Photography has never been more accessible than it is today. With easy access to high-speed internet leading to endless online resources, tutorials, and social media platforms, we would assume that learning photography has become easier than ever. However, my recent observation, coming from the experience of trying to learn a specific technical approach, proved otherwise. Instead of directly finding clear, in-depth guidance, I found myself drowning in an ocean of clickbait titles, surface-level explanations, and misleading information. This stark contrast to my early learning days made me realize that learning photography from the internet is now harder than it was a decade ago.
Oversaturation of Content Without Depth
One of the biggest issues today is the overwhelming amount of online content. While this may seem like good news on the surface, most of the tutorials and guides out there are lacking in depth. Many creators simply replicate successful tutorials and guide content without adding insights or valuable in-depth explanations.
Compared to what we used to have a decade ago, there were fewer resources available, making it easier for us to sift through, and only those with real expertise were going to gain traction. It was also harder to produce a series of tutorials back then, with filming equipment being the first barrier to entry. Now, anyone with a smartphone camera and an internet connection can create a tutorial, often without the necessary experience or credibility, so long as they have strong presentation skills and a social media following. As a result, finding truly valuable educational content has become a much more tedious and frustrating process.
The Problem With Modern Content Creator Platforms
Many creators today produce photography tutorials more for fame than genuine education. Their focus is often on creating fast, easily digestible content that garners views rather than providing real educational value, just to give the illusion of being the industry leader.
This issue is further worsened by the dominance of social media algorithms, where the platform prioritizes content that generates engagement, favoring entertainment-driven posts over in-depth, educational ones. This means that misleading or surface-level tutorials with catchy thumbnails often gain more visibility than detailed, well-structured lessons. Worse still, incorrect or misleading information gets recycled and reposted repeatedly for the sake of engagement. As a result, even when credible educators produce high-quality content, it is often buried beneath viral, yet less informative, posts. This creates an environment where popularity is mistaken for expertise, making it harder for beginners to access accurate and thorough photography education. This lack of depth in online tutorials doesn’t just affect learning; it actively spreads misinformation that misguides new photographers.
The Effects of Misinformation: Cult-Like Followings and False Confidence
When this inaccurate information is created repetitively, it leads beginners to blindly follow popular content without questioning its accuracy, ultimately creating a dangerous cycle on the internet. What’s even worse is when a community is formed around these misleading teachings, reinforcing the illusion that what they are doing is correct. This results in a kind of cult-like following, where misinformation is continuously validated and spread, causing those who learned the wrong techniques to end up believing they are doing things correctly simply because they are surrounded by like-minded individuals who reinforce their misconceptions.
The Inherent Issue With Technical Knowledge
This trend also makes it difficult for experienced educators to retain an audience. Technical knowledge is often complex and can be perceived as boring, making it harder for credible educators to compete with subpar content creators who focus more on engaging visuals and viral appeal rather than delivering substantial information. As a result, the voices that should be heard are frequently overshadowed, leading to a decline in truly valuable educational content.
The Role of the Audience: Short Attention Spans and Entertainment Over Education
It is not just content creators who are to blame. The nature of the modern viewer has also shifted. With the rise of short-form content and decreasing attention spans, audiences no longer have the patience to sit through comprehensive, in-depth tutorials. Instead, they seek quick fixes and instant gratification. This has led to a decline in full-fledged, properly structured educational content, as creators cater to what gets the most engagement rather than what is most informative. Suffice it to say, learning photography requires a lot of time, practice, and patience, but the current landscape encourages shortcuts that do not provide a solid foundation for beginners to build on.
Too Many Distractions and the Pressure to Follow Trends
Another major challenge hindering the learning process of fellow photographers is the abundance of distractions in today's digital world. Social media has created an environment where photographers are constantly exposed to trends, often leading them to chase viral success rather than focusing on their true passion. Instead of developing a unique style through experimentation, many end up replicating popular aesthetics or techniques just to fit in. This pursuit of easy fame can be detrimental, as it shifts the focus away from growth and creativity. Ultimately, photographers risk becoming mere shadows of others rather than discovering their own artistic vision and interests.
This process of seeking quick validation may also become a major setback for beginners. When the initial excitement fades and the dopamine hits from likes and comments slow down, they may choose to give up before they have even scratched the surface of what photography truly is, as they fixate on getting social approval rather than discovering their true passion.
