The key to great photography - What do you think?

raffile · Sep 17, 2011

I read in an article that the key to great photography is:

1. A decent camera
2. Having layers
3. And The NUMBER 1 KEY - Taking LOTS of photos!

What do you think?

also... What do they mean by layers?

ann · Sep 17, 2011

My quess would be Photoshop

redessa · Sep 17, 2011

1) - Sure, better equipment helps but is not as good as having better knowledge

2) - I have no ideas what kind of "layers" the author means without some other sort of context

3) - Well, I suppose if you hended a chimp and let him take enough snapshots, one of them would turn out decent. IMO, great photography is shooting with purpose and getting it right the first time. Then again, maybe they're just saying to practice, practice, practice. But all the pratice in the world isn't going to help if you continue making the same mistakes over and over again. You have to keep learning.

C_mo · Sep 17, 2011

I would say the key is to educate yourself.

KmH · Sep 17, 2011

raffile said:
The key to great photography - What do you think?

You have to understand how the camera and lens work.

You have to understand how to create visual art.

in other words it takes a lot of knowledge and skill to do photography well.

Adobe Photoshop Elements or CS5 lets you add layers to a photo. Each layer is typically used for just one of many edits made to the photograph.

Imaging that each layer is transparent and is laid on top of a stack of transparent layers. In that way the original image is never changed, and each layer can be individually changed.

It does no good to practise making the same mistakes over-and-over again.

Whoever wrote that article likely didn't know to much about doing photography.

SensePhoto · Sep 17, 2011

I like a saying i heard from an old school photographer....95% of all the cameras out there surpass their photographers, meaning you can be handed a 1D or D3 and if you don't have the eye for it and enough developed skill you won't get anywwhere. So in my opinion a key to great photography is determination to make even most boring subjects tell a story with basic equipment and little post processing.

dxqcanada · Sep 17, 2011

If you don't see it, you don't get it.
Once you see it ... then you can use the tools to capture it.

gsgary · Sep 17, 2011

A camera and lens and a good eye is all that is needed and a point and shoot will do

KmH · Sep 17, 2011

And a good eye is something that can be acquired/learned. You don't have to be born with a good eye, in fact it's a rare person that is born with a good eye.

gsgary · Sep 17, 2011

KmH said:
And a good eye is something that can be acquired/learned. You don't have to be born with a good eye, in fact it's a rare person that is born with a good eye.

Jacques Henri Lartigue was born with a good eye