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Edit: changed my mind. I'm not responding to this after all.
Edit: changed my mind. I'm not responding to this after all.
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In the darkroom, get a larger trashcan and remove the words "good enough" from your vocabulary.
For being better with a camera, take walks without one. Take the time to see unencumbered by worries about exposure/development/etc. Use your hands to frame (or carry some framing cards).
Take chances... work outside of your comfort zone (if you consider yourself a landscape specialist, shoot some portraits, and vice versa). You may not be drawn to continue the pursuit, but it will help you see your specialty in new ways).
Finally, don't worry too much about getting better. Make sure it remains fun. If it remains fun, you'll do more and (just through repetition) improve.
Getting an art degree made me a better artist. But having an art degree does not. What that art degree did for me was allow me to spend 4 years of my life completely submersed in art without having to deal with the real world. You just can't dedicate yourself that intensely in the real world. There are too many bills to pay and responsibilities to fulfill.
My art school was great about not teaching you anything on the technical side. My professors knew that technical mastery wasn't art. It's craft. And craft is fine. But it's not what makes great art great. Instead, they taught us how to see, speak, and understand art. They expected us to learn technical mastery on our own time. I had some friends who got associates degrees in art at various community colleges. Their experience was quite different. They were trained on the technical side. They never learned how to see and understand art in school (though some learned that on their own time). And I know some very talented artists who have no formal training. Some studied under a professional, others are completely self taught.
In all of the various routes you could take to become an artist, none were any better at producing good artists. In fact, finding someone who is truly a good artist in this world is rare. But they do exist. And they all have one thing in common...
That one simple thing that will make you a better photographer (or artist) is a love for photography (or art). If you don't love it, you won't push yourself to be constantly better. You won't dedicate the time necessary to get the experience. You won't constantly ask yourself questions. You won't spend time obsessing over other art works you admire. You won't maintain the passion. Because that's all that is required for good artwork. Passion and dedication.
I don't think art school or love of photography (whatever that is) will "make you" a better photographer.
If one is normally perceptive, responds to the work of other photographers, and enjoys their own imagination, they can become better photographers..IF they work on it.
When one is playing sport, if you do not play against someone better, one does not improve. If one wishes to learn, one must study with someone who is wiser than oneself. That is the one of the advantage of a good university art program. Another is having access to artists, equipment and facilities to explore different forms of creative expression....all in a relatively short period of time. Plus it is good to be 'forced' to consider the history of art from different prespectives, to be able to defend one's ideas verbally and in writing. But I am glad I was a Natural Resources Management major, who just hung out in the photo end of things!IDK
when someone is in art school it is an incubator for creativity
i can see how going to art school and being in an incubator for creativity
can in turn make you a better photographer .. but to each their own
I can offer one for making prints:expose for the highlights and tune contrast for the shadows. made a world of difference to my printing.i can't say how many time i have "goooogled" something photographic and i find ads in my sidebar
and sponsored links to websites that offer some sort of advice, on how to make better photographs.
they make it seem like it is some sort of secret that no one wants people to know about ...
but what are they, what are some simple things regular folks with a camera can do to get better negatives
and maybe simple things that they might do in the darkroom to make better prints ?
i guess, a couple of the main things one can do is spend more than 1 exposure / view.
vary the aperture ( if you have the ability ) over expose a little and under expose a little.
shoot exaclty as the light meter says too. if you send the film to a lab, who knows what their processing
is like, if you are processing your own film, some things might look better a little thinner or denser, besides if it was important enough to take 1 view, its probably OK to waste a few extra frames on the same subject.
vary the way you see the thing you are photographing ..
see it from different angles, or perspectives ( down low, raking side view, up above, ) straight on,
center composition might seem boring to some, but it works too, leave room for the subject to breath,
or crop part of it off, skew-it .. don't be so rigid with the camera or with the IDK 40¢/35mm exposure that
you are afraid to do something different. and if there are 9 compositions inside your 1 exposure
don't be afraid to crop the heck out of your view. there aren't rules that say you can't crop,
just people who insist their way is the right way, and it is OK to ignore people's rules if you want.
fill your head with photography, artwork, architecture, sculpture, stuff that interests you, junk store photos
old tour books, anything you like, and allow it to seep into your way of seeing. there is no rule against
having an open mind, or borrowing ideas from people, or things, just rigid ideas of how things should or shouldnt' be done.
speaking of rigid, get a tripod or monopod or beanbag or learn how to lean against something and be rigid.
supposedly there is a rule of thumb that if you use a shutter speed slower than the focal length of your lens
you need a tripod. what does that mean ? it means if you have a 100mm lens and you photographat 1/60thS you might want to get a tripod because of "camera shake". or you can put your elbos against your chest hold your breath and exhale slowly and depress the shutter or limp your body and lean against a pole or tree and be a human tripod.
i could go on for an hour i guess but i'd rather not ...
good luck making photographs
john
IDK
when someone is in art school it is an incubator for creativity
i can see how going to art school and being in an incubator for creativity
can in turn make you a better photographer .. but to each their own
When one is playing sport, if you do not play against someone better, one does not improve. If one wishes to learn, one must study with someone who is wiser than oneself. That is the one of the advantage of a good university art program. Another is having access to artists, equipment and facilities to explore different forms of creative expression....all in a relatively short period of time. Plus it is good to be 'forced' to consider the history of art from different prespectives, to be able to defend one's ideas verbally and in writing. But I am glad I was a Natural Resources Management major, who just hung out in the photo end of things!
yeah their approach and im guessing the classes you tookthink Bauhaus
true, more or less. I also had Grateful Dead members in grad school. Ceramicists, dope dealers. Multi stuff. Who was more of an artist than a Jerry Garcia wife? How many photo B.A.s are productive off line and how many get something hung on Starbucks wall at age 59 being credited with art degree before they became baristas or phone bank voices? What's the ratio? Not sure that art teachers are the best influences for artists, not to mention photographers.
Determine what is generic and don't shoot it. Don't copy others. Ask yourself why this or that photo is unique. Predominantly, of your work, show only what is unique to you.
For some people "better" has to do with being more individualized. Not more normalized.
For others it has to do with being more normalized (less unique).
Technical perfection has always been, and increasingly been easy by normalized standards. That was essentially the goal of George Eastman's business model. And of course that's why he shot himself.
Do we (humans) want to be normalized or do we want to be better?
no clue how jerry garcia's ex wife or george eastman's shooting himself ended up in this threadwhat are some simple things regular folks with a camera can do to get better negatives
and maybe simple things that they might do in the darkroom to make better prints ?
Are you suggesting I am likely to shoot myself if I enroll in an MFA program? If so, I would have expected to read about it on PetaPixel by now.
A majority of them...but then that is the type of person I tend to know.
"Chops" usually refers to technical ability, rather than creative ability -- art schools are fine for that. But art schools are a way to jump start one's education -- they are not destinations. One does not learn everything in art school, one learns how to learn and what the possibilities of learning are. Then one moves on and the real learning begins.
Don't use flash
...or DO use flash and learn what it can do.
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