Becoming a better photographer

[ola.b]

I´ll have to write a bit of a background story to this, so please bare with me.. Maybe if no one bothers to answer it will help me by just forcing me to write this down and reading it at a later date🙂

I like photography, and I want to become a better photograph. At this moment I´ve been into photography for a few years and tried a few different tools. digital and even some analog.

I´ve tried a dSLR, canon 30d + tamron 17-50. It takes good quality pictures when I manage to compose something interesting, but its size and weight has it sitting at home almost every time I go out. I´m just too lazy to bring 3-4 pounds of camera with me when I go outside without a backpack. And stuff that sits in a backpack, usually sit in there.

I have also tried various small digital p&s, canon g9 and panasonic lx3. After getting the lx3 this spring it has seen some use, but the lack of a viewfinder and the "everything is in focus all the time"-effect of a small sensor is annoying. I like a shallow DOF 🙂

I also bought a yashica t5 for cheap. It has seen some use when I´ve been in lx-3-hazardous enviornments. (mountain climbing, super windy beach, back country skiing).

There is a canonet ql-III 1.7 sitting in my closet. Don´t know why it hasnt seen much use. I shot a roll but was dissapointed. I think the shutter speed are off after I had to open it up to deal with sticky oil on the shutter.

The photos I want to take are: portraits, "street",.. uhm.. hard to describe, but I want to be able to take the camera with me and photograph whatever I find intersting. be it people, a street scene or a nice view from wherever stumble about.
Nice portraits and good quality street photography is what I enjoy looking at the most. Landscapes, sports, still life, food, animals etc is not my cup of tea..

As I see it, no current camera I own is the right tool for me.

After a great deal of surfing, reading and searching I think I have narrowed it down to two options:

1: Panasonic gf-1 with 20mm f/1,7 lense and external viewfinder. Pricy, digital. Not really shallow DOF because of the small-but-not-tiny sensor.

2: Leica M6 with Zeiss or CV 50 or 45mm lense. f/1,5 or 1,4. Pretty much the same as option 1. I have a couple of used M6 offers in my inbox. One M6 classic which has seen some use, and a near-mint-ish m6 ttl 0.85. The m6 ttl is approx. 100usd more than the m6 classic.

My little leica-romantic dream is to do a year with just one lense, 35 or 50mm, and in black and white only. Photography is about light, and I do believe that seeing in light and not light will help.
Doing it analog will help me work on composition rather than rapid-fire.
I´m not sure if the time from shooting to seeing the final product with analog is a good or bad thing for me. Digital allows for faster review, and the opportunity to learn and get it right on the spot. Analog will make me forget the moment and what i felt when I took the picture. That should result in a more objective review of the result.

The problem is with developing and scanning film. Getting b/w developed at a lab is horribly expensive here in Norway. Getting a dev. kit and scanner together is pricy to begin with, but a good scanner seems to hold its value pretty good here. It´s a lot of work though, and I´m not big on spending hours fumbling about in photoshop.

One alternative is shooting kodak BW400CN and get it developed at a lab. Since it´s developed along with regular color negative film. The lab will also scan for free(at an OK resolution for web use). If I want good scan I could send it out. This will be a lot less work for me, but might end up being expensive in the long run. No big start-up costs since I won´t need a scanner.


The bottom line is:
-I want to be a better photographer.
-I´m too lazy to drag a dslr with me.
-digital p&s does not offer me the tools or produce the results I want.
-analog is a lot of work
-leica is leica, and this is a chance to see what all the "fuzz" is about.
-a leica m6 or a second hand scanner will not loose any value in a year, my intended "test period". Expenses will be some value loss on a lense, film, developer etc.

Do you think a "one year, with one lense and b/w film"-project will help me become a better photographer?

The hope is that a smaller camera will get picked up a lot more often than a dslr, and the fact that it´s a majestical Leica plus the fact that I´m doing a clearly defined project will help me pick it up with me more often.

Am I kidding myself?

What have you done to make yourself a better photographer?

hopefully I´m not making a fool of myself now..... hehe..😱

 

[David William White]

It's not the equipment that makes you a better photographer. It's shooting every day, reviewing your work every week, every month, making notes on what worked and what didn't, notes on how each shot could have been improved. So shoot, review, improve.

It sort of helps that you pick one camera, one film, one whatever. It probably helps if it doesn't have lots of bells and whistles. I'm not sure this can be done in a year, however...

