5 World Famous Photographers Give Us 5 Incredible Tips to Make You a Better Photographer

Ever dreamed of being a great photographer? Well, now you can! We interviewed some of the best photographers in the world and asked them for advice. Here’s what the pros have to teach us:

Gary Arndt

“One of the biggest things anyone can do is understand what all the buttons and dials on your camera do, especially those which have to do with exposure.  Most people put their camera on automatic and then never bother doing anything else. The key to improving as a photographer is knowing what your tools are capable of doing.”

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TravelPhotographyAcademy.com
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Alessandro Rocchi

“My advice is to follow own instincts and trust own curiosity. Then Try to travel alone to every part of the world. Now you can Find your own way to photography and nobody in the future will ask you if you have a diploma.”

Photographer Info:

http://www.altamente.it

Arjun Kartha

# 1: It’s Not All About the Money, Honey!

“As a commercial photographer, it’s sometimes easy to get lost in what you do. Sure, there’s work flowing in. You’re working with big brands. You’ve got high-flying marketing executives in your studio every other day. Life is good! It’s times like this when you really have to pause for a moment and remember: photography is still art. And art cannot be reproduced or created on demand. As a photographer, it’s important to retain your creative mojo and be able to create stunning work when you’re called upon to. To be able to do that, you need to be able to have a healthy inventory of creative sauce – and that creative sauce comes from giving back to society. As an artist, it’s our responsibility to chronicle and document society for future generations. Take up personal projects. Take time out to shoot for a cause – and forget about the bill. When you give back to society, it feels good. And that feeling stays with you. It makes you a better professional. It makes you better at what you do.”

# 2: Don’t Have GAS

“When you’re a photographer, it’s easy to suffer from GAS. Also known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome! I constantly find myself lusting after better equipment. Better cameras. Better lenses. It’s easy to fall into a creative black hole, and blame your gear (or lack thereof) for not being able to execute images like what your competition does. It happens to everyone, at some time or the other – you look at stunning work on the internet, and find yourself just a wee bit envious. Your brain tends to rationalise it by telling you that the only way the photographer or artist was able to create that work was by having thousands of dollars worth of gear, and if you had it – you could be creating work like that everyday! This is classic GAS. Recognise the symptoms. Take corrective action the moment you feel…just a little bit gassy!”

# 3: Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

“Photography is an intensely rewarding field. Having said that, there are tons of ways you can be a photographer. You could shoot fashion, documentary, food, weddings, real estate, product, journalism, social issues and so on. The thing is to remember the old adage – the one about Jack, and the various trades he’s in. You can’t be good at everything. What you want to do is pick a field (or two) and stick to it. Be known as the very best in the country in the field you choose. Want to be a wedding photographer? Own it! Want to be a fashion photographer? Be the very best there is. And this means thinking about your art every second of every day. And constantly improving and learning. It’s normally not easy to do this when you have a finger in various pies – which is why you want to be a specialist in a certain genre, instead of dabbling in too much!”

Photographer Info:

Founded the Wedding Photographers Association of India (WPAI) – an organisation that brings together the best photographers in India to promote the art and craft of wedding photography. The association is committed to promoting excellence, innovation and raising the bar for wedding photography in India. Photographers go through a rigorous selection process, and only those who have a demonstrative ability and exceptional skill are accepted as members of the association.
http://arjunkarthaphotography.com

Marc Silber

“The best tip I can offer you is from my book Advancing Your Photography, from the video series by the same name: over a thousand hours of interviews I conducted with some of the biggest names in Photography (Chase Jarvis, Chris Burkard, Joe McNally, Bambi Cantrell and many, many  others.) There was one key concept that came up over and over, that set the pros apart from amateurs:

“Visualization.

“That is the ability to see or visualize the image before you press the shutter. The difference between a snapshot that is taken and a photograph that is created is that the photographer first visualized it.

“The process of visualization could occur in a split second, as was the case with Henri Cartier-Breton “capturing the moment.”

“This skill also requires that you know your camera so well that it doesn’t get in the way of your ability to do this, in fact, you should be able to visualize not how you see it, but how the camera does.

“As I discuss in my book, visualization carries you through the entire process of photography, even up to the point of how you present your work to others — in a book, framed, online, etc.

“Developing this single skill will advance your photography considerably.”

Photographer Info:

“Advancing Your Photography is a work of art, about art! Silber delivers clear, concise content, for all levels of skill, and accentuates the details that matter most to getting the result you desire. As an amateur myself, I felt more professionally suited to capture a meaningful photograph by applying what I learned.” – David Lee Jensen, #1 Best Selling Author of The Naked Interview
http://www.silberstudios.tv/dev/advancing-photography-book/

Josh Rossi

“My best advice for photographers is to find someone else’s style that they love and try to mimic it. This should only be for practice purposes because you don’t want to rip off that photographer’s style. What this will do is train your eye like the pros. You will start seeing light differently, colors etc…it will push you to problem solve and come up with solutions. Do this with multiple photographers styles and then come up with your own style which could even be a combination of what you love.”
Photographer Info:

Luerzer’s Archive 200 Best Digital Artists Worldwide 2014-2015
Forbes, Good Morning America, People Magazine, Billboard, Teen Vogue, The Wall Street Journal,
The Huffington Post, Inside Edition, The Weather Channel, USA Today, Business Insider,
Buzzfeed, Gizmodo, Advanced Photoshop Magazine, Ad Week, MSN NOW and Mashable.
www.joshrossi.com

Now You’re Ready

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