You’re not that good at photography.

Long-time readers will know this isn’t the first time I’ve ranted against people buying dSLRs before they know how to use them or expecting magical photos because they have a bigger camera. But, unlike other rants, this one will contain actual recommendations.

Now, this rant isn’t about every single SLR owner out there. If your only intention is to record memories, by all means ignore everything I have to say. But if you want to record memories that other people can also enjoy or take photos that tell stories or be “artistic”, this will probably apply to you.

If you don’t know the premise of my rant, it is this: Too many dSLR users today forego learning about photography as an art and the result is a multitude of bad photographs. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it — I mean really bad photographs. There are plenty of ways to approach a new hobby or art. You can take lessons from an instructor. You can read the classical materials pertaining to the art. Some of the more gifted and observant can look at other pieces of art and draw out the essentials from finding patterns. But rarely do you become really great at an art by just picking up that brush and stroking away blindly.

The funny thing is, the materials are so accessible, there is almost no excuse to have poorly composed photographs. None. Now, you can have really terrible photographs that follow every compositional rule ever written. That is a completely different issue. But to have photos that just do not respect any of the fundamentals is inexcusable. You can claim it is for the sake of art or your own artistic input, but really, it’s just garbage. The difference between you and Adams or Cartier-Bresson (my two personal favorite photographers) is so profound that this may be the only sentence where you’ll both be mentioned together. They broke essential rules all the time, but they had an understanding of when it was appropriate to do so and why doing so was more artistic. They also created rules of photography that we still follow today — just to reiterate how profoundly-not-even-close-to-them you are.

The first place you can start to learn to take better photos? The manual. That’s right… your camera manual. Open that sucker up. Read it front to back. Again and again until you actually understand everything you’ve read in there and know how to do it all. What’s the point in owning a fancy camera if you don’t understand the difference between types of focusing, metering, or bracketing?

After you’re done with that, I have a list for you. A certified list which I can guarantee will help you take compositionally better photographs. (Just plain and simple better photographs is something else and you’re on your own for that.)

1) Understanding Exposure. Considered the photography bible by many, this is the place to start. Before you can even get to composition, you should understand how exposure works and how it can be controlled and manipulated. If you don’t know the photographic triangle (film speed, f/stop, shutter speed) inside and out, backwards and forwards, you need this book. If phrases like “exacting sharpness” or “implied motion” mean nothing to you, you need this book. Calculating f/stops and shutter speed should be second nature to you once you’re done with this book. This book won’t go into advanced subject matter like circle of confusion, but it’ll give you everything you need to know.

(I can calculate f/stops and their corelation correlation to shutter speed by full stops in my head. Why you would ever need to I have no idea, but it’s fun to freak beginning photographers out with. By the time you finish this, you will should be able to too.)

2) Photography and the Art of Seeing. Once you’ve gotten the photographic triangle down, it’s time to move onto the basics of composition. This book focuses on the basics and the “mentality” a photographer should know. I am hoping if you own an SLR you know what the rule of thirds is and you know about tangential horizons and framing and shading. You should have a vague grasp of all this before you decide on reading this book but even if you don’t, it’ll help.

3) Light: Science and Magic. This is awesome. Easily my favorite of the three. It’s perfect for beginners and makes things so clear and uses visual elements to help in a profound way. As the name suggests, it deals only with lighting (mostly with flashes but does go over natural lighting a little bit). If you have a flash and want to know how to use it to its fullest potential, this book is for you.

Armed with this info, you’re ready to go out and take great photos. Good luck.

Done ranting,
Mathew