Preferences for subject material will grow on you, and projects will present themselves. Don't be afraid to follow one for years, if that's what it takes.

 

[antiquark]

-I´m too lazy to drag a dslr with me.

Not all DSLRs are created equal. Take a look at the Olympus e-420 with a pancake lens. It's pretty small and light. Even a Nikon D60 with a 35/1.8 isn't too large.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

"I want to be a better photographer..."
"I'm too lazy..."

A Leica will not make you a better photographer. Only working hard at photography will. The first thing to decide is what your real commitment to becoming a better photographer is.

 

[gns]

I'm no great photographer, but I am pretty sure of this...

It's not so much the gear or process you use, but what you do with it.

and...

The really hard part of photography isn't in knowing how to make the picture, but rather, what picture to make.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[gns]

Also, advice is tough. People will give you all kinds of it. One camera & one lens or many, etc. One approach might be good advice for one person, but the opposite might be the best advice for another. I think good advice could come from a good teacher who knows his student well. One size fits all advice from strangers on the internet...probably not so useful.

Gary

 

[ola.b]

It's not the equipment that makes you a better photographer. It's shooting every day, reviewing your work every week, every month, making notes on what worked and what didn't, notes on how each shot could have been improved. So shoot, review, improve.

"I want to be a better photographer..."
"I'm too lazy..."

A Leica will not make you a better photographer. Only working hard at photography will. The first thing to decide is what your real commitment to becoming a better photographer is.

I know equipment doesn´t make the photographer, but in the search for something compact that will give me the control and results I want it popped up as the best analog alternative. If it doesn´t fit in a big pocket or small shoulder bag I´m not really likely to take it with me.

Not all DSLRs are created equal. Take a look at the Olympus e-420 with a pancake lens. It's pretty small and light. Even a Nikon D60 with a 35/1.8 isn't too large.

I´ll take a look at those. Thanks!

edit: and thank you for reading that incoherent mess in the first post.

 

[Tuolumne]

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice.

There is no substitute for doing it day in and day out, and looking at others work to learn from it. I find the galleries here to be especially instructive in that manner. Yes, you need to have a tool you are comfortable with, and that can take some exploration. But after that, it is you who takes the photo, not the camera.

/T

 

[Roger Hicks]

Also, advice is tough. People will give you all kinds of it. One camera & one lens or many, etc. One approach might be good advice for one person, but the opposite might be the best advice for another. I think good advice could come from a good teacher who knows his student well. One size fits all advice from strangers on the internet...probably not so useful.

Gary

Seconded!

I used the 'one camera, one lens' approach because it was all I had: a Pentax SV. Then I got a IIIa and used that a lot more than the Pentax.

The important things are (1) that you feel you HAVE to take pictures and (2) that you have a camera you're happy with -- which could be almost anything. For me, among the cameras I own, an M or a Nikon F or a Retina IIa or a Kowa or an Alpa 12 or a Pentax SV would all be fine -- but I'd hate a DSLR (and yes, I have one, and yes, I've used others).

The camera that currently sees the most use is an M8.2 (followed by an MP) but I'm waiting for an M9.

Cheers,

R.

 

[David William White]

"If it doesn´t fit in a big pocket or small shoulder bag I´m not really likely to take it with me."

Well, to each his own, but in my own half-assed, humble opinion, but for what it's worth and just my own two cents here, take it or leave it, photography is not something you do in fleeting moments on your journey when the opportunity arises -- it's more like the reason you go out, either to set up a portrait shoot (which may take half a day), or street photography (which takes all day), just to use your examples.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

...The hope is that a smaller camera will get picked up a lot more often than a dslr, and the fact that it´s a majestical Leica plus the fact that I´m doing a clearly defined project will help me pick it up with me more often.

Am I kidding myself?

What have you done to make yourself a better photographer?

hopefully I´m not making a fool of myself now..... hehe..😱

No foolishness at all sharing feelings and words of truth.


This is a place full of nice people and real photographers ready to handle clean information, so you could visit constantly. But always remember no one can do anything for you.


First, yes, you are totally kidding yourself. You don't need another camera. You need to do something you haven't done: to work very hard for your shooting. You can become a different photographer no matter if you use film or digital, and it is possible even with cheap gear.


I recommend you to focus on small, close goals, and not thinking of “better photographer” or “better equipment”. For example, you could think of a precise project and go deeply into it. Just one of them, and totally forget the others...


There are millions... Could be...


