How To Grow As A Photographer
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- 2024 Workshops! Photo Zines and The Next Step with Ralph Gibson www.tedforbes.com
One of my most asked questions since I've been making videos on this channel. In this video we'll address the mindset and some actionable steps to start improving your photography today!
Check out more "Ted" talks: • Ted Talks
Sign up to the mailing list for weekly updates theartofphotography.tv/list
My Adobe Lightroom and Capture One Presets theartofphotography.tv/presets/
AoP T-Shirts aop.threadless.com/
Need a website? squarespace.com/aop
On my channel you will find videos about photography, cinematography, post processing tutorials for Capture One, Lightroom and Photoshop, photo assignments that YOU can participate in, the Artist Series and more. The Artist Series is an ongoing set of videos I produce as documentaries on living photographers. I am extremely passionate about photography and video and my goal in making these videos is to share my passion and enthusiasm with you! Don’t forget to subscribe and make sure to hit the like button and share this video if you enjoyed it!
Ted Forbes
The Art of Photography
2830 S. Hulen, Studio 133
Fort Worth, TX 76109
US of A - Наука та технологія
I attended a workshop many many years ago and my teacher said in the first class: one camera, one lens, one film, one developer, one paper, or if you’re shooting digital, one software, one printer, one paper, for a year. That was the best advice I ever got.
That’s lame.
This, along with the video, really resonated with me. I think 2024 is the year of the fifty for me. I'm actually really excited about this!
@@bngr_bngrlol your loss champ
Was it a David Alan Harvey workshop? I attended one of his talks almost thirty years ago, and that was his advice (minus the digital stuff - that was still in its infancy).
@@aljawad No, it was a class that I did in Hayward California around 13-14 years ago. It was more like an adult education facility and the teacher isn’t a well known person.
When I transitioned from musician to photographer I was lucky enough to meet Ralph Gibson and he gave the same advice: "A 50mm for the first two years." I didn't have to scale back because I was just buying my first non-point and shoot camera. It really kick-started me and allowed me to, er, focus on the techniques of photography without getting bogged down with a bunch of lenses, or propped up by the crutches of auto-focus and zoom. Thanks Ralph!
Cool. Do you mean 50mm with crop factor or 50mm full frame?
@@onetrue217 Full Frame. Leica SL 601 50mm Summarit 2.4
Rock solid advice Ted! It’s always funny to me when someone calls the 50mm lens boring just because they take boring pictures with it. The 50 is anything but boring. In fact it’s my very favorite focal length and I’ve been shooting with it almost exclusively fort the past 5 years. I love it.
Yeah exactly! I love my 50mm, I also love my 28mm and 90mm lenses. I did have a great 75mm, but I thought the 90mm was better and gave me that bit more reach 🙂
I agree! The 50mm is the lens I used about 80% of the time. For 6x6 medium format I usually just use the 80mm.
Some years ago you presented photo assigments based on different compositional concepts or parameters. I appreciated the assignments and the following discussions of sent images - they have been marvelous inspiration - along with videos on photographers and aesthetic problems, which have unfortunately become rare.
Agree very much about a manual 50. Probably the single most educative step I've taken on my own photography journey. As indispensable as it can sometimes be, I also find going back to autofocus frustrating as often as it's helpful. Whenever possible I shoot manual rangerfinders now - it's a better experience with better results.
Hey Ted, like the beard!
Several years ago, I started doing exactly as you prescribe. I live in an area where there are several cities within close driving distance. A few times a year, I take a camera with one lens (usually the 50 but sometimes a 20 or 135) and just walk. Walking is crucial, it gives you time to stop and study the things around you. It's funny how you can find very interesting detail in something that you might just walk past without looking. Again walking is critical!
A few months ago, I was walking down one of the streets and noticed a Crepe restaurant that I had never noticed before. It was a small sort of boutique cookary that only sold crepes and offered an extensive selection (I ended up ordering a strawberry and banana with chocolate sauce - delicious). Anyway, I went in and talked to the owner, a women from Algeria who immigrated about 15 years ago. I asked if I could take pictures while she made my crepe and she said sure. This is another variation on your theme, it takes about 2 minutes to make this product so I had to think on my feet to get a dozen photos in 2 minutes that were interesting and informative - that was the challenge I set for myself. I ended up with 4-5 interesting and/or informative photos that I thought were publishable and the others, well not so much. At the end of this little adventure I enjoyed a really delicious lunch. All-in-all, it was a fun and interesting day that I enjoyed immensely. More importantly, it made me think on my feet which is a valuable skill. I think you are on to something here! I'd love to see you do a series of videos of you in action and showing us the photos that work and those that maybe don't. Anyway, keep up the great work! ps sorry for being so verbose.
