what makes photography hard?

[weepete]

Really what matters is what you put in front of the lens. Recognising what's going to happen and getting in the right place at the right time is where the skill comes in. Learning to see light, in terms of what your camera can capture. Recognising that what you experience is not only 3 dimentional but sensory as well. Distilling an experience down to core elements, then composing them in a 2 dimentional medium that conveys thought, emotion, depth and balance.

That's what's difficult about photography.

 

[Tropicalmemories]

F8 and be there

That should be updated to; 'f1.8 and bokeh the background to hell and back'.

 

[The_Traveler]

Technical skills are pretty necessary, although our excellent cameras will do a lot for you.
You can't make good pictures until you have some idea why 'good' pictures are good. When you look at a picture, what makes it good in your eyes?
I suggest you look at as many pictures as you can, decide whether they are 'good' and why you think so.
What is it about the picture that makes it good?
Once you have that concept then you can add those ideas on top of your skills.

Here are four pictures that I like and think are good (for me).
Why might viewers like or dislike each of them.
You MUST have a personal understanding of esthetics to fit your composition to.

 

[The_Traveler]

IMO, pictures should have emotional appeal.
Viewers should be able to see into the frame and get some sense of what there was that impelled the photographer to take the shot and what the photographer was trying to get across.

 

[Designer]

Many of you guys suggest experience, but what experience are you talking? experience of taking multitude of pictures? testing out different composition, framing, drawing an outline of how I want the end pic to turn out?

taking a pic of a bus and using its reflection to create something dramatic?

As a simple example, some people specialize in one genre, such as; macro shots of insects, or landscape, or product photography. Each of these specialties (to be at the top) require dedication and practice over a long period of time.

When you discover what you like, concentrate on that until you are at the top of the field.

You mention the bus shot for example. Sure, why not? Post-capture manipulation is another area of speciality that can be very interesting. Do what floats your boat, and do it well.

 

[Derrel]

I have read many many books on photography, and it is one of my hobbies to find really good photo books at secondhand bookstores and at thrift stores. I personally believe that books are a fabulous way to learn. YouTube is filled with many videos, but often times the videos are made by people with fairly small amounts of experience, and at times some of the stuff that is in these videos is advice that many would consider "the blind leading the blind."

There have been many books written about photography. One of my favorite authors of instructional books was John Hedgecoe, who wrote something like 32 books about photography. He was the first ever full professor of photography at London's Royal College,and as such was an educator and an author. He taught university level photography courses as well as wrote fabulous books. I have recommended his books on this forum a number of times over the past decade. I would encourage you to look for them on the second hand market.

 

[weepete]

IMO, pictures should have emotional appeal.
Viewers should be able to see into the frame and get some sense of what there was that impelled the photographer to take the shot and what the photographer was trying to get across.

I think it is a bit more broad than that. Given that people are different, the demographic that any kind of art appeals to can be extremely subjective. So what might be emotionaly appealing to one person may be indifferent to another. There's also genres that people don't get, ideas that don't contain emotion that could be explored though I appreciate I'm being quite pedantic here. Also there's a whole thing about emotion and can we feel emotion in the same way as others?

What we do have is a common cultural accociations to a visual language that we can exploit to get our mening across to "most" people.

Just some thoughts....

 

[weepete]

I have read many many books on photography, and it is one of my hobbies to find really good photo books at secondhand bookstores and at thrift stores. I personally believe that books are a fabulous way to learn. YouTube is filled with many videos, but often times the videos are made by people with fairly small amounts of experience, and at times some of the stuff that is in these videos is advice that many would consider "the blind leading the blind."

There have been many books written about photography. One of my favorite authors of instructional books was John Hedgecoe, who wrote something like 32 books about photography. He was the first ever full professor of photography at London's Royal College,and as such was an educator and an author. He taught university level photography courses as well as wrote fabulous books. I have recommended his books on this forum a number of times over the past decade. I would encourage you to look for them on the second hand market.

Personally speaking I found John Hedgecoe a bit dry and traditional. While I don't doubt he is good and informative I found Scott Kelby's books more engaging and a faster route. Jeff Shewe's books were really great and ones I devoured as a beginner to digital processing and printing. Still have them on my shelf and I won't get rid of them.

I totally agree with you with books though, I have a hefty tome of Ansel Adams sitting next to me just now. It's not instructional but serves as insparational material for me. Like a reality check.

Often I find a lot of photograhy videos on youtube useful, but there's a lot of photographers pushing so hard nowadays to get "The" shot that reality is lost. Recently I've come across Andy Gray and his abstact ICM stuff youtube which is something I thought was fantasic and I'm going to explore.