How to do street shooting in autoexposure black and white to capture interesting moments that don't last too much.


How to expose slide film for urban landcapes on sunny days without bracketing.


How to make portraits with selective focus.


By the way, developing black and white is cheap and easy: you should do it, because after that effort, you'll care about every single shot before clicking. Not using zooms is a good advice to learn to see the way the cameras see.


Any project you pick, will lead you to some of photography laws, but only if you stay there until you get great images, and it takes time, and errors will come, but that's the only way.


It's not just that buying another camera won't be good for you: it's that it will be bad for you, as you won't change direction... You don't need the best ballet shoes to be a star dancer in Moscow's ballet: you need practice of months and years with some good guide.


Again, think what you'd like, a small goal, and forget the rest...


But don't use several cameras and lenses, several films and digitals, autoexposure, manual and handheld metering, landscapes, street and portraits, sun, overcast and interiors...


As the ancient rule of war: if you divide your enemy, the victory will be yours!

 

[Peter S]

Found myself in the same situation you are and decided that there is only one way to become a better photographer: take a lot of pictures, if possible every day. For me that means I need to have a camera that does not bother me when I carry it the whole day. I tried a DP2 but did not like the controls so quickly got rid of it. I just bought a Canon S90 and I think I now have found the right tool. It has a ring in front that I use to set aperture and a little ring on the back that set shutterspeed, the shortcut button I programmed to set ISO. On it's widest end it is 28/2.0 and it even has RAW. True it is a compact with a relatively small sensor, but I don't care. It is quite liberating to just use one little tool and if you go on Flickr or look at for example at Jeff Ascough's blog (uses a Canon G something camera for his personal work) you see that a lot of people create beautiful pictures with 'limited' tools.

For now I am going to forget about all the rules and just shoot what I like and see what comes from that. My first real foray into digital and I will use it to also start working on my digital postprocessing techniques. All this is part of the masterplan to be digitally adept when the M10 comes (3-4 years from now I guess) and by then also be a better photographer worthy of such an expensive tool.

Sorry for my rant, but think you should also reconsider compacts. LX3, GX200, GRDIII, Canon S90 etc etc.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

It's not the equipment that makes you a better photographer.

Well, unless you use a Holga. That stuff makes instant Art 😀

 

[John Rountree]

From reading your original post it seems that you are looking for a "magic bullet" to make you a better photographer. You repeatedly say that things are too hard, or too time consuming. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes: "The desire to win without the will to train is meaningless." As others have said (because it is the truth) becoming a good photographer is work. It is hard work. It is time consuming work. Only you can decide if he payoff is worth the effort. But, that is your answer.

 

[silverbullet]

"I want to be a better photographer.
-I´m too lazy to drag a dslr with me.
-digital p&s does not offer me the tools or produce the results I want.
-analog is a lot of work
-leica is leica, and this is a chance to see what all the "fuzz" is about.
-a leica m6 or a second hand scanner will not loose any value in a year, my intended "test period". Expenses will be some value loss on a lense, film, developer etc."

At first - you must burn inside to be able to achieve this goal.
Study the books with pics of different masters - very soon you'll find YOUR hero - in my case it was H.C. Bresson and R. Capa.

Don't think too much about hardware - it's sweet to think into different directions but it will disturb you.
Take a cheap Bessa RF ,ONE lens of 40 or 35mm and rolls of TRI-X.

Collect as much catalogues from different camera makers - it's free, superb pics are there and they are different from those you watched, see the difference and judge.

Try at first to realise small projects as there are:

Old bikes
Old doors
old premesis etc.

That are non movable objects, you will train focussing and light reading AND

the camera in your hand is no more uncomfortable when people look at you......

After a short time your eyes and brain will recognize more details, special scenes and the angle of the one lens is now easy to estimate - even without a camera.

Be polite to people try to get into communication with your eyes - speak to people with the language of your body..... and jump.....!

After the first keeper - you will "feel" it even before you see the frame - when you are lucky - you'll never can stop.....
Take the camera with you all the time don't think "ugh it's raining, it's cold no chance I'll keep it at home....."

As a young guy I had only money for a body NikonF but the first pic was in my head for weeks. When the 50mm Nikkor f2 arrived, my very first "streetpic" was done - it was such a feeling, you can't believe!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/168438918/



Now with nearly 62 years, time and people have changed but the fire still burns......and feet are slower....🙄

All the Best!
Bernd

 

[degruyl]

Somewhat constructive advice:

If you decide to go chemical (versus digital):

Make sure that you look at what you are producing after you have shot it, but while you remember what you did. You can't learn from mistakes you made a month ago, before you finished the roll and then sent the film off. You should, if possible look at your exposures as soon as possible after you finish shooting.