Conclusion: Finding a Way Forward
Despite these challenges, I strongly believe it is still possible to learn photography effectively from the internet, though it requires a more careful approach. Being selective about sources, seeking out experienced educators, and prioritizing long-form, well-structured content over quick fixes can make a significant difference. Additionally, photographers should focus on their personal growth and discover the fun from within rather than external validation. Staying true to what they genuinely love shooting will also lead them to discover their true passion as they grow as photographers.
If money is not a concern, I still think one of the best solutions to proper learning is to invest in mentorship and guidance. Paying for a credible mentor can save a significant amount of time and help build a strong foundation in photography without going through the hassle of being self-taught. Most importantly, developing grit is essential. Grind through, keep learning even when no one is watching, and always stay focused on your goals. The digital landscape may have changed, but the fundamentals of learning photography remain the same: patience, practice, and persistence.
86 Comments
That is in no way intended as an insult. Separating thoughts and emotions can be tricky. Continued.......
Not really sure about that. But I see no problem with it either way. Emotions are just as important as thoughts, and thoughts are just as important as emotions. I don't see any reason to disconnect the two, or to prioritize one over the other.
The initiative to make changes in our lives or create anything starts with a thought, but it's given power to actually happen from feelings. In other words, you might analyze the prospects of a certain bird appearing in a certain place at a certain time. But the actuality of that happening often depends on how strongly you feel in your heart that it will happen. It's sometimes called visualization. There's a strong correlation between how strongly you believe, feel and foresee that something will happen, and the actual result. It's a biblical principle if you're into that sort of stuff. All of that is to say that gut feelings are probably the biggest driver of the art we create.
Ed asked me:
"Wait a minute, Tom. You vilified YouTube content in earlier posts as shallow, watered-down material, produced by greedy creators, and falsely promoted with click-bait titles. Now you're telling me that the only effective way that you've learned photography is from watching YouTube tutorials. How can you lambast the structure of an entire industry when it's given you the education in photography that you have?"
Making good use of something and then hating parts of it and lambasting it are not mutually exclusive. Many people who are married think that their husband or wife is the best thing that ever happened to them, and have feelings of strong attraction for them, but alternate between those feelings and feelings of frustration and anger and disappointment and regret.
I do not believe that I ever said that ALL YouTube is shallow and watered down. And I never said that ALL YouTube content is useful and helpful and wonderful.
It is okay for me to see 12 different YouTube videos about photography and despise 6 of them, feel indifferent about 3 or 4 of them, and highly value 2 or 3 of them. And that is pretty much my experience over the course of years of watching photography-specific videos there.
So it is entirely consistent with these experiences of mine to say that YouTube content sucks and is clickbaitish and shallow, and to also say, in the same breath, that YouTube content has been extremely valuable to me and greatly enriched my life over the years. There is no inconsistency there, because each statement is true.
_______________ _______________ _______________
an aside:
You said that I told you that the only way I have effectively learned photography is from watching YouTube tutorials. That is not the case.
The only way I effectively learn how to operate camera meny systems is by being shown, not by being told. YouTube tutorials are one way in which I have been shown how to navigate and use camera menus. Another way is people showing me in person.
There are many more aspects to "learning photography" than learning how to operate the camera. Most of these other things I have learned via personal experience, via lots of trial, error, and success, over the years.
So, YouTube tutorials are most certainly not the only way I have learned photography. At some brief points in my life (moments when no one was around to show me in person) they have been the only way I had to learn how to use a camera menu. But most of the things I have learned about photography have been learned apart from YouTube.
Ah... trial, error, frustration, practice, persistence, success, pride, passion, experience... the path to true craftsmanship. Probably none of which can be learned from a book or tutorial.
Ed wrote:
" I'm more of a push-this-button-and-see-what-happens sort of guy."
Oh my, I can't do that!
Many, many times I have inadvertently pushed a button on one of my cameras and it changes everything, and I can't even take a photo because pushing the shutter button no longer releases the shutter, and so the camera is useless and I can not take any more photos until I get home and get online and watch a video on "how to set (model name) back to default settings".
This happened to me TWICE two weeks ago. I drove an hour and a half all the way up to Washington Pass to photograph Pikas and Hoary Marmots. And after just an hour of shooting, my camera went all weird on me. Kept showing me what looked like video on the rear LCD. Couldn't take a pic by pressing the shutter button. Couldn't view my images on the LCD because what I normally press for playback was doing something else. Had to call it a day and come home. A wasted $24 in gasoline. Damn!
