You’ve got your new upgraded camera, maybe a new lens, and Santa delivered a cool new magnetic filter kit. Now you’re all set this year to take sharper photos, faster, without reflections. But is this enough to help you become a better photographer in 2025? Spoiler: No. It may actually make you a worse photographer.
Every time we drink the marketing Kool-Aid from camera manufacturers and buy cameras with added buttons and functions that can do miraculous things using powerful new processors, we’re slowing down our creative journey by reading manuals and learning about more technical stuff we probably don’t even need.
All most of us really need, for most of the photography we enjoy, is the ability to choose a shutter speed, aperture, and focus our subject so we can capture it. Your last camera could do that. So could the one you bought in 2014. My old Nikon D700, which I bought in 2008, did a tremendous job. The best camera I ever owned that allowed me to capture what I saw effortlessly was my old Nikon EL2. It was made in the late 1970s, and I bought it second-hand in 1984. Is this why film photography is making a comeback and why dusty old cameras are now increasing in value? Maybe. But I digress—let’s get back to the main topic.
My Thoughts and Advice
My best advice for improving our photography skills this year is to not worry about having a sensor with more megapixels, pixel shifting, or “portrait impression balance.” Yeah, I’ve no idea about that last one either—it seems the marketing people are now drinking their own Kool-Aid and then smoking weed. Instead, we need to focus on doing things we haven’t tried before, taking creative risks that push us outside our comfort zones.
Some of you may be thinking, “But having more megapixels and the ability to take sharper photos will improve my photography.” Well, no. Nope. Not gonna happen. Unless you really believe it’s going to happen—just like you probably think the Earth is flat too. No one can reason with you, so grab that credit card and go enjoy yourself. But be careful not to venture too close to the edge.
Newer cameras loaded with more technology do not make you better.A sharper, larger image file doesn’t make you better.Spending time understanding all the technical mumbo-jumbo being added to cameras doesn’t make you a better photographer—it risks turning you into a pixel-peeping camera enthusiast. A bit of a geek, really. Which has little to do with being a photographer. And look at those guys—do you really want to end up an obese keyboard warrior living on pizzas and sugary soft drinks delivered via Uber Eats, barely moving from your computer, with the zoom tool in Photoshop set to 400%?
All the time you stay in your comfort zone, you’re not learning or improving.
That’s worth repeating: all the time you stay in your comfort zone, you’re not learning or improving.
The way to become a better photographer is to spend less time looking at technical stuff and more time looking for inspiration to push your creativity.
Rick Rubin succinctly says, “No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you.”
I’m a big believer that giving yourself constraints is a great way to improve your photography skills and creativity. This could mean using less gear and simplifying things, such as only using one focal length. Maybe you only shoot in black and white for a few months if you’ve only ever shot in color. Or go out locally to seek out compositions all about contrasting colors. If you love portraits, maybe start using off-camera flashes instead of natural light. The ideas are endless.
Wait, What Does 'Better Photographer' Mean?
Improving our technical skills is important, and getting a really good grasp of the principles of photography is essential. But that’s something everyone can do. In a short amount of time, anyone can learn to take a sharply focused, well-exposed photo.
To move forward from there—to create remarkable photographs instead of mediocre ones—we need to do a few things that have little to do with the gear we have.
Being a better photographer means being someone who is curious. Someone who is willing to try new things and explore their creativity. Rick Rubin says the ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. Someone who finds influence in many places, from studying art, listening to music, reading, and traveling. Someone who understands why they’re taking a photo and has intention and creative vision. Someone who understands the power of storytelling and works at creating images that evoke emotion or communicate something. Someone who is open to exploring new ideas, themes, and styles of working to express themselves. This could involve things like ICM, multiple exposures, or using lighting creatively. Someone who doesn’t fear failure or ridicule. This point is a big one, and a reason so many people don’t push themselves. But here’s the secret: you don’t need to share the results of your experiments on Instagram. Keep those photos to yourself, learn from them, try again, and repeat. Don’t worry about what other people think. You are the audience for your work—not a stranger on Instagram.
I Practice What I Preach
I’m giving this advice to myself as well as you, dear reader. I’m practicing what I preach. I’m introducing a new personal project this year, influenced by reading about William Eggleston.
I’m going to be doing a lot of ICM travel and street photography.I’m also starting an abstract minimalism project. This one is really outside my wheelhouse!
As the year progresses, I’ll undoubtedly come up with another thing or two to try.
I’m really excited about these projects, all designed to take me outside of my comfort zone and really push my creativity. I’m going to be writing about them and making some videos about them on my YouTube channel, so do pop by to subscribe and hit the notification button.
A Quick Recap
- Push your creativity and ideas.
- Venture outside your comfort zone.
- Add narrative depth by telling stories.
- Break the rules.
- Trust your gut.
Becoming a better photographer is a journey, not a destination. It’s about continual learning, experimenting, and connecting with the world in deeper ways through your lens. Ultimately, it means creating work that you’re proud of, that speaks to your vision, while constantly striving to improve.
Here’s to a creative New Year!
Hey, what are you trying that’s new this year? Do share in the comments!
