How To Take More Creative Photos - Simple Strategy
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- Опубликовано: 20 янв 2024
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When I was a student at "De Nederlandse Fotovakschool" (Dutch School of Photography) I was told:"Here we teach the technical side, you will have to learn to be creative yourself. We cannot do that." And so I started shooting until my camera was my second left eye. I can still remember that moment, it was like, I was one with the camera (Olympus OM1). The subject was a debate at our local council. Boring...until I saw their faces changed as the members of the council did their speeches. All the emotions one can put into an argument. It was like becoming on with the viewfinder.
Thanks for your advice to go back to something simple once in a while. Top.
Martin , you are so real, your stuff is worth more than ten times of photography school teaching! I think you won't charge people for now!
Thank you!
Start taking more and more images and just stop trying to get that perfect shot , , , It might take you 10.000 or 20,000 or even more images b4 you start seeing what other can't . . . Then you will find yourself taking less images while your out and about because you can see what other can't . . . some people make it look so easy . . but please remember they had to start somewhere
Saying the quiet part out loud here - photography is the axis of technology and creativity, and I think this is why so many of us find it fascinating. Finding the balance of the two and being able to get into that 'flow state' is key to any creative endeavour.
If you watch the Joel Meyerowitz film, he stands in the street just watching. He spends ages just observing till something interests him. It’s a good example of looking instead of shooting. His camera is set up and he waits for the right moment. Great video Martin
Wow yes. RUclips should pin this video at the front page so everybody hear it. Thank you for the simplicity of your mind.
Wow, thank you
My sister is the same. No interest in cameras, doesn't even know what ISO is.
But when she takes "some quick snaps" on her phone, they all come out stunning. Truly gifted.
in her case, the phone camera quality matters, not skills.
@@sovu9399 No, it's the skill / eye.
sure.
I'm doing exactly this. Six months ago, after I watch your videos about the 5d Classic, I decide to search for one was able to find a very good body, so I bought it. Bought a 64Gb compact flash card, put my 24-70mm f4, set the camera to jpeg only and I'm using this camera every weekend since. The only thing I'm doing different is that I don't look my pictures every weekend. This was the best thing I could have ever done. The 5D classic is a joy to use and I can see I'm learning more from this than I was before with my 5Ds. Really good advice. I would say this is the best advice mainly for beginners
I always believe that the technical stuffs can be learnt and therefore not the most important. The critical ingredient of good photography is that one must have the appreciation of beauty and framing which I don't think it can be learnt.
The exercise you are describing reminds me of a Buddhist aesthetic practice called "Miksang" which means "good eye" in Tibetan. You go out in the world (or into your kitchen, for that matter) and notice your perception (of color texture, light and shadow, whatever), and then use the camera to (try to) faithfully capture and communicate that perception. In PP, maybe just some cropping, or minimal exposure adjustment, but the idea is not to manipulate the image into something else, but to as accurately as possible communicate what caught your eye. Technique is purely used in service of the initial perception. Practicing this way has completely reinvigorated my experience of photography and my relationship to my camera. I highly recommend the approach you are describing here, remembering how to see. I really appreciate your perspective, Martin, thanks for all the great content!
Martin, thank you for your time and input. I have a parallel self-imposed discipline: when I go out on my own projects, I go with the old practice of analog photography, by taking 12, 24 and 36 pictures, as if I were using film. By doing it this way, I am more aware of light and composition to make a story by a frame.
Excelent advise... I was a pro photographer in the 90´s and used tons of films and papers to be good at... I feel people are becaming more a photoshop user....
Same. Pro in the 80-90’s. Then switched out once digital took over. So happy many are going back to the basics now.
Your channel and content is great. Authentic and helpful. Please keep it going!
Oh my goodness, I am so thankful I found your channel! As many courses as I've taken and videos I've watched, no one's ever suggested that I just freely shoot. I am mostly confident in my technical skills (FIANLLY), but I feel stuck creatively, and I hate that I feel dependent on pintrest for ideas. I want my OWN ideas! I am going to take your advice and do this this weekend! I'm so excited to see how it goes!
What a gift. I love take pics but I always get a sort of frustraction because I think too much. There is a part of me that is pushed towards the freedom to shoot, and the other me want to sticks on rules. Result? I don’t find inspiration and I don’t like what I shoot. Sorry for my bad english.