So I got home that day and used YouTube to figure out how to set back to default. But then I had to re-set a bunch of things like image quality, white balance, burst rate, ISO, etc. Took me 5 minutes just to get the settings back to where I want them. What a freaking waste of 5 minutes.
Then it happened again a couple days later. This time I had somehow switched the camera from still photo mode to video mode. And of course I have no idea what button does that or what to do to get it back to stills, so again my day was ruined and I had to come home early.
I absolutely hate and despise technology! But yes of course I also love what technology enables me to do. But I want technology to just do its thing without me having to learn about it or how to use it. I want it to "just work" in precisely the way that I want it to, without me having to do anything at all to get it to work that way.
Don't you have an older backup camera with you for those times on the road when something inexplicably happens to your primary camera?
I understand your frustration though. I'm sure every photographer on the planet has experienced unexplained equipment malfunction. I was doing a headshot for someone a couple months ago (something I rarely do anymore) at my home, so I had set up the camera, lights and backdrop the night before exactly as I wanted them for the shoot. All I had to do was turn the power switch on for each piece of gear when the client arrived, and it would work perfectly. Except when he got there, I turned one of the two flash units on but it wouldn't work. Nothing. Battery level showed full but wouldn't flash. Powered it off and on a couple times. Still nothing. I imagined every curse word I could think of but did no good. Worked around the problem with one flash and reflector but I was really pissed, but had to appear outwardly like nothing in the world was wrong. And to top it all off after the customer left, I turned on the temperamental flash later that day and it worked fine. Sometimes its just not your day.
Ed asked:
"Don't you have an older backup camera with you for those times on the road when something inexplicably happens to your primary camera?"
I am already using that older backup camera body, because my 5D4 is so busted up it doesn't function anymore.
I have several old DSLRs that use the same EF lens mount. BUT .....
The dials on my 50D are all locked up, I can literally not turn them any more, they are frozen in place, so the camera is not functional. It has been this way since 2018.
My 1D Mark 4 has some kind of software issue, in which it glitches out constantly. I can sometimes get a few frames out of it before the glitch occurs. But more often, I can't get it to take even one frame. It has been this way since 2021.
My old 7D just doesn't even turn on anymore. I can put a newly charged battery into it, turn it on, and ..... nothing. Just nothing at all. It has been like this for at least 6 years, possibly longer, I do not remember exactly,
My old 5D classic also has motherboard glitch issues, to the point where it can not take even a single photo. It has been this way since 2013.
All of these cameras are so old, so thoroughly used up, that they are not worth the cost of repair. Not even close.
My main camera, the 5D Mark 4, stopped working about 6 weeks ago. I had no money to pay for repairs, so I just sat on it (figuratively) until recently.
This past week, someone hired me to paint a room for them and caulk some trim, so there will be a little income from that .... and then a friend asked me to do the stone masonry on their fireplace, because their builder is running behind schedule, so there will be a bit more income from that job. And an artist is having some products made from one of her paintings, which is based on one of my photos, so I have gotten some royalty income from that during the past 3 weeks.
So, because I know there will be a little money coming in over the next few weeks, on Thursday I took my camera down to Ron, my repair guy. He will be replacing the LCD screen and the mode dial in the 5D Mark 4, and then I will have my main camera back and working, and the old 6D that I am using now will be put back on backup duty.
Wow, Tom... that's quite the impressive list of mechanical failures. Of course, I could be tempted say: "Why not ditch Canon and buy something reliable, like a Nikon?" But, no, that would sound kind of snarky so I won't say it. But really, does it ever make you wonder about swapping brands, assuming of course, the jobs keep rolling in? I have my first Olympus digital cameras from 2003 that still work fine, and my Nikon D800 has worked flawlessly for 12 years. I do have a Canon inkjet printer, but that's the only Canon product that I own. I'm really happy with it, but it's only a little over a year old.
Oh, it is not the manufacturer's fault. The way I use my cameras is why they all fail.
I drop them on rocks, drop them on roads (both asphalt and gravel), they get rained on for hours, they "live" in extremely dusty conditions, they get used at the beach a lot, with me laying down on the sand and the cameras right there just an inch off the sandy surface, and sometimes getting pushed down into the sand when a little lower POV will give a better shot, and then handled with my hands when my hands have sand stuck all over them, they've gotten pancake syrup drizzled on them (a long story involving an attempt to bait a Williamson's Sapsucker), fallen from the back seat of my car onto the floor I don't know how many times, had stuff piled up on them that inadvertently pushed buttons that stayed pushed in for who knows how long, had batteries "explode" inside them, etc., etc., etc.