If that means setting up a B&W darkroom in your bathroom: buy yourself a changing bag, tank, reel and some jugs. It takes between 20 minutes and 1 hour to develop a roll of film, depending on your chemisty and methods. It feels good, too. Developing B&W is much cheaper than sending it out, and so is the film. Buy cheap film from freestyle, and shoot it like crazy.

I have another option for a camera (not that you need it): CV Bessa, used + CV lens used (I recommend the 35 pan II) + scanner and darkroom stuff mentioned above. It can certainly come out less expensive than just an M6 TTL body.

 

[Warren T.]

Hi Ola.b, this is a very interesting topic. Thanks for starting it. You have already gotten very good replies.

Any of the cameras that you already own are capable of making great pictures of your preferred genre because as you already know, the equipment does not make the photographer. However, the equipment does count in some ways. Because you already concluded that none of your current cameras is appropriate for your current needs, I recommend that you allow yourself one more equipment acquisition that will most closely meet your current needs. Take your time, handle different cameras if possible, then decide on one that you feel most comfortable with. Buy it, and STICK WITH IT. Get to know everything about it, shoot a lot with it until all its functions are second nature.

Now that (hopefully) you have the equipment side of the equation taken care of, you need work on the photographer (you) side of the equation.

Some things that you can do (some already mentioned) that might help you get feedback on your progress:

- Take a class related to your chosen genre
- Join a club or local photo group
- Join an internet/online based photo group (PM me if you're interested in learning more about what my own group does)
- Study masters of your preferred genre (museums, galleries, or books) to understand for yourself why you like their work

yes, practice a lot by shooting a lot, but you also need frequent and reliable feedback from people who understand what your goals are in your own photography.

Good Luck,

Warren

 

[degruyl]

As a young guy I had only money for a body NikonF but the first pic was in my head for weeks. When the 50mm Nikkor f2

Nice shot.

To the OP:
If you prefer slrs, a Nikon FM2 with a 55 mm lens is a wonderful camera, and can be had for a short song. It will not, however, fit in your pocket no matter how big they are.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Bernd, that was sweet.

Moving shot...

Pleased to meet you!

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

I don't think she's looking for a "magic bullet." She just wants the right tool for the job. And, clearly she wants to make herself a better photographer.

I would suggest that it's not a Leica, per se, that will do it for you. It may not even be a rangefinder at all. Don't be fooled into believing a Leica is 'it' for making the kinds of photographs you like. You could, just as easily - and more inexpensively - get an SLR that is the same size and lighter than an M6. You have to decide if you want to compose in a rangefinder window, which doesn't show you DOF, or in an SLR window which Does show DOF, although possibly not the DOF you're going to be using. I prefer the SLR way, but i've tried rangefinders (M7s and Zeiss Ikon, and medium format) for years. Can you tell which pictures were made with rangefinders versus SLRs? Look at this picture by Bernd

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/478731881/

Can you get MORE classic than that? A Nikon F is just as 'iconic' a tool as a Leica. I don't think Leica has any more "magesty" than any other camera, and in fact, it has less when it's being used by some talentless schmuck who thinks it's a showpiece in itself. I have a Nikon FE2. With a super-cheap 50mm/1.8-Series E lens. That lens is now my favorite 35mm lens, and i've owned Summicrons, Summiluxes, ASPHs, whatever. And, the FE2 is about the same size as an M6 or M7.

If it is an RF, think about a Ikon or a Bessa. No need to spend too much money. Just get a modern RF and a decent lens so you don't have to worry about whatever's plaguing your Canonet. The Online Photographer's Leica Challenge makes an almost compelling statement, that you can sell an M6 for what you paid for it. But, if you buy a used Bessa or Ikon, the same holds true. Same for the lens - as long as you buy it used at a reasonable price. The "fuss" about a Leica is in the mind. It's a great tool if you want to work that way. But, after owning two M7s, i preferred the Ikon. It just made more sense.

You could learn to process BW film yourself. It's not difficult, and you'll get the results you want. Or, shoot color neg film, have it processed by a local lab, and convert it to BW as you see fit. Or, don't convert it. Your choice. I would suggest scanning yourself, though. There are variables in that process that you'll want to control.