I bought a Nikon FM-2 with a 35mm f2 , an electronic light meter and the grid focusing screen(lines up verticals and the horizon) brand new in 1985. Back in those days I bought color and b&w print film(JPEGS) by the brick. I'd take the train into New York City on weekends and just take a walk and shoot. Id shoot 1 roll of film. I'd walk a different street every trip.
That is a great video to start the week! I am still shooting my 40d as recommended (2nd copy) with the 18-55 kitlens. That advice of using a simple apsc camera has improved my work greatly. Stopped raw and use only natural JPEGS. Got a question from a professional photographer: what filters do you use in photoshop to create this 70s atmosphere?
Another advice: don't spend time on forums and flickr dominated by technical men. Buy some second hand books on photography and compare your own pictures with those. You will see: the difference is not in the sharpness and aberration and so on.
Downgrade instead of upgrade and start taking pictures. The humbler your camera the less you will be noted. Simple point and shoot is also ok. Goodluck!
Love the 40d, got the 24mm f2.8 permanently on mine 👍
Totally agree.
Carrying my X100V, instead of my bag full of DSLR, 50mm, 85mm, 24-105, ...etc. increased my "hit rate" no end. The restriction of 1 lens was actually an advantage when it came to looking at the World. (Same when I shot my 5D+40mm pancake). I just realised that all my club competition entries are now taken on my X100V.
Let me put it in cycling terms: I started riding a Single-Speed bike some years ago. 1 gear, no options other than pedalling harder on the hills. To me it seems that the part of the brain that is occupied by thinking "Am I in the best gear?.... should I change gear? ..... I think there's probably a better gear than this....", is the same part of the brain that takes joy in just looking at the scenery.
A Bike with 30 gears is like having a camera bag full of lenses. You'll always be asking similar questions.. "Should I put the 85mm on????...etc".
Summary. I think having an endless choice of options diverts your brain from seeing the world.
Real value here. Thank you.
Best video you posted in ages.... im one of the victims... stuck in a technical mindset 😅
This must one of if not the most valuable channel for photo nerds on RUclips! Thank you :)
Goodness, my photographer friend essentially showed me the same advice almost two decades ago, and I did not really get it back then. She gave me her camera (5Dmk2), and I gave her my Nokia 1MP cell phone. We took a photo each of the same landscape, and her point and shoot with the cell phone was a work of art, and my shot with the DSLR was a nondescript landscape photo heading to delete... I was so astounded that we were looking at the same sight, and how she was able to "capture the moment", even though nothing was moving. Indeed, just set to auto setting and shoot. I started to do that with my cell phone a year ago, and I improved a lot! That was when I started to get the feel that when I was taking the shot I already feel if it's going to be a good photo or not. Just point and get the feel of the frame and shoot... think of nothing else, just what's in front of me.
Love this! I've been an amateur hack for 40 years and always try to keep learning. Appreciate the inspiration.
This is kind of what I did in my beginnings during the film SLR days. As long as I had the correct exposure settings all I needed to do was to focus and shoot. the decisive moment and angles were the only thing I thought about when I put the viewfinder up to my eye, oh and focus, [this was during the manual focus/beginning of program modes in cameras. Daily practice like this helped my photojournalism skills and got me published in newspapers later on.
Best way to fully embrace what the art of photography is : use a camera that has the simpliest settings and not the most technological options. To me, the more technology is present, the less human creativity can be expressed. And it is not only true with photography. Technology alienates us. I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Nikon D200 (some film cameras as well like an Olympus OM1), and in no way I would prefer a more technologically advanced cameras. It is just enough!
I agree with you 100% friend. My two carry camera setups that I use 99% of the time: 6D with 50mm 1.8. Fuji X100 (fixed 35mm equivalent). No fancy tech or complicated options, the more simple the setup, the better pictures I can create. It has always been the case, for me.
Thank you very much for saying that! Your words are very important for me.
I always have the feeling, I am a bad photographer, because I shoot in JPG, use all automatic functions of my camera and I do not invest much (in most cases no) time in editing my photos. When I come home, I check my JPGs and throw all pictures away, which I do not like on a first sight. That means, normally about 80 to 90 percent of my pictures are immediately deleted. My criteria for keeping a photo is simple: It should be good out of my camera or with very little editing like cropping, contrast, saturation etc. Thats what I expect from my (expensive) Fujifilm camera and yes, the Fuji delivers! Hours of RAW-editing is for me a total waste of time. When I have 5 or 10 nice photos at the end of a day, I am satisfied!
Excellent video. Thanks Martin.