You don't have to convince me that a newer camera is unlikely to improve my photography. I'm happy with my Nikon D800 from 2013. At that time, it was a revolutionary step forward in terms of resolution. Its low-light quality was much better than what I had been shooting with as well. And when you're making big prints, those features are important. Camera specifications do matter... to a point, depending on the types of pictures we make and what we want to do with them. But there's been nothing since then that's made me feel like my images could be improved with a newer camera.
The question that you raise that I'd hope would make for a good discussion is... What, exactly, is the best way to improve our photography? You've made some great suggestions. Curiosity helps. Trying new techniques, or approaching a different subject or style might open the door to becoming a more diverse photographer. Taking your camera out with just one lens or aperture setting opens up a new world of “seeing” sometimes.
I spent some time last fall doing that with a fixed length 105 macro lens set at F/4. Having always shot with a much smaller aperture to get as much detail front to back as possible, this was a new experience. I had a suspicion in my mind that I was going to like the dreamy shallow depth-of-field; however, it's one thing to like the idea, and another to execute it. Even an out-of-focus background can be distracting. So I learned to see how color, contrast, and shapes could complement the main subject. Another thing I did was ditch the tripod, which I never would have considered up until this point. And without a tripod, I did something else previously never considered... I bumped up the ISO to its maximum of 25,600, just to see what would happen. I wouldn't have thought I'd try that in a million years. But after I made a few prints, I thought, wow, this is pretty cool. Gives the picture a traditional touch.
I will say, though, that exploring new subjects and methods without thought to what makes for a good photo seems like just coming up with different pictures that arguably are still bad. For me, a picture still needs a readily identifiable subject, it needs balance, some degree of simplicity, and it needs a purposeful relationship between the subject and peripheral elements. In short, it needs good composition. So I think that regardless of camera gear, subject or style, improvement largely occurs from study, analysis, and constructive feedback from other people. Therein I somewhat disagree with you about not caring what other people think. Especially for a novice photographer, but even seasoned pros can learn from critical feedback. It may not always be good advice, and I'd choose my mentors carefully, but even bad advice gets a person to thinking.
And I've been thinking a lot lately of a comment by Alfred Stieglitz from his first issue of "Camera Work" published in 1903, speaking about photography: "It is on subtle gradation in tone and value that its artistic beauty so frequently depends." That said, are transitions of tonal values something we actually think about… before clicking the shutter? Or is it more like most things that we merely analyze after the picture pops up on our monitor? Anyway, I was trying to apply that idea to this picture I made recently of what’s called a fishbone cactus, or zig-zag cactus is another name.
Some very good points worth thinking about Ed, thanks for the input. I do agree, that feedback from those with experience is always good. My point was to not worry about likes or dislikes from the masses on social media.
I do believe one of the best ways to help improvement is to use only one lens. I too have a 100mm macro. You've made me think it's time to dust it off again. Cheers!
My macro lens has become my favorite. It has some inherent limitations, namely shallow depth-of-field. In some cases you might be working with razor-thin layers of focus. But to your point about buying new gear, a new camera might solve some of these issues with computational focus-stacking and in-camera noise reduction, but my approach has been to embrace the limitations of the camera and make more artful photographs. I really don't think a good photograph has changed much in the last hundred years.
Not to say that any old blurry picture will do, but that by choosing an appropriate focus point and allowing the remaining areas to fall out-of-focus is often more effective than a close-up which captures everything in focus. That was an argument made by Peter Henry Emerson in the 1800s when lens technology was in its infancy. He recognized back then that depth-of-field could isolate the subject effectively. Deciding on that focal point though can be a challenge. These are two images from this fall that I made with a large aperture.
Read and READ again and AGAIN!! No matter where you live or what country you are in the biggest stopping power to better photography is knowledge of what is around. What is available today is the WWW. Subjects and places used to be just in magazines or papers today images are at your fingertips, and those images are mostly from snappers with no real desire for greatness but with a little dreaming of the places you can go to and see what is possible.
Think first as a hobbyist free to do whatever and wherever! Most local news station and papers have images that people submit just to submit, this is like exploration and is knowledge. Half of a capture is just dreaming of an image and then finding the place or in reverse!
It is not so much the camera but how it is used and to learn is to get a big book about all the functions. In my beginnings of my A7S was a trip to a book store before i decided to get it. Back in '13 Brian Smith, mainly a portrait Photographer wrote a few books about the new Sony A7 cameras with color photos of things you could do as well as what Auto functions, as well as all selectable M, R, S and P as well as what settings were for just Jpegs and how and what RAW was all about, all info still good and apply to the newest of Sony cameras no matter the number of pixels.
To this day I still carry my FUJIFILM WP Z point and shoot with zoom in a pocket or bag and a second in each vehicle glove box for that most unplanned moment, It works.
Most go to work at sunrise and sunset how about going early and a little later with that time you see and capture what you cannot when you look and see something.
The most important part of your image is your EYE for framing a capture it needs to be trained and as you drive you look left/right and see something and remember that colorful moment and one day you stop and capture. Remember the lighting and places change every minute and day and year never ever to repeat that is what makes an image to be an original and only yours!
Study the suns path for twice a year the sun and moon both rise and set 180 degrees apart. Other months the sun rises and sets in a different places but a full moon always rises in the same spot!
Learn and use each WB setting using in each condition.
Again an important part is post editing if you want use a couple just to see results each will be an original!!!!
Mostly just have FUN and more FUN........
Fun, and more fun... 100%
There's no point in doing it if you don't have fun!