People Don’t Understand Photography Anymore: Here’s How To Solve That

When I was young and took my first driving lesson, the instructor explained to me what was happening with the gearbox and engine when I changed gear, and how what I did controlled the vehicle’s speed. I learned in a manual (stick shift) car. We all did back then in the UK.

I learned things like the importance of changing to a lower gear when going down a hill, to avoid using brakes. This gave me more control of the vehicle and therefore was safer too. Years later, automatic gearboxes became more popular and took away some of the effort required to drive. Jump forward to the present—cars are so full of technology they can drive themselves, and you don’t have to do much. We’ve got to the point where people have no idea what the car is actually doing and don’t know how to control it when they run into a problem. Photography went the same way.

Recently I acquired a collection of cameras and lenses, all from around 2012. A guy had collected them, became ill, and sadly died. His daughter sold them to me. I put them on Facebook Marketplace individually to sell and had hundreds of inquiries. I sold camera and kit lens combos for Canon, Sony, etc., for a very reasonable price. They were bought by people on a budget looking to get into photography.

The huge realization—from talking to so many people—was no one knew anything about photography, and they didn’t want to know. They just wanted to press the shutter and get a photo. I was asked by numerous people if I would teach them. Not teach them photography—just how to use the camera to get a result.

With modern cameras, you don’t need to understand the principles of photography. And this, I believe, is a huge problem for beginners. A camera with AI scene detection, smart exposure algorithms, subject tracking, and autofocus modes does the shooting for you.

Modern cameras are too complicated. I don’t use 90% of the technology in my cameras or even understand how it works. Do you? But I understand photography. I know what different shutter speeds and apertures can do for me. I know where to focus and how to focus for different situations. I’m in complete control, using my camera in manual mode, often with manual focus too. Everything I do with my camera is centered around my creativity. What if a beginner wants to intentionally shoot something in silhouette or use a motion blur technique? A beginner has no knowledge in order to be in control, so can’t improve his or her photography through creative experimentation, which is a huge disability.

The Solution

It’s pretty simple. Get an old film camera and learn how to use it.

If you want to become a pilot, you learn in a simple Cessna 172 Skyhawk, not a technologically laden Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

I learned photography on a Nikon EL2, which was made in the late 1970s, and I bought it secondhand. I put the film in and set the ISO. From there, I turned a dial to change the shutter speed and turned the aperture ring to change my depth of field. It was manual focus, so I turned the focus ring to get focus. Easy to grasp. Manually setting those three things became second nature in no time, so from there I didn’t need to think about the camera. I just concentrated on looking for interesting things to photograph and looking for great light. I was in control, and everything was about how to communicate an idea, share a story, and/or create beautiful art.

'The dark side is not stronger; it is quicker, easier, more seductive.'

Wise words from Master Yoda there, and he’s spot-on, because with digital photography today, there are too many quick hacks and easy ways to do things. We’ve become lazy.

Can’t focus properly and your photo is a little soft? Don’t worry about practicing focusing to improve—buy an app to fix it instead!

Photography should be hard. It should require effort to develop skills and years of practice and experimentation, from lighting setups to image editing. If we don’t need to learn anything or develop skills and let technology do it for us, what’s the point?

Also, the technology in all modern cameras does the same thing and gives everyone the same results. That’s why so many photos we see all look the same. We’re just sheep when we let technology do the work for us, stand at the same popular locations that everyone else does, and then apply the same trending color presets too.

For client work, having technology to help me improve my workflow can have its uses. But from a personal perspective, as someone who loves the craft of photography and enjoys the process of being in complete control of my creative vision and the process, I’m at the stage where I’ve dusted off my old film camera and loaded up some HP5+ like the good old days. The fun factor is huge.

There is an impressively large resurgence for an analog experience, and old film cameras that couldn’t be given away a few years ago are in high demand. Despite this, you can still find a perfectly good film camera and lens for less than $100—a great starting point to learn photography.

I encourage anyone new to photography to learn the craft, not the hacks.

You must commit to learn. “Do or do not, there is no try.”

You must believe in your intentions to create. You must have faith in your creative vision and expression. If not, “That is why you fail.”

We will all screw up often, but don’t fear it. “The greatest teacher, failure is.”

I bet you didn’t know Yoda was a photographer.

“Pass on what you have learned.” This is why I write these opinion pieces. Thanks for reading.