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Photography Advice That Can Make You Worse · Wildlife and Adventure Photography

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent years learning photography, and I followed a lot of advice, and some of it made me a better photographer, but some of it probably made me a worse one.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to talk about today is some of the photography advice that I wish I'd ignored, or at the very least, questioned.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is probably the advice that photographers hear more than anything else.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's one I've spoken about before, but if you expose yourself in any way to marketing from camera manufacturers, lens manufacturers, then you're going to be hit with this one because the message they keep giving you is that you need better gear.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's also a trap you can fall into, particularly if you I would say if you're less experienced, because as you get more experienced, you begin to recognize exactly where the shortcomings are in your photography.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's about equipment, then you know what you have to change.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But early on, you might be feeling frustrated with the results you're getting and feel that really it's the camera that's letting you down.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's about blaming the equipment, and that's very easy to do.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: But believing that changing your camera or your lens is going to transform your photography is a big mistake.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And better equipment can make a difference, but only if you already understand what you're doing.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, with wildlife photography, you might need better reach.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: You might find that the gear you have is just not giving you sufficient reach, as in getting close enough optically to your subject.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there can be a clear case for buying a lens, a new lens, with a longer focal lens, so that you can visually get in closer, zoom in optically because that's where you get more detail.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's where you get better resolution on the final image.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: It may be that switching to a crop sensor will give you better detail as well, it gives you longer reach.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I I did a webinar on that recently, and um uh in fact want to make that available on my course as one of the supplementary um items.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: But these are the the reason that these are important is you need to understand what's going on, you need to understand what your camera gear is, you need to understand what it's delivering.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because equipment, if you buy new equipment, it can't give you better observation, it can't improve your timing, it can't improve your composition.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: A better camera simply gives you better versions of the mistakes you're probably already making.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really important to remember that equipment only solves equipment problems, it does not solve photographer problems.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, as I said, sometimes you genuinely need more reach, and um, I will definitely vouch for that because with what I do, often I can't get particularly close to what I'm photographing.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I love is to shoot tight crops of an animal's face and give the person looking at it the kind of viewpoint they would never normally get themselves.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's maybe a familiar animal, and if you know my work, you know I prefer to shoot, I guess, more exotic wildlife, uh, put it that way.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm trying to give the people who look at my work a view of that animal that they wouldn't normally get.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So reach is definitely a part of that equation, and other things like autofocus, do you understand how the autofocus works on your camera?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And with newer gear, with the increasing use of AI, the camera will track a particular thing, so a face, and as that comes towards you, it's going to refocus every time.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Does higher ISO performance matter?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're operating in low light a lot of the time and you don't have the option to use a flash or any other artificial lighting, then absolutely uh that low light performance is really important because you want to minimize the amount of noise that you're getting, and how much noise you get on an image will definitely depend on the camera you're using.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the important thing is that these decisions these decisions come from understanding what you're trying to photograph, and so you always start with what are you trying to photograph, and from there you can work back to what equipment is the most appropriate equipment for what you're um trying to shoot.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I did a couple of podcasts a few weeks ago on setting up the ideal camera equipment setup, the ideal camera system for what you want to shoot.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the real question to ask when it comes to camera gear is not what's the best camera I can afford or what's the best lens I can afford, but it's to ask what's the problem that I'm trying to solve, and that will take you down a more useful path for improving your photography.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now I mentioned ISO, so definitely it's certainly in the early days of digital and also in film to an extent, that there was the advice was always shoot the lowest ISO, and it's one that I generally advise people as a general rule.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is simply with a low ISO, you tend to get less noise, potentially you can get more detail, and you can get better image quality.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so starting out with film, I used to love shooting uh with low ISO film because particularly if I wanted to blow something up big, because you could get really nice detail, and digital cameras are different because your your ultimate resolution is down to the pixel count on your sensor.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have to expand images up, if you're doing digital zoom and you have a lot of areas that are one color, and maybe you're operating in low light, that is going to make any noise that the camera electronics have introduced much more obvious.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: However, I will say that using a high ISO these days is much less problematic than it would have been 10 years ago.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And generally, you'll only see the noise when you begin to expand images up.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's not 100% true, but as a general rule, that's when it tends to happen.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, the benefit of using a high ISO, and and again, actually, I did a podcast on ISO recently as well, a few months ago now.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked about it, which was lovely.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was great to have the question.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't allow you to use that faster shutter speed, which might be critical for what you're doing.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It might allow you to have a better depth of field, or it might simply allow you to capture the moment.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the important thing to remember is that a little bit of grain is not necessarily a negative thing.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you've captured something, a one-off event or something that is very, very rare, and your image is a bit noisy, honestly, who cares?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because what they're really interested in, hopefully, what you're interested in too, is the result, it's the image, it's capturing what was going on and allowing people to connect with that, have that experience of that situation in that form through your photography.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact that there's a little bit of noise on it is is really not a problem.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not something to um to get too worried about.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the important thing is it comes down to compromise, and something that's really important is that a good photograph isn't about being technically perfect, it's about capturing the moment.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And another image is actually nothing to do with wildlife.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was something that happened on a photo walk that I was doing in Sydney a few years ago now.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember it.