Ha, damm. Been reading my mind again. Been comparing myself a lot lately to other photographers and was starting to think maybe i just don't have "the eye"
My God. What a Masterpiece I just eard ❤
My best photos were taken on holidays when I was chilled and just pressed shutter button with aperture priority mode chosen.
Great advice! Funnily enough without realising it, I spent one holiday a few years ago taking loads of instinctive photos with my little LUMIX GM5 on the toy camera filter setting... I still love going through them, technically probably weak but they bring back the emotion of the holiday!
Excellent stuff - inspiring to follow!
Glad you are back.
I will definitely try this thanks Martin👍🏻👍🏻
Hi Martin.
Good to see healthy guy back and I hope Katie liked the flowers grumpy sick guy bought her 😂
I agree with everything you have said here but would go a stage further. Take the pictures on a mobile phone; point and shoot, anything and everything, have a laugh while you are doing it.
Then, look at the results. You will get the shock of your life as you see images that you forget you knew how to take or didn't think you were capable of taking.
The mindset is the equivalent of dad dancing, to hell with it and those watching.
Gwan, Martin.
😂😂😂 so true about the dad dance, to hell with those watching, hahaha katie was very happy with her imaginary flowers..👀 But yes why not use a phone i might do a landscape shoot soon with my phone and see how it goes and make a video on it.
I think I love you 😂. This is such an important thing to learn. Thank you so much for just telling folks to just stop it. You are spot on.
You are so welcome! Thanks !
Now this is a wonderful scene
Super vid. Its how I like to shoot in any case. Ive an old EOS 30D with a nifty 50 on it set to Black and White jpeg. Back jog dial changes my exposure comp and front dial changes my aperture. Thats it. Grab and go - shoot - enjoy.
Thank you for the video Martin. This couldn't have come at a better time, it's like you could read my mind.
I'm off to Durres in Albania next month and I'll stay there for three months, no partner or friends, no distractions.
I plan to do three things. Finish a book I'm working on. Get fitter. Take photographs. I will take two cameras a Sony A5000 and a Samsung NX300 and I will photograph the crap out of the coastline. I will do this every day, revisiting locations looking for something fresh to photograph.
I want to feel free and this is a way. I expect to have a better knowledge and feel about composition and framing.... we'll see.
CFC forever.
thats brilliant, i hope you will have a great time and can you let me know how this goes please. KTBFFH
such a great and refreshing channel and video. i love the content. last 5 years, i've only shot jpeg and no more raw + jpeg anymore. I recently picked up a canon rebel xt for nostaligic reasons as it was my first camera. i started using it and love how simple it was and the images it produces are amazing.
Great exercise to try, thx for sharing
Very good points Martin
God bless you, Martin) so true that there's nothing to add
Thank you Martin ! I will definitely go and try these ideas !
I hope it works for you Scott, keep at it and see if it helps!
I use my phone instead of my camera. This stops me from the fussing with settings etc.
I've taken some of my best photos with my phone. It's totally valid.
@@xcx8646Absolutely……
Thankyou Martin, this is just what i needed as the bottom had fallen out of my hobby! ❤
Great advice thank you. Love the mic by the way, like listening to radio4 .
You are right on, Martin! I grab my Fuji X100v sometimes and do this just walking on our Main St. looking for things and people that are interesting. No fiddling. Just shooting. f8, auto ISO, .jpg. The freedom of doing this is tremendous.
I do the *exact* same. Only with an X100 original I have had since new. Only thing I sometimes adjust is exposure comp, but that is an automatic impulse, based on lighting conditions, rather than an actual thought process. And that is done so quick and easy.
I also only use OVF, never EVF. Keeps me in the picture and really helps with composition. Who needs raw when Fuji jpegs and colours are that great! Liberating, that’s the feeling…..
I have full frame 6D and lenses and tripods and flashes and all that. Best of both worlds.
But my Fuji accounts for most of my shots and most of my fun.
I have been a Nikon user for years. I have a few FF cameras and lenses and accessories but I switched to Fuji for the same reasons as you. Lighter and more compact and for the simulations. However, I do like my older Nikon D700 and D4. I got the X100v when it was first released before it became the rage of the younger set. I also have the X-T5 and X-S20. The X100v is a lot of fun to use.
@@edc5338 I have a lot of FF gear too, 6D and several lenses etc. I do like that gear too! Still has its uses!
I would love to add an X100V some day, when the ‘in’ crowd get tired of it 😉 But my og X100 still produces stunning images, that 12mp sensor is incredible. Not to mention the glass….
