 

[SCraig]

That's simple: Get out and shoot. Look at what your mistakes were and learn from them.

 

[KmH]

Photography is about capturing light.

So, the quickest way to improve your photos is to learn about photographic lighting.

 

[MLeeK]

Learn about composition. Again. No matter how experienced you are you can ALWAYS benefit from a new study of composition.

 

[Fujito]

KmH is right. Once I began doing off camera flash my pictures improved so much.

 

[danielsmith4213]

Study famous photographers and try to learn how they use light

 

[spacefuzz]

I do landscape photography so I bought one of Elizabeth Carmels books and drew all over her photo's to look at her compositional elements, focus, colors, filters, etc. Very informative to reverse engineer how she got her nicest shots.

 

[bazooka]

Keep it simple (stupid)!

 

[shootermcgavin]

I run it through this magical photo improving machine called photoshop. I don't have a lot of film shooting experience, but the ability digital gives you over film is amazing something I never imagined. Although if you put whip cream on dog sh]t it will still look like crap.

 

[Derrel]

Buy one of those antiquated paper and cardboard things called "photography books", and read it. Doesn't really matter what decade it was published. Goodwill has some for $1.99 to $3.99. After taking the "book" home, then it must actually be "read". It does not really matter what type of "photography book" it is. The important thing is to expose one's mind to new ideas that were considered worthy of being published.

 

[gsgary]

A quick way to improve some i have seen on here would be Right Click Delete

 

[Mike_E]

Ever hear, "every picture tells a story"?

Know what your subject is, want you want it to say and remember that background is just as important to your subject as it is to a character in a work of fiction.

 

[andrewleephoto]

Spend some time on flickr looking at other peoples' pictures. Good source of inspiration I guess.

 

[Futurelight]

Keep notes of light readings, aperture settings, iso and shutter speeds so if the shots don't work, you can look at your notes so you don't use the same settings. Also a good idea to go through each setting, one by one, making notes of the settings and attaching the photograph to the notes for a visual comparison. The quickest way to learn is to do it. If you don't succeed, don't use the same settings and try again. Eventually, you will get your right photo for you

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Just learn photography.