[Kerrowdown]

I'd have to say a good tripod, too, although I'm not sure how much that still applies

If I compare the same image taken handheld and one shot on a tripod, I can usually tell the which ones which.

It certainly helps with my composition, as the picture process is slowed slightly and I spot things I might have missed otherwise.

[TaoMaas]

Reading and digesting the Time Life Photography series - all 16 volumes.

I LOVED those books! Before I even owned a camera, I used to check them out of the library and pour over them. By the time I finally got my first SLR, I already knew how to operate it. I think "Color" was my favorite.

[Scout]

Immediate thoughts :

- Using primes makes me improve a lot, because as says Anne-Laure JACQUART : "cadrer, c'est couper", translation : "framing (or composing) is cuting". What I understand is that there is no need to include the most things in the field, or a global subject, just "cut" in it.

- Recently : Pentax Forums

- In the past : Black and white film photography, all manual gear from camera (Olympus OM1), by film development, to enlargement .... (you have to think every action or else you can lose a whole film, or worst case, the cover of an event ... pressure also makes improvement)

- Reading a lot of photo books, national geographic, geo, magazines, social networks photos, Pentax Forums, ...

- understanding the LIGHTs

- "thinking" photo all the day, even missing the camera

Anyway, searching to improve has been, is actually, and will always be an endless quest (the most difficult actually is to definite an own style, line or "personality")

Post scriptum : well eeh ... having FUN

[rogerstg]

I remember coaching basketball, if players shots were consistently short you'd tell them to aim for the back of the rim. You could go in to all the physics involved, discuss the link between the hand and th eye, through the connection through the brain, but that's not necessary, all that's necessary is "aim for the back of the rim." That will get the kid back on track. And there are cheats like that for every shooting situation, and a guy I coached with, one of the best shooting coaches on the planet, knew them all.

Photography is the same way. Find the guy who does what you want to do, try and discover his "cheat." Not all the theory, not the science what you need is how he thinks about his images that enable him to prioduce the things he does.

Good analogy. What probably helped me the most was such a "cheat;" the Rule of Thirds*. The actual advice from a client, the director of the Rhode Island School of Photography, was to always use the rule of thirds unless I choose not to. It has served me well and I've passed it on to others.

* Rule of Thirds being a cheat for applying the Golden Ratio

[stevebrot]

To me it was the realization I was not photographing a scene, rather I was capturing the light being reflected off the objects in the scene and its' interaction with the difference surfaces, textures, etc. This came to me while watching the Bob Ross TV show, "The Joy of Painting", (aired in the 80's and 90's on PBS in the US, and still aired in reruns today.). He always kept saying you must have dark to show light, and you must have light to show dark. This is so true in photography also.

Dang...this is good in so many ways! So much of the time, what we see in the "mind's eye" is the working of light on surface and not the aesthetic of subject itself. The challenge is to not dilute the effects of light with our efforts with the camera.


Steve

[Neuse River Sailor]

My mom telling me not to cut off the tops of people's heads off when I was 7 years old, shooting a Brownie box camera. Composition is everything.

[Dan Rentea]

My mom telling me not to cut off the tops of people's heads off when I was 7 years old, shooting a Brownie box camera. Composition is everything.

Well, Peter Hurley does that (he cuts off the top of people's head) and he makes a lot of money by doing it

NY Corporate Headshots by Peter Hurley. Business portrait photographer in NY ans LA

[Neuse River Sailor]

Well, Peter Hurley does that (he cuts off the top of people's head) and he makes a lot of money by doing it

Fortunately, I've never needed to make a lot of money so I've been able to concentrate on taking good pictures. But I have known some of those corporate executives and wished somebody would cut their heads off at the neck.

[Saltwater Images]

Selling off all my zooms in 2014 and spending 4 years shooting primes (HD DA Limited’s) only - before buying the DA* 60-250. The primes made me think more about the process, positioning, composition and visualizing what I want to capture in advance. The Limited’s also squeeze every possible bit of sharpness out of the sensor and deliver a superb drawing style.

[beholder3]

Slowly developing the "photographic eye" to be able to sense, see, recognize and identify nice subjects and how they should be framed. All this not in any "craft" way but in the aesthetic / artistic view. Not technique but awareness.

[iheiramo]

Aperture block failure on my k30

Honestly the best thing ever for my photography. It got me into Pentax Forums and manual lenses to keep on going without need to put money on a body at the moment. Both made me more conscious of my shooting which has lead to urge to learn more. I'm a lot better photographer today than I was 3 years ago.

[arnold]

My lessons came from learning on a simple manual camera without a rangefinder or meter. It had focus, speed and aperture adjustments only. This forced me to deal with the basics of focus and exposure and not get lost in confusing details. Details come later and fill in the basic structure, but one never loses the basics if the details overwhelm one.

[jcdoss]

I don't know whether my photography has improved or not. You tell me. But any attempt in that direction can be credited to the following: using digital, then film (instead of the other way around), keeping up to date on this forum, using manual primes due to all the challenges and benefits they bring, and due to their small size which allows everyday conveyance of a camera literally everywhere I go.

[luftfluss]

Like @jcdoss I'm not sure I can claim my photography has improved - at least in terms of composition and visualization - but because I've embraced the manual focus life with (especially) long telephoto lenses, I've been able to make images I couldn't back when I was AF-only.

[Discipulus]

This is all really helpful stuff!