What limits you as a photographer? What is your Achilles heel?

S

SciAggie

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There are many elements that have to come together to make a great photograph. One must have the ability to visualize the image mentally, then frame it and shoot it. There are choices of focal lenghts. There is exposure, f-stop, and shutter speed. Do you shoot b&w or color? Film or digital? Then one has to develop properly - then scan and/ or wet print.

Each of the above considerations requires a certain degree of knowledge, skill, or talent that the photographer must possess in order to complete a satisfying image. I am curious to hear what you feel your shorcomings are. What is your achilles heel?
 
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1. General timidity when it comes to shooting strangers.

2. A suburban life, with little chance to go out on my own, away from the family, to just shoot.
 
back alley said:
where do i start?
Click to expand...

I'll give an example. I have a sort of project I am working on shooting an old house. As I revisit and shoot and then look at my images, I feel I am limited by my inability to know exactly what I'm after - I am sort of just making things up as I go. That's ok I guess as a learning exercise but it's a limiting factor for sure as it relates to a final product. I know I am also on the steep part of the learning curve as it relates to the relationship between exposure and development in b&w film. I have a lot to learn there.

I just wonder if others here have a sort of personal set of goals they try to work on as they go along.
 
Doing whatever it takes to get the right shot. Sometimes it's being nervous about asking to take someone's photograph, sometimes it's not paying attention to technical details, sometimes I just press the trigger at the wrong moment.

I've found though that the more you do this the more learn not to do it again. What a process!
 
I think I don't have enough social connections, and also a slight deficiency in lighting know-how still.
 
Lack of consistency is my greatest enemy right now.
It starts with developing - I try out too many developer/film combinations. I really need to focus on two combinations, one for good light and one for low light. It continues with scanning - I still haven't worked out a satisfactory workflow yet. And it ends with sloppy archival.

It usually goes like this: shoot photos, develop, preview grainy photos, forget the jpgs in a temp directory and pile the negatives somewhere, repeat. Come to think of it, much like with digital.
 
I need to actually print some negatives - having got into film shooting and deciding that I'd rather wet-print than pay for a large amount for a decent scanner I haven't had time to actually do any printing yet...

Result is quite a few rolls of negatives no one can see yet...

S
 
I'm impatient when learning new things - I'm sure I could be a better photographer (and perhaps other things!) if only I would take the time and make the effort to learn.

Oh, and it gets worse as I get older.
 
My main limit is in the editing process. Somehow getting a handle on that would be a breakthrough.
 
Hankering after gear is a problem, but my main problem is likely time/effort. Mostly effort. When I go out to take photos, I'm often happy with my results, but so often I can't be bothered to go somewhere new, and end up at the same places taking the same photos.
 
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