I have no doubt that cameras from any manufacturer would fail under these same conditions. If any manufacturer would ever make an indestructible camera, that cost no more than regular cameras, then I would of course be all over that!
Why do you think that Nikon cameras might last longer for me, given the way I use and (fail to) care for my gear?
Given the description of how you treat them, there's probably no reason to believe Nikon or any other brand would be better. I had assumed you were just placing normal wear and tear on your cameras. Bad assumption.
I do relate to you Tom, I suck at learning through words. Mostly because my brain isn't wired to learn something from a textbook and apply it practically. I need to see how its applied practically
All good points ! But to me, much of it is advertising masquerading as (questionable) advice? Overpriced gear reccommended for basic photo or video creation.
One recent example I watched; "Buy a Lumix GH7 to Start Your YouTube Channel" ( affiliate link below)
Consequently, no longer subscribing to that creator.
Yeah, that is a pretty asinine title for a video. Just seeing that title would cause me to unsubscribe, too.
Yes but you're not interested in starting your own YouTube channel. If it were a video with the title "Buy this Canon 600XYZ lens to start your bird photography" you'd probably watch it. And maybe even jump into the discussion with your opinion. Wouldn't you?
Ed asked me,
" If it were a video with the title "Buy this Canon 600XYZ lens to start your bird photography" you'd probably watch it. And maybe even jump into the discussion with your opinion. Wouldn't you?"
I probably wouldn't watch it, but I may jump into the discussion with my opinions. Just like I jump into the comments here on Fstoppers all the time, but often do not even read the article that I am commenting on.
EDIT: Why wouldn't I watch a video with the title "Buy this Canon 600XYZ lens to start your bird photography"?
Because I am not very interested in videos that are geared toward beginners who are just starting in something that I have already been doing for years and years. I don't usually watch videos that show me how to do things that I already know how to do. And I generally dislike how-to videos that are geared toward new or intermediate wildlife and bird photographers.
Hence, channels such as Simon d'Entremont's channel are ones I barely ever watch. Simon is a really good guy, and he presents content in a really good, easy-to-understand way, but I just can't learn anything from his videos because he only talks about the things that I have already known for years and years.
Totally get what you meant, but if we can look past the clickbait, there might be some value to be learned. Curiously, how did that youtuber use a new camera (whatever that would be, doesn't have to be what was mentioned) to start a youtube channel. Unless of course the entire video is just explaining how great Lumix GH7 is then he probably should have titled it differently.
YouTube 10 years ago had very useful content (videos are still likely all out there) by those creators that we call “influencers” now. I’m in my 50s and appreciated a lot of great videos back then to help further my understanding of not only creative shooting techniques, but also technical/gear reviews. For some of those, the gear didn’t matter as much and they put the focus on more technical details (while, for sure highlighting pros and cons of particular body or lens). I rarely watch YouTube now as it has become this decades version of infomercials, and the focus has switched to what I call the “200% club” of superzooming/pixel peeping to the extreme, to the point of one recent video showing the difference between a $8500cdn camera/lens combo to a new $16kcdn combo. Or, another famous YouTuber recently deriding m4/3 system as basically useless (or that’s how I heard it in the “podcast”). So, I agree with this article that it’s more difficult because there’s a lot more noise out there to filter through compared to 10-12 years ago. However, I also think AI will continue to evolve and possibly make the learning easier (at least to a point). The creative side, and becoming better at it will always be dependent on the person, and the time and energy one puts in to it.
I do agree with you. I was subscribed to a newsletter by a photographer and he send out a list of great youtube videos that were produced a decade ago and they were golden. Also recalling back when I started learning a decade ago, i binge watch every youtube video just to get a sense of how photography is like. And I have to say they were very valuable.
