What photography tip would you give your past self?

[Tailgunner]

Skip the consumer models and go straight for the Semi-Pro or Pro models.

 

[limr31]

What would I tell myself?

Pay attention to what you are doing. Understand the effects of every setting you change instead of just turning dials until the light meter is centered.

Also pay attention to what others are doing. Look at a lot of art. Study the masters, whatever their medium might be.

 

[acparsons60]

Delete the worthless photos before archiving the whole memory card. I have thousands of photos that were poorly done and are just taking up hard drive space. It has taken me 6 months to go though about 1/4 of them and delete the worthless stuff to make more hard drive space.

Additionally, always shoot in RAW. I have some Jpeg shots that are pretty good, but could be so much better if I could edit them in RAW.

 

[Derrel]

There have been some really good tips given by a number of people! A lot of collective experience and wisdom. One tip I have learned fairly recently has been to go back and re-visit my location takes, so when I am planning to go shoot at a place on a return visit, I can see what I did well,and what I did not so well. I can re-visit the location through my earlier take there, and see what angles, or what lenses worked well, or poorly, and what I could do better when I actually get there again. Lightroom makes it really easy to hit the "i" key a time or two, and bring up the information about the shot settings so they overlay on the image. This is pretty helpful when it has been a year, or two years, since you have visited a location and the memory of the earlier shoot there is not super-fresh in your mind.

The "past me" had to learn by scrutinizing magnified 35mm contact sheets, so this process had no lens/shooting data with it. And in the same vein, that means we DID NOT throw away the bad shots; the bad AND the good frames were all there, mixed in with one another, so there was plenty to remind us of our failures, and proof of them was right there. Balancing that out, we shot a LOT less on film than most of us do with d-slr's for obvious reasons.

 

[Light Guru]

Slow down and think more about your final image before you even touch the camera.

 

[JustJazzie]

hmm.. too much to send in a little note....

The biggest being STOP over sharpening and learn how to FOCUS properly (or figure out why your camera wont focus!), then you wont need to over sharpen.
(seriously though, Im 90% convinced my firs dslr had back focusing issues... that or I really was just that oblivious too late to tell though, but its my biggest cringing point when it comes to my first DSLR. I never had the same issue with any other camera though, so who knows!)

 

[Solarflare]

- Dont waste your time on cheap compact and "bridge" cameras. They wont be sufficient.

- Get a D700 and the Trinity, starting with 24-70mm f2.8, then 70-200mm f2.8 VR2. Get an SB700, too. And filters, of course. Get a 2nd D700 when they're cheap and you find a great offer.

- You can never have enough camera backpacks. The ideal backpack is to choose from a lot of options.

- Then go out and photograph.

- By the way, you wont need more than 12 Megapixels with Bayer Filter for people shots. Nobody wants to see impurities of skin etc anyway.

- Nikon will do great, more lightweight glas (16-35mm f4 VR + 70-200mm f4 VR), but of course that wasnt available back then.

- Dont hold your breath waiting for Nikon to do great prime lenses. They happen - but too rarely anyway.

- Dont waste your time with checking out Mirrorless. These companies will take a looong time until anything solid manifests.

- Dont waste your time hoping Nikon would ever do an improved camera. They'll only add more Megapixels to the successors of the D700, and make cheaper variants.

- Dont try out cameras with a flipscreen. Its an addictive feature, but Nikon only allows it for cheap DSLRs. So dont get addicted.

I doubt my past self would have listened, though.

 

[Dinardy]

Like Light Guru noted, slow down.

Lately I have forced myself to slow down by shooting film. It really rekindled my love for the image and completely evolved my style into something else entirely, which is incredibly exciting.

Also, do photography because you love it, not because you want people to throw money at you.

 

[The_Traveler]

Also, do photography because you love it, not because you want people to throw money at you.

Good stuff above.

If you love photography, forget about trying to make money.
Trying to photograph what people want to buy is destructive.

 

[Vince.1551]

Good stuff above. If you love photography, forget about trying to make money. Trying to photograph what people want to buy is destructive.

Say that to someone who has a family to feed and makes a living on that. You gonna feed them? This is totally insensitive!

 

[The_Traveler]

Hey Vince, got your self-righteous slider up to 11 today?

 

[sm4him]

What one piece of photographic advice would I give my past self?

How about, "Self, have you thought about a nice coin collection instead?"

Seriously, I think the biggest thing I'd say is: Don't give up. Don't EVER give up. Don't worry about whether you can afford the "right" gear, just keep shooting, keep learning, keep looking at this world with a sense of wonder and trying to capture that through your photos.
Learn everything you can, every chance you get. Not just the technical stuff, but learn about other photographers, learn about ART, learn about color and light, learn the science behind things, learn ABOUT the things you are photographing, learn the history of this world around you that you are documenting.
And did I mention? Do. NOT. EVER. lose your sense of wonder. Don't let LIFE and "adult" stuff get in the way of that, or it will stifle you and set you back, creatively, about two decades.

I have NO idea how helpful that might be to anyone else, but that is, as best I can think it out right now, what I'd tell MYSELF if I could go back right at this moment, to, say, about 1982, just as I was entering "real" adulthood. Or what I *thought* was adulthood at the time.

 

[Theo2]

What one piece of photographic advice would I give my past self?

How about, "Self, have you thought about a nice coin collection instead?"

A coin collection will probably be worth more money than our digital camera bodies in 20 years.

 

[chalkie]

Always have a camera with you!

 

[JacaRanda]

Figure out what kind of photography you enjoy most before buying a bunch of shtuff (softboxes, umbrellas) and buy used bodies and lenses.

Oh - and don't let anyone tell you that your picture/shot/photo/image/capture should be called something else.

Just look at it, view it, watch it, see it, gawk at it JERK!