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We walk in at dusk, uh, we were on a particular place on a pathway, a bunch of runners were running past us, you know, the opposite direction to us, running towards us and then past us.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody got a picture of them as they were running away, and it was it was low light, so it was a little bit blurry, it would have been noisy.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But one runner had turned their head and was looking back at us, and it was just I always remember that picture because I really liked it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was um there was something about connection.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I've spoken a lot about being a visual storyteller.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: We make our own stories up around an image, but there was pretty much nothing that was technically good about that image.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the exposure was off, it was blurry, um, lots of noise, all that kind of stuff.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it was a really powerful image.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the important thing to remember it's to not get caught up in technically perfect images because they can honestly start getting a bit bland, um, if I'm perfectly frank about it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But make sure you're catching the moment.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another good one is that um you should always fill the frame.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it's definitely useful to do that.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've said, I already I always like to get these tight crops, so I like to get in close, I like to get a tight crop on the animal's face, it cuts out distractions, it can create a lot more impact if you've got a frame, particularly if you've blown it up bigger and you're getting this, you know, really it's almost intense um image of the animal if you've got really strong eye contact.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing about it is that yeah, I I definitely go for that shot, but it's not the only shot.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is that when you're looking at wildlife particularly, but this applies to pretty much any subject, your their story is not just their face, it's the landscape, it's the light, it's the weather, um, it's the distance, it's the context, it's the sense of place.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can have a brilliant picture of a close-up of a lion, for example, and then do another really wide shot with maybe the line in one corner, and that is a completely different image.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: It will give you some sense of the environment, it will give you give you the viewer some sense of the the size of the environment.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you've been to um if you've been to Africa and some of these other places, so you the one the thing that first struck me when I the first time I went to Africa quite a while ago now, um I remember looking over the Rift Valley and I had no idea how to try and convey the sheer size of what I was standing and looking at.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea how I could possibly convey that in an image.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's still a struggle because there is just so much to see, it's just such an amazing place if you've never been.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the challenge for us as photographers is to not only convey something of the subject, it might be the power, um, it could be the strength, whatever it is, or it could be vulnerability of the subject that we're shooting, but also to give some sense of the environment that tells more about their story than their face simply does.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this advice to always fill the frame.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I would replace the word always with sometimes.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: You should sometimes fill the frame.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it creates variety as well.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And unless that's your thing, if that's your your style, it's just really tight crops, then fair enough.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: If that you know, it comes down to what floats your boat, you've got to be shooting images that you enjoy that you like, otherwise, there's not much point.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But um I I definitely would take away the word always from that.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And again, an important question to ask here is not to ask whether you can get closer, but ask yourself whether getting closer actually makes the photograph better.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's what's really important is creating a strong photograph.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the the fourth thing I've got down here is that you have to shoot manually.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this comes up.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't to be honest, I haven't heard it so much recently.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, it definitely comes up pretty regularly, and that this belief that all professional photographers shoot manual all the time.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, look, some of them do.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you and if you're in a studio, absolutely, that that makes a lot of sense.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're doing wildlife photography, you absolutely don't want to do that because you when things start happening quickly, you want to start having the camera work for you because cameras are pretty capable these days, they've got very good computers in them, and if you know what you're doing with a camera, you can get the camera to do some of the heavy lifting while you're you can concentrate on the composition, you can concentrate on capturing the moment, so you get that freedom to create powerful images.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that that that's the first thing that not all professionals, not I I don't know.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know any wildlife photographers who shoot manual, maybe some of them do, but you know, whatever.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you know, it's whatever your thing is.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this assumption that automation somehow makes you less skilled, it it's not about that.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: The thing you have to remember is that the camera is a tool, and it's not a cheap tool either.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you've invested in a good quality camera, you've probably invested a reasonable amount of money in it.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to get your return.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're gonna get your return, if you're gonna get value from that investment, you get value by understanding what that tool is capable of doing, and then using it to the the fullest that you can, using it to get the greatest advantage from it.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it I I it's really important to understand manual because that means that you understand the um exposure triangle, you understand um how the focusing system works, you understand how exposure works on your camera.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: All of those things are really important because these are fundamentals for good photography.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't understand those things, you will always struggle.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't really matter what camera you're using, you're gonna struggle when you get out of auto mode because you just don't understand what you're doing and what the camera is, how the camera operates.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, manual is really valuable as a teaching um, well, let's call it a teaching tool, because it helps you to understand the camera basics.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And once you understand them, then you can really start creating.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And with what I teach, just understanding the basics is the the this is sort of pretty much fundamental.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost kind of the second thing I start looking at when I teach photography.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, with the manual thing, no, you don't have to shoot manual all the time, but I do recommend that you are able to shoot manual when you want to, and you're able to do it because you understand what aperture priority does, you understand what the shutter speed priority does, you understand auto-ISO, you understand exposure compensation, and you know how to use those depending on the situation that you're in, because certain circumstances, certain environments will have you wanting to switch to one of those modes or to use exposure compensation because you know that by doing that you want to make the most of the environment you're in.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's where understanding how the camera works is really, really important.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another one which I've sort of touched on is that the photograph has to be technically perfect.