Tips To Improve Your Photos

The video has some great points with practical tips on how to get your creative juices flowing and basically setting yourself up with some barriers to challenge yourself and making the best of the situation. Peter McKinnon goes through a list of things he does to challenge himself to keep being creative and to get out of the comfort zone and push your creative being to another level. 

Switch Off the Social Media

Rather go out and do something cool rather that watching other people doing something creative. Stop comparing your work to others. You are you, and you have your eye. Don't compare. That photographer has their own journey and you have yours. Just always be learning and never be satisfied with your photography skills. You always need to learn. The way to do that is not to browse other's work. The way to do it is to go out and shoot.

Try Shooting Film or Limit Your Card

Scarcity pushes up the value of anything, and if you have limited shots, like you photographers in the past used to have with a spool of 36 shots, you are a lot more strategic with your approach and instead of firing off eight frames per second, you need to choose the moment and capture one frame, the one that will tell the story. It's a lot more methodological, and can be attributed to a style. How are you going to get the shot, and what are you saying with it. 

You can do it by trying out a film camera for a while, or by using small memory cards and only packing that in your bag. This will make sure you pay attention and think things through before you take the shot. I did stick to shooting film for a month. It really did make me appreciate the process of taking photographs. I spent a day out with others I met through a Meetup group in Paris to shoot some street photos along the Seine River. It really was a great experience just to have the camera, the lens and a couple of spools in my pocket. 

Limit the Options

Don't pack all the lenses you have. Choose one you haven't used a lot in the past and go try learn what it has to offer. Don't have yourself comforted with the bag full of lenses. Limit yourself and limit your bag. 

Conclusion

I wouldn't recommend doing this while shooting for a client. It's for when you go out to shoot for yourself. You can subscribe to Peter's Youtube channel here. He's got some great tips and his videos are produced very well with great editing and effects. 

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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1 Comment

I like this bloke's videos. He's entertaining but not over the top. Some good tips in the video too; the social media point reminds me of this fstoppers site. I look through the amazing shots and feel very amateurish!!