Great video, Ted. I love how you're always looking to grow as a photographer and how to grow the channel. I find myself in a similar space in trying to say more meaningful things with my photography.
Love the new initiatives. Maybe I'll see you in one of those workshops.
Can't wait to see what the channel has to offer for 2024.
I’m excited to see what you create in 2024 Ted. Thank you for the inspiration.
One years old exercise I do, is lock myself in the bathroom for 1-2 hours, and see what shots I can take and try to make things interesting. From abstract composition to objects. With a prime lens.
But you have to really lock yourself up for at least an hour or two. Non stop. Get your favorite hydrating drink, and if you have to go to the bathroom - you are already there. :-)
This is great. Thanks for sharing your struggles and the strategies you used to get up and take action. Recently I got rid of all my gear and picked up a yashicat4 and I feel like I’ve fallen back in love with photography.
Creative thinking, dah! Thank you so much for your helpful advice. Mr. TED.
PRINT YOUR WORK!!! Completely changes everything when you see it in print!
Excellent presentation, Ted! It was and inspiration and a roadmap to getting out of the photography doldrums. It was also troubling for me. I've been planning a trip to Japan for about a year and had realized the need to pare my gear to a minimum as I'd be walking and taking public transport. I settled on an X-Pro2 with a 16-80, a 7-Artisans 35/0.95 and lastly the Q2 Monochrome which carries my favorite lens. Now I have to re-think the whole lot versus my M-10R & 50/f2. While I've been to Japan several times, this will be my first with photography as the sole purpose, and likely my last. I think I will restrict myself to the M and 50 for the next three months while pondering the meaning of life with G.A.S.
The value of a workshop with others in the room cannot be overstated. There is a synergy that develops which is just not extant in any other format.
In a recent trip to the Azores, I took the R5 coupled with the 28mm f/2.8 and no other lenses. I had a blast working with this single lens over two weeks of hiking/walking in a totally fascinating place and got some keeper photographs.
Be well.
Hi Ted. It occured to me as I looked at some of the photographs you shared - thank you - and listened to you discuss learning, that it would be great to get some examples from you in your own journey. Take an image that feels like a milestone for you, and then talk about inspiration, process - maybe some contact sheet type stuff, how you got to the final image, what made you select it, and discuss some things you learned along the way.
This was a great video. I'm looking forward to what you have in store for 2024.
Yeah, what he said!
Excellent advice, Ted. Probably around 2019/2020, I too, started restricting myself to one (vintage) manual lens and one camera, shooting way more analog than digital again, and studying books containing other photographers' work.
Thank you for this segment. Your ideas, thoughts resonate...
Brilliant advice, anyone can come here and feel they can make progress in their own work. Thank you!
Such excellent advice! Thank you very much for all of this information. I have personally found the “one camera, one lens (and one film if applicable)” to be very creative and liberating, as you’ve stated in the video. Great content. I am looking forward to following in 2024.
“The tool doesn’t have to get more important that the task”
Few years ago, when my hands were daily holding a Fuji X100T for street, I have got them on a HOLGA (gift from a friend).
One plastic cheap lens , one speed, one (almost) aperture, one sensitivity were so liberating… I got back to the true candid joy of shooting!! Delightful.
Then for my 40th birthday I offered to myself a 40 years old Nikon F3 with a 50/2. The only combo used for the last 2.5 years, a extension of myself now :-)
When I occasionally get back to a digital camera, I feel almost confused and for sure the flowing rhythm of photographing is REALLY not the same!!
Amen, Ted ;-)
Thanks. In 2024 I am trying to bring my photography to another level and recently just bought a 20mm MFT prime. I love that lens so maybe 1 year with that lens. I have to think about manual focus only. That will be a challenge for me.