On AI, I am not sure if I will rely on that completely because there is also no way to verify what the output is correct. At the very least, they make information searching way easier
Like all technology, AI will evolve. I’ve been in technology industry for over 30 years and watching it go through shifts and phases has been interesting (and as photographers, we’ve all seen this shift). YouTube and social media didn’t really exist 20 years ago (and took another 10 to get to the influencers and ambassadors we see now). I used to do 3D modelling for example in Google Earth (which required thousands of photos), which over the course of 5 years was replaced by drones and overhead shots that could automatically build 3D (as it is in Google Maps now). It was a brief period of time to earn money in photography, which was replaced. AI is getting increasingly better with each new model, as well as next generation agentic AI. Maybe I’m just getting older, but with the exception of maybe one or two YouTubers that do gear reviews (when it’s a product I’m interested in), I’m just back to exploring things for myself…and even if I watch the usually too-long videos, I quickly skip through it for highlights (and to miss the in-video ads for Squarespace). I find forums, discussions with other photographers and well thought out articles to be far more useful now.
Yes, I can say that we are actually in the best time for photography. We have easy access to gears that can produce flawless images, editing softwares that are so capable, and knowledge everywhere. Its just sadly to filter through these noises will require some effort if we don't wish to surf around the surface. Still.. exciting times ahead and hopefully it will head towards a positive direction
Well stated. I learned photography through the early 2000's to now. I'm still learning. The learning never stops, but I can add my voice to say it has indeed become much harder to learn not just photography but anything online any more. Even a lot of PAID content is just as low quality as the free content now days. It's like you said, content creators are just chasing trends and gaming the algorithm to gain fame and recognition with out producing anything of substance. Even just trying to get regular questions answered is like pulling teeth with search engines. It got to a point where you had to type "reddit" at the end of a search query to get any kind of relevant answer for something. Even google admits that they know their search engine sucks without reddit. Now here in the past couple of years even that seems to be much less effective than it used to be. It's almost like those that control the content on the internet are trying to keep us dumb.
I've seen so much of the low quality content on YouTube that I can detect it withing the first 10-20 seconds of starting a video. If hear "WHAT'S UP GUYS!" or "IT'S YA BOI!" Then I immediately know that video is going to be a colossal waste of time and I'm skipping it. If I see a video where the intro is way longer than it should be I know it's going to be more worthless content. If The content creator spends more than 2 minutes beating around the bush with nonsense subjects or details that are completely unnecessary and unrelated to the subject of the video. I know it's going to be trash. Dunno how to fix it beyond stopping algorithms from showing content based on what sells something though.
I think its going to be tougher from here made worse with our fast pace lifestyle because creating the high value content takes a lot of time which leads to more creators actually spend time making fancy transitions and colour grades than actually delivering a point. And delivering a point is also not easy when one is not that knowledgeable. Hence, the beating around the bush just to hit the video length meeting criteria for algorithms. I would take those video as an entertainment rather than educational just to see how things are done these days and if they have a great personality, I wouldn't mind watching.
While this is more of an issue with cinematography and video post production, one area where users can find trouble with developing a thorough education in an area, is that there are very few channels focused heavily on education, instead many are focused on tutorials and ancillary content related to their own progression in the field.
For example, a user will find a channel that does great tutorials and conveys knowledge from beginner level to intermediate level while showing some of it in short films they make, then suddenly they jump to advanced stuff where they are using multiple ARRI ALEXA Mini LF cameras and are filming an outdoor scene with 40 different lights and modifiers and using 20K worth of plugins and other applications as part of their workflow, in addition to high end asset packs where the companies making them don't list their prices and instead expect you to contact them for a quote for their mega scans, and while it is interesting to see how they handled a complex scene as part of paid work, it is no longer educational for users following along; it is entertainment along the lines of someone demonstrating how they conduct an experiment on the international space station, or how an engineer services part of a nuclear reactor, it is cool and interesting, for just about everyone on earth, but not really educational due to the gap in knowledge for the viewer.
This is sadly the nature of "free" content since it is not their main work, and typically those content creators can't really balance doing free educational content that is far from the content they are doing professionally.
Overall, there is no perfect solution, and users who want to develop a more complete education, will have to switch channels ad those transition points are reached.
With photography, it is more adaptable since much of the knowledge can transcend a wide range of price categories, and this allows some more educational focused channels to focus more on skill and less on gear, though photography is not immune from the video production issues.
I would say take contents in the net now with a grain of salt. Treat it more like an entertainment and think deeper than what the video has shown us. If the video has picked our interest in a specific area, it might have done its job as an entertainment source. And its up to us to dig deeper and learn as we see fit
The dirty secret of online photography education is that the first generation of successful influencers were camera store salesman, hobbyists pretending to be pros, and genuine pros that came from the lowest parts of the industry. They were the people that had failed to achieve any serious success in commercial photography and sadly had a chip-on-their-should against photographers that had gone through school and had upper level commercial assisting experience. They taught low end methods that used to be called "guerrilla style" that were easy for beginners to learn from magazines and books at the library.