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, people get really worried about perfect sharpness, perfect exposure, no noise, perfect eyes, perfect composition.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the thing is, an image can be technically perfect and still be really boring.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, technical perfection is not what makes a photograph memorable or have impact.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It comes back to compromise and it it also comes down to deliberately introducing imperfections because those imperfections, and again, I'm waving my air quotes around here, it can add character to the image.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So a little motion blur can create movement in an image.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an unusual exposure, maybe it's um quite brightly exposed or underexposed, that can give you a different perspective.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: It all affects mood, it affects the mood of the image.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Imperfect framing, well, that can create areas of interest, it can create tension, it can create imbalance.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even a little bit of noise in there can give the image a certain feel.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it might feel, for example, more like old newspaper print, that kind of thing.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And these can all be really powerful images, and none of them are technically perfect.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the most important thing here is and and certainly for me, I'd rather have something, a photograph that made someone feel something when they looked at it, other than one that is you know perfect, but it's it lacks impact, it's just another perfect photograph.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: If that doesn't make sense to you, I suppose a challenge you could you could try is to deliberately shoot imperfect, shoot lower shutter speed than you normally would, introduce movement, have blur, practice really weird framings, deliberately underexpose or deliberately overexpose, make get the image to be noisy.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Doing that is a great way of experimenting.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: You might find a look that you really like, and it's always it's also a great way of understanding the cameras, it's a great way of getting a deeper understanding of what your camera gear is um capable of delivering, and that is is really important.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So just to summarize this, um look, there's lots of advice out there.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving people advice, so I'm definitely one of them.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's loads of stuff on YouTube, other podcasts.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, anyway, and other photographers.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've see, I was on a whale watching trip a few weeks ago, and it's actually a photographer I know, but he's very keen on telling people giving people photographic advice, whether they ask for it or not.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of people like that around as well.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so advice isn't necessarily bad, but it becomes a problem when we start turning guidelines into rules.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I I like to understand guidelines.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I like to I'm gonna use the word rules but very loosely, because where I think we really grow as photographers is where we knowingly break rules and we see what happens.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the five things I've spoken about, just to recap, I guess, is don't buy gear to solve a photographer problem.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Buying new gear is only worth doing if it solves a gear problem.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: If your problem is down to photography, it's much more likely fixed by education or trying challenges or doing something different with your photography.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, don't worry about ISO because if it's there for a reason, it allows you to capture the photograph.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, cranking the ISO up, you're amplifying the noise in the image.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that may or may not show, but you've still got that moment, and that ultimately is much more important.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get closer just because you can, you don't need to fill the frame.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's certainly good to do it.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I do it a lot when I can, but also I'll pull back out and experiment with different um compositions, trying to show something of the context of the animal and what I'm shooting, because that's all part of its story.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, manual is not about bragging rights, it's about understanding the tools that you are using and being able to use them effectively.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it makes sense because if you've invested a lot of money in good camera gear, you really want to spend the time on learning how to use it because otherwise, what's the point?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: You might as well just buy um a quick, just a cheap point and shoot camera, because the results you're going to get are probably not going to be very different unless you start to really learn the basics of how cameras work and then what your particular camera and your lenses and anything else you have, how they can work together to start producing the kind of images you want to shoot.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, um, yeah, don't get too caught up in technical perfection.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: My own belief is it's far more important to get the picture, and then you've got something to work with.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I've some of some of the pictures I really like.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've I might have shot them really crooked at times because I you know have back problems.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So uh sometimes after a couple of days in a four-wheel drive, I'll shoot from almost any angle that isn't painful.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is it, you know.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: You don't worry about the technical perfection so much as getting the shot because you can always tweak things, or maybe even if you can't do much tweak, you've got you've got a shot that's different, you have got the moment.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to advice, when it comes to rules, know the rule, understand the rule, but then it's down to your choice about whether or not that particular rule helps you to create the photograph you want because it's far more important to get strong images that people can connect with and make people look twice rather than something that's just technically perfect.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, if you want to comment on this, please do.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is there any particular uh photography advice that you've been following simply because someone told you it was the right thing to do?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, then my suggestion to you is to play with it.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Next time you go out with your camera, deliberately break the rule, knowingly break the rule and see what happens.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Try something different.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess to just finish this particular podcast.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: The thought I'd just like to leave you with is that photography isn't about getting everything right, it's about making choices.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like most things in life.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can sort of do it right, but you really start to learn when you're making choices, and particularly when they don't quite work out the way you thought that they might.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So make choices, and sometimes the most important photographic skill is knowing it isn't knowing what to do, it's knowing what when not to do it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's knowing when to break the rules.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And once you start getting that knowledge, then you'll really understand what you're doing photographically.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: If your gear isn't delivering, you'll know why, and you'll know exactly what new gear will give you if that's um what you're what you're thinking of doing at the moment.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that is it.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I hope you found that useful.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe it's got you thinking a little bit, and um my my last words to you are basically to um give it a go, try something new, and I'll speak to you on Friday.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll see you on the the next podcast, which is on Friday.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's bye for now.