I found all this when I had the Fuji X100F. One lens. Would love to be involved in the workshops but I live in Oz....Looking forward to '24. You're series about other photographers is awesome. You've introduced me to some fabulous people.
Very much inspired by this topic. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Lots of Valuable insights there Ted 👍
I too followed a similar path of Limitation and found it Relaxing.
Well-done presentation, and timely advice. Thanks!
If I’d taken just one body and a 50mm to Iceland this winter, I… can’t imagine. But I will add that the best shots I got in the ice cave were taken with the middle focal length camera on my iPhone 14 because it was easier to move around and see things and compose off-beat shots in the quasi-darkness. But even phones these days want you to use all three lenses, plus the macro feature, plus the night exposure (which I actually used to shoot the northern lights). I think you’ve given very good advice, but might there not be styles of photography where a single mid-focal length… oh, never mind. I get what you’re saying.
Oh man, you all picked the one weekend in April that I can’t make it…really, really hope the workshop is a success so you do it again in the Fall!
Excellent advice. Not only the one lens thing (I love a 50mm) but also looking at the works of great photographers. Sure, Bresson and D. Lang, but also the lesser-known and new such as Vivian Maier or Nick Carver. In my youth, it was Ansel Adams, and that got me into medium format. All good stuff. Thanks.
Hi Ted! Well said, distractions. Distractions is everywhere. Philosophically thinking photographing is kind of subtracting distractions. It begins well before pushing the shutter button. And doesn't stop there.
But also ones' distraction is another's way to limit distractions. Auto vs. manual focus as an example. I find that manual focus can sometimes be tricky and limit my concentration on a subject. As well as auto focus does that in other kind of situations.
I am inspired of your philosophical photography videos like this one. Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I would be happy to see this kind of content more.
I bought a cheap Canon 8 years ago and the seller threw in a 50mm 1.8 stm lens and I shot with that lens for a long time until I upgraded to the newer version of that same lens. I then bought a 24mm pancake and fell absolutely in love and shot with that forever. I bought a 10-18mm just because of a job I had that required that focal length. But the 24 and the 50 are my only two lenses that I own and they've been great. It's great to fawn over gear that you "might' need but then see a video or get advice that kinda brings you back down to earth about the art form. I needed this seeing that I have a new budget for gear and now I'm rethinking everything with what I really need.
Thanks, great advice 👏 📷
The Pandemic was the perfect example, as you pointed out. Your experience with Ralph and the experience I had with You-Know-Who (Ted knows). This was effective. For one, my background was setting up shoots, doing editorial, all of the things that really kind of make you have complete control over your photography. When you start to add an element of "chance" it's very different. You start to notice what you notice. Also right -- switching gears, and switching gear is often the same thing. You can't really bring a strobe (no matter how small) on the street with you. You need a smaller camera if you are doing something around people and also when you are walking distances. You want control, you have to learn how to push that camera. Manual focus, zone focus -- learning to control it fast. You want flash? they get smaller and smaller. Want to push yourself, shoot film and don't look at the images for sometimes a week. You shoot color? Shoot monochrome for a year. Monochrome? Shoot color, vibrant color. Also, no matter your skill level -- taking a workshop with someone that is doing what you want to be doing. I've done it, fuck I might come and do yours and Ralph's. Never too old.
Workshops are a great way to improve your photography, even if it's only for a day. Went to madeira last month for a week long trip and I learned more then I thought I would, especialy from the other particepents. It's a shame that many of them are just really expensive (from my point of view), otherwise I would book more of them. I can not justify myself to pay $1000+ a day for it. The Madeira trip was €2100 incl flights from The Netherlands. This trip with you and Ralph would cost me over $5000 incl flights and accomodation, for just a weekend. Luckly I do learn a lot from this channel aswell and that's completely free, thanks for that!!!
Ted this past summer we went on vacation to revisit Niagara Falls. I had just went to a full frame camera. At that time I only had 2 FF lenes. 85mm prime or 150-500. I decided to just take the 85 and like you said it turned out to be a great experience being limited to 1 lens
Thank you...very helpful!
I always have a hard time analyzing my own work. Sometimes I can see what's wrong, but maybe that's as far as I can get. I don't always think of a way to address it.
