What is your photographic weakness?

At a workshop a few weeks ago, we closed the door and went around the table asking that very question and got a lot of similar answers. “I don’t shoot enough”. “I don’t use flash well.” “I’m a bit nervous about approaching people, yet I want to take people pictures”. It was a very effective exercise that brought to the surface, what people knew about their shooting techniques, but hadn’t spent much time thinking about.

Once you make a list of areas that have room for improvement, you can then do something about them. Much of the technical help can be found on the internet. There are a lot of great websites devoted to specific areas of photography that people can get help from.

But that’s just part of the answer. The main answer lies in going out with your camera and address those weaknesses head-on. There’s no great mystery to getting better at this, it just requires smart practice, and learning from mistakes. It also helps to find a good editor. Friends and relatives are great, but pats on the back are less useful than meaningful constructive criticism.

Before good constructive criticism...

After

Aperture is perfectly poised to help you out. You can instantly create a gallery (if you have a Mobile Me account) of images you want to share and seek advice on. You can make the site a password protected one if you wish, limiting access to those people you provide the login info. You can even make your images available for download as web-sized or bigger versions so your editor can have larger files from which to critically view. And you can hide this learning gallery so it won’t appear on your gallery homepage with your other public galleries.

Once created, you can make changes by adding or removing images and then clicking the sync button, to keep your gallery fresh. Under the MobileMe Gallery pop down menu, scroll down to “Tell a Friend”; your mailbox will open with a message providing a link to the URL of the gallery. Simply put in your editors email address, add any password info if needed, and that’s it.

I would suggest you create an album of photos as you get them, images that you’re unsure about or you’ve been disappointed in, as well as ones you feel are successful. It’s never easy to get an honest critique of your work, but it’s so important to your development as a photographer. So be open, listen and decide what is being said that you can use. Don’t be defensive!

Some of the things I plan on improving in the new year include: Shooting more! Good pictures happen the more you shoot, I know this yet I don’t shoot as much as I should. As a professional photographer, I haven’t made as many opportunities for myself to just get out there and experience the joy of photography that got me into this thing in the first place.

I also want to take my own advice more and take more chances, experiment more. So how about you? Happy New Year.

MACWORLD

Come see me at Macworld next week. I will be leading two sessions...

US937: The Passionate Photographer - Embracing Aperture 2.1 for Your Photographic Life
Thursday, January 8, 2009 / 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

CS2: Advanced Digital Photography Day - On Assignment in San Francisco
Friday, January 9, 2009 / 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM