Ever notice how, after putting hours into a photo — planning, buying gear, traveling, shooting, editing, tweaking every pixel — someone says, “Wow, you’re so talented!”
And somehow, it doesn’t really feel like a compliment?
It’s like all that effort, all those years of trial and error, just got taken for granted.
Because “talent” sounds like magic dust you were born with — not something you built.
See, it depends on who is saying it.
Many people use the words talented and skilled interchangeably, and often in relation to artistic output. They think of artistry as something which arises from a magical cloud of genes, with skill as a byproduct. Think Picasso, Renoir, Gauguin. Someone who lacks artistic skill or has little contact with the skilled is often unaware of how it comes about, often leaning on the general idea that skill is a product of intrinsic qualities.
So when someone says, 'you're so talented', they usually mean, 'you have a lot of skill but I don't understand how that skill was attained, so I'll assume it came from your genes.'
But here’s the thing: if someone’s truly born with talent, why would they even need praise? You don’t compliment a bird for flying, right?
To paraphrase Animal Farm, all birds fly, but some birds fly better than others. I once saw a seagull with one leg amidst a flock of others with two, and that little fellow flew faster and fought harder for food than his two legged brethren.
I’ve always felt it’s more of a combo — a spark of talent maybe, but a mountain of skill, patience, and persistence that actually makes the work happen.
In his book On Writing, Stephen King made an analogy about talent vs skill. He said that when we're born, we are given a knife, and it's up to us to sharpen it as best we can. Some people are given huge knives, and we call them geniuses.
There is a Marvel comic artist who's name escapes me. It may have been John Romita Jr. He said that unlike his father, he wasn't a very talented artist, but when you do something for eight hours a day for 20 years, you get pretty good at it.
And funny enough, that’s also where imposter syndrome sneaks in for many. You know that little voice whispering, “You’re not really talented, you just got lucky”? Yeah, that one.
But... as with photography in general — everyone can point their phone at a sunrise and get a decent shot. The magic is already happening in front of you.
If you hear someone say: “Woah! How did you do that?”... and you feel you didn’t do anything at all, it’s the nature in front of the lens that did all the work, you just pressed a button on a phone.
Photography is always a combination of talent, luck and skill in varying proportions.
The street photographer has to be in the right place and the right time (luck) to take the shot (skill) and have developed the intuitive understanding of what makes the photo good (talent and skill).
The studio/portrait photographer strives to control as many variables as possible (skill) to get the desired output (luck and skill) with the understanding of what is right for the client (talent and skill).
The landscape photographer doesn't just take a photo of a sunset. Any hack can do that. The skill comes from selecting the right gear for the desired effect, the processing required to make the image look the way they want, and talent applies when determining the final outcome.
Ok yeah, sometimes, turning that into something that actually moves people? That takes vision, timing, editing, technical skill, and a bit of your own soul poured in.
Maybe the truth is that talent gives you a starting line — but skill, sweat, and stubbornness get you to the finish.
I wholeheartedly agree with this.
Curious how you all see it. When someone calls your work “talented,” does it feel flattering or kinda dismissive?
I take it as a compliment. See above.
But there was one time when my kungfu master said to me, 'you have great skill'. That meant more to me than any 'you're so talented' from the uninitiated.