One thing I want to see some day is a game/simulation where you get a setting and can pick all your camera settings and placement and share your results to compare how dfferent people would aproach different reproducable scenarios. Maybe starting with static scenes and lighting and gradually building upon that. Someday...
very interesting subject - i make videos about self-teaching photography (quite recently) and i've been following your channel for many years, it's such an important subject to talk about, more now that there is so much social media content, it can be difficult for new photographers to feel lost.
Thanks Ted ❤
I agree with you to shoot with one focal length. I am from the film era and my first serious camera was a Leica M3 with a 50 1.5 lens. The camera and lens went with me everywhere and I used my feet as a zoom with that lens. During the pandemic, however, like you mentioned, there’s lots of time to use your camera, when I would go out I would take one lens with me and just use that lens. Whether it was a 24 mm lens or a 35 or a 105. It is a form of discipline that helps you think about the image you’re going take and how to draw that image with the tool you have in your hand. It definitely works and yes, after a while you get to know how it sees the world. My usual lenses of choice are 20,28, 35,85. For the longest time I just shot with my 35 F2 as my standard lens and carried my 85 F2 in my pocket. Apparently video shooters love 35 so as I learn video I know that field of view. Thanks for sharing your thoughts your videos are very inspiring.👏😊
I'd like to see more of you doing photography! Maybe some pov photo walk type of stuff, live on location stuff.. whatever you want. Collabs with other photography youtubers would also be enjoyable to watch. I'm sure you and Jason from Grainydays would have a grand old time.
Great video, Henri Cartier-Bresson used the 50mm lens and Annie Leibovitz had recommended using one lens to start. I normally shoot 50mm in 35mm film and full frame, 80mm in 6x6 and find it does cover about 80% of what I do.
One camera, one lens really works. Growing up, I only had one camera - a rangefinder with a fixed lens. I wasn't very happy with the focal length (37mm), but I learned how to get the compositions, I wanted, because I didn't have any other options.
Today I'm never limiting myself to one focal length for more than a single photo walk, and when it counts (event/concert photography), I bring two cameras and at least four fast AF-lenses - it's just the way I manage to get the shots, I'm there for.
thank you
Thanks for this 👍
This inspired me to try out a slightly different limit. I'm going to try just shooting with an action camera for a year. I can easily carry it with me wherever I go, and I have only one focal length. At the end of the year, I'm going to try making a book or 'zine.
Thank you ❤
The "50mm is boring" idea is not analogous to cooking with a 10-inch pan. For one thing, the size of the pan (so far as I know - I'm not a chef) doesn't appreciably affect the end result. But the focal length does - a lot. Secondly, roughly speaking 50m is what we see all the time because it is roughly the focal length of the human eye. But other focal lengths bring us something different from what we ordinarily see, so it is less likely to be boring -- all else being equal.
Having read Saul Leiter, I went out with 150mm lens. The discipline is not trying to capture 28mm images, focus on the tight frame/close work 150 offered, it took time but think it's my favourite lens for that type of work
i'm the opposite of most photographers, i gravitated towards the "greats" from the early 1900s early on in my photography.. love the classic street!
Awesome & Thanks :)
Related to the idea of one camera, one film, one developer, one paper... Years ago I read some advice that you should move your FEET as mych as possible vs using a zoom lens. Walk closer. Walk back. Move to the side. Crouch down. Photography is a whole body experience.
One thing I try to remind myself is this is digital. I’m not limited to one frame. Often I’ll choose a longer focal length but if I want to include more I will do a pano at that longer focal length rather than getting wider.
I did it once because I had no choice and now I do it all the time
Met a photojournalist in Africa who only travels with a 28mm prime. He inspired me to do the same, I have a Canon R6 and a 35mm f/1.8, and thats pretty much how I live my life these days.
Bonsoir Ted, de très bon conseils que voilà ! J'adore l'idée de passer un an avec un seul objectif, comme le 50mm, et en focus manuel ! C'est d'ailleurs ce que je fais (partiellement), en utilisant de vieux cailloux en monture M42, que je monte sur mon Canon à monture RF. ;)
Bien le bonjour de France.
Thanks for sharing.... :-)
The problem I have is I know my photos suck but I have absolutely no idea how to improve them. If I knew then I wouldn’t have made photos that suck in the first place!
Hi Ted, Thanks for this video, couldn't agree more with all your points. A question: In the one camera, one lens, one year approach, why a 50mm? With best wishes, GB
Keith taught me at a highschool summer camp for student photographers!
One must know what a successful photo is. Since that is so subjective, whatever comes through the lens must be a successful photo.
Photography is an Art only Limited by our Imagination...
Can I do the same thing with a 35? It’s the only rangefinder lens I have. Or is there something particular about a 50?
So many things clicked here.
1. I didn’t know you played guitar. I do as well, not very well, but it’s another creative outlet. Guess being creative means we will find ways to channel it.
2. I once did a 365 project. Shot a photo every day for a year and posted it on FB. Started by using a Fujifilm camera with the 35mm (50mm full frame) for the forst weeks. Then took a week with each lens I had. Limiting myself. Oh, and the first couple of weeks were exclusively black and white.
3. I haven’t sent you anywhere, but I did privately play with some of your old challenges. Shot an egg next to a glass of water. remember that one?
4. There were more but I don’t want to write a book here.
50mm f/1.2 is my daily lens.. My restriction was using a 24-70mm f/2.8 for 4 days while on a roadtrip. I felt out of my element, as if using a new camera and catching up what to do to get a certain result. It's a bit off-putting, as I wasn't tempted to photograph as much.
I eat spinach, helps alot.
This is one of the best advice on photography I've heard this year ❤ God bless 🙏🏽
Flip the idea and say for every subject you shoot you need to take a picture with each focal length you own. 😁
i would argue that handling manual focus on a film lens is easy, but i find it beyond frustrating on a digital lens
I really enjoy your videos. They are perhaps the most informative I have found on the subject of photography.
Thank you for these kinds of motivational and inspirational video, in a space cluttered with gear reviews by GAS-inflicted youtubers.
🙌🙌🙌🙌
If I wanted to challenge myself with this rule, I'm using a Sony APS-C camera so I calculate a 35mm would be my 50 equivalent.
How would you approach or reach out to someone that you want to learn from?
Ironic that you mention a rangefinder and a 50mm. I just purchased a Leica IIIa with a 5cm f3.5 elmar and started just going out and doing that (I learned to develop fairly recently). It's actually fun doing things with limits.
As odd as this sounds: it's like when you decide to delete a personal profile on tinder and commit to dating one person (if that makes sense).
Absolutely restrictions force you to use your imagination and create images that you wouldn't have thought of. And this is especially true with film where you're restricted to one ISO, or if you have a camera without a built in flash, or fixed lens compact. This is kind of like the exercise of listing out 20 different options (whatever creative discipline or activity). The first few are the obvious ones, and eventually the ideas become more obscure, silly, and usually more interesting. Absolutely restrictions put your mental energy into finding solutions instead of just pondering about gear or settings.
I would love to know if you would offer one or two spots with a scholarship of say 75% of the cost of the session waved if not all of it. It could be merit based and needs based! How does that sound? I would be interested if you were to offer this!
People seem to think that you need to spend a lot of $$$ to get into photography. I disagree. Are you flat broke? Well you probably already have a camera on your phone. How can you get good images out of that? Obviously you can get a complete set of lenses for the most expensive camera on the market. You can also go in anywhere in between. And limiting yourself to less expensive equipment, especially early on, will only help to improve your skills.
How do find someone to study with when you can't find anyone doing anything like what you are doing?
Hi, I’m only 71 years old-am I too young to learn how to do this photography thing right? Been trying for quite a few years now and I ain’t got it sorted yet. Hoping to get older and better sometime soon.
As someone who started with a rangefinder with a 50mm lens in 1970, I always felt autofocus was an ingenious solution to a non existent problem
So nobody is gonna talk about light lens lab 50mm f1.2 noctalucent he holding lol 😅
Tell HCB 50 is such a boring lens.
How to grow as a photographer? 1st: buy a Leica.
It isn't the camera that makes the photograph's. It is the photographer you need to develop. So a Fujifilm X100V, F, S, T would also do the trick or a X-E1, 2, 3 or 4 or any other camera that can work the same way.
@@primefotoNLI’m thinking you missed the sarcasm
Pffftttt….Hasselblad or PhaseOne. 😬
2nd: take my workshop
@@davidpearson3304 A Hasselblad is already boss level.
Got me in the mood