It's a dirty secret because the internet gave them the ability to pretend to be something that they were not and so every wannabe could build a website and pretend to be a "pro." In the early days of digital (late 90s to mid-2000s) they made no money and had no influence so the legit shooters continued to think that they were a joke. However, the situation began to change drastically with the rise of big social media companies like Youtube that could monetize hobbyist content and bring it to a large audience with no fact-checking required. Camera companies quickly figured out that the following for content creators was enormous so they gave them endorsements. Social media became embedded into daily life and it became possible to leverage the networks created by multiple outlets like Facebook, Flickr, Instagram etc. It didn't take long until the "fake pros" had corporate sponsorship and began to replace the real thing.
Why does this matter? They lied from the beginning and told newbies how to get into an industry that they didn't know how to get into themselves. They claimed that nobody needed to go to school and could just buy some gear and have a career. Meanwhile, they hypocritically sold pay-per-view content (DVDs, Patreon etc) and charged thousands of dollars to attend workshops. Yesterday's fake pros were today's real pros teaching newbies how to shoot photography at the level of a fake pro. Unfortunately, an entire generation got suckered into believing that they were investing in a career when really they had simply become the new version of the same old hobbyist industry. They all now lived in a media bubble controlled by corporations The influencers, social media platforms and camera companies profit from endless product cycles that hobbyists binge-on while falsely that the path leads to a career. The whole thing has been a con from top-to-bottom and egos are now so entangled with consumer spending and online viewing habits that most hobbyists can't change without experiencing serious mental health problems.
Truthfully, commercial photography doesn't really exist anymore like it did in the film era so there is no going back to the days before online photo education. If photographers don't like what they're seeing now then they should know that it's not going to get any better and will only get worse. The best photography schools in the industry, like Brooks Institute, are out of business and they are no longer financially viable enterprises. It's almost impossible to work full-time assisting for a successful commercial photographer because most of the remaining jobs are now lower production side-gigs. Content creators have completely taken over all of the photography industry and there is no need for dedicated commercial photographers anymore. The content creators will continue to sell camera gear, provide education and they will get the few remaining commercial side-gigs. It doesn't matter if they are good or not at photography anymore because they just need to be able to draw social media audiences in order to be financially successful.
If there's anybody remaining that's read this far then they are probably thinking that my post sounds like some kind of "get off my lawn" rant coming from an old guy that has been beaten by the new generation. The people that believe that are delusional and they are going to fail. Meanwhile, my photography has never been better because I am very pragmatic when it comes to making business decisions. From my perspective, the online photography educators have destroyed the entire generation of photographers that was supposed to be my competition and handed me a monopoly over a small corner of a new industry. The current generation shoots in predictable ways that are formulaic and easy to beat. They waste their time chasing "likes" and are hopeless trapped in a social media bubble that is now out-dated legacy tech while ignoring the photography opportunities that are new in the art market and on the blockchain.
It is kind of lame that you write such a strongly opinionated post, in which you put down so many people, and you won't even put your name to it. You just post anonymously with "DELETED ACCOUNT" as your username. Man up. If you want anyone to take your points seriously, then you should be posting them under your real name, and not be afraid to say these things publicly.
Amazing article! I have noticed that everyone and their dog are photographers now simply because they have watched a bunch of reels and Tiktok videos on how to do stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for accessability and people learning new things, but it also seems like it's not even about art but more about being trendy and taking trendy shots instead. Everything is done for the likes and clicks with no actual wish to learn for the artistic purpose, if that makes sense. Again, I love the accessability of technology, I love the fact that AI can colorize a bunch of old family photos in a few seconds and I'll need to do some minor Photoglory tweaks; it saves time and effort greatly. But at the same time this accessability led to oversaturation of low-quality content, lots of AI-type images and just low-effort attempts in general. This is what makes me sad about the future of photography the most.
Oh yes, its simply isn't sustainable to produce high quality content at such a volume. And if the creators don't keep their viewers entertain enough, their viewers will just leave. These economics are not sustainable and as you said, it will only get worse from here until a reset bubble happens
Photography has always been difficult to make a living from. In my early days, it was magazines and everyone aspired to be "published"; now, it's having a popular YouTube channel. I get it, everyone wants to make a comfortable living, drive a nice car and have more gear than they know what to do with.
The world changes and so has YouTube. I've unsubscribed from so many photography channels; that I'm close to the point of unsubscribing from YouTube altogether. I've been doing photography that I'm not interested in videos on composition or technique. I enjoy watching a photographer in the field - often in areas that are different from where I live, South Texas. But, I just watched another one of my favorites, in an effort to garner a bigger audience, start "dumbing" down his channel and focusing on "basics". Ok, it's his channel so he can do what he likes and I just unsubscribe (I recently bought one of his books, so I do like his work). But, I can't help but think, I'm not the only one who is doing this. So many photographers chasing the same "beginner" crowd.
Gear channels don't interest me as they seem to go from one brand to another and seek to encourage controversy. I started with 35mm film, then moved to 4x5 (which I used for decades) and now mirrorless; Nikon Z8 and Fuji GFX 100s. I'm not interested in the latest from Sony/Canon/Panasonic, etc.
My friends, upon seeing my prints, often ask "Why don't you put these online and sell them?" I have them online, but don't sell prints (I used to do gallery sales years ago). I'm not interested. I do photography for myself now.
Well, my suspicion will be that the "beginner" crowd is the most curious bunch and also the most in terms of volume in a pyramid. Hence, feeding into their stats.
I am also with you on camera gears, frankly I am no longer that attracted to latest camera launch as I can do whatever I want to do with my setup.
In terms of my work, I have a lot of strong work that I do not publish anywhere because they were created for myself in the first place. Though I do debate with myself, what use will they be if the world will not be seeing it? Will I be the next Vivian Maier with stash of hard disk being found decades later? Lol. The debate is still ongoing
Let's be honest, very few really good photographers will have time to share their knowledge. They usually have a busy schedule. On the other hand, many of those who call themselves "photographers" have a lot of theory and little experience. For them, it's easy to take a girl into the woods, put on an f1.2 lens and an octoboz next to her, and that's enough! Photography isn't just about soft light or creamy bokeh. Photography is about the beauty of the whole picture, and that's something you'll hardly find for free on YouTube from a good photographer, and I think that's okay because good things cost a fortune. There are far more "influencers" than photographers these days. The other day I saw a Nikon ambassador and I was very sorry that even the CEOs of Fuji, Nikon, and Canon have fallen into this level of "influence"...lots of meaningless photos, no framing, no context...just bokeh. I think the real learning is in the many blogs that few people try to Google or search for due to the "immediacy" of their lives
Well, businesses will market where they see money, and unfortunately "influencers" is the easiest and probably cheapest way to bring them direct sales. Its sad and frustrating but we can only do this much when the entire world is moving into this direction. Nothing wrong with this, its just we have to get used to the way things are these days.
I couldn't agree more. I'm currently working for a company to do photography educational shorts. I try to make it bit-sized while also providing depth when watched in a series. But the challenge is that depth requires a longer duration to properly explain a certain points, and the audience in short video platforms certainly swipe away faster when a video is going to take some time to get into the main points.
Yes that's the nature of content consumption now. And with so many contents available, we are slowly shifting towards consuming and not applying which feeds to the ego of many with the "I know it all attitude". A rather disturbing and horrifying trend, I am still observing what will the future becomes
It is difficult to hold attention for extended educational content. Usually what will make people skip a video, is if it starts to get into what can be colloquially described as "textbook format" where a chapter will be unnecessarily verbose to turn 2-4 pages of content into 15-20 page chapter (which usually brings up bad memories of poorly made school textbooks that people are often forced to buy).
The overall strong desire from many viewers, is something that is difficult to do, and that is content that is long form but succinct in how it is delivered.
In most cases, the content doesn't even need to be flashy if the content can be succinct and dense. For example a longer video that will introduce users to the basics of constant current. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGwnAH_qvto
Beyond that, for most online education, a standard factory/ Prussian educational model doesn't work, and instead there is often desire for self-directed learning where the core knowledge is given and for more of deep theory content is made available but not forced. In that model, a student who absorbs and implements the core knowledge to get something done, will eventually start asking why, especially when they start wanting to tweak certain things, and they will happily learn more of the theory, especially if there is a good UX that allows to to easily fond the desired deeper knowledge.