X-T5 I would love to own as well…..
Have a great day, cheers
I bet they will come out with a new X100 this year. Maybe a better battery and a few other changes. It is a popular camera. I think Fuji was caught with the supply chain problems of Covid and lost out on more sales. All the best to you.
Another great bit of advice
Thanks for the video, my style of photography changed when I switched from Olympus to Canon.
my first full frame camera. canon 6d, with the 50mm 1.8
that was 2 years ago. What did I learn after buying an EOS R?
Technology is great, but with the 6D I go out and just shoot from my gut without thinking.
and that's what it's supposed to be, just capturing moments.
Great video Martin, I feel some of what you're describing is like your examples of the covers of Harpers Bazaar. You can make them fit the conformity of the rule of thirds or the like's but it's finding the correct balance and creativity within your photography.
Yes that’s true but I think when it too forced it can become obvious and distracting. Balance always isn’t it
Thanks for the "push," Martin . . .
Very good advice!
Brilliant. I have come round to the same logic. It is not about the kit nor the technical it is all about the "feel."
I like to grab an old film camera and go out with it, when I want to get back to basics :)
I love this video
Good stuff
Excellent video. This is why I still have 2 film cameras. Throw a roll of Kodak color plus in it and go shoot. It’s a helpful exercise.
I love it.
OMG, this is how my wife and I shoot! For event shooting she is fantastic. I set her camera on Auto and she is just snapping away while I’m in full manual and getting frustrated cause someone is turning towards or away from a light source or moving so I have to bump up my shutter speed. I love portraits and headshots cause I’m in full control, lighting and posing plus my camera in full manual. I’m going to try this exercise and see how it helps. I love taking pics but I wish I was better at catching the moment.
Good I hope it works for you
Oh man I just did this without seeing this video the only difference was I shot in RAW. I put the camera in AV mode and just shot anything and everything. The photos came out great and 5 hours flew by and I was left feeling fulfilled and ready to shoot anything. Thanks for the tips brother
now i recognise your youtube user name too, i thought this message looked familiar!
Yeppers it is me in the X group I love your channel and have learned so much
Thanks!
Thank you!!!
I'm still not great at this, admittedly, but what helps me is to shoot primes deliberately. I take only 1. I force myself to see only in that one focal length and I have no option to zoom or change lenses. It's not the same as what you're describing here and I'll certainly add that into my practice. I also switch to aperture priority when doing it so all I'm thinking is depth of field technically. The rest is just letting the camera do its thing and the rest is on me. Still not great at seeing what others see, but trying and slowly improving. I haven't been doing any photography for months as I got into that "I've photographed everything in my area" mindset, which I know is ludicrous. I got lazy. I just didn't want to and I didn't want to photograph things just to do it. I love photography but I have to be in the moment of loving it or I do even worse. It's just a thing for me but I'm looking at getting rid of my mirrorless Fuji kit and going back to a DSLR. I loved shooting on a DSLR but hate thinking about batteries, screens, turning it off between shots, etc. I just want to do photography and looking at D700 or 5D II (or 6D) and old lenses. I had the best times just throwing decent lenses on my Nikon D750 (but I hate that camera's colors!) and heading out to shoot. Fuji has the colors I was looking for but it's just a tiny camera (X-T1) in my average sized hands and not fun to use. Those dials everyone raved about....meh. I'll take an aperture ring and PASM dial with quick access to everything else any day.
Anyway, thanks for this video. The problem is me. I have to work at it to improve and I'm not only aware that I took a lazy way out, but I also didn't practice the best way. Deliberate. That's what I need to be.
Greetings buddy and happy new year to you and your channel. Bang on the money with this video., the master has spoken 😃.Absolutely agree with what you say. My father always used to tell, " Just look through the viewfinder and just take the god damn picture, and worry about everything else later"
He always told me to write settings down in a note book, with a date and time, to give me something to look back on as a reminder of how I achieved the result that I got, if it was something I did particularly well. I still do that to this day, but mainly on the days, where I'm using multiple strobes, with various adjustments now, and it's always proved to be helpful.
My grand daughter now follows a similar approach, by just worrying about what she's looking at, and by leaving the camera in auto and nothing else!
I think a lot of review, tip videos do bombard folk with so much technical data, that they almost make that person feel they have to dial in a plethora of adjustments to get the shot, but it's simply not the case.
I guess I was lucky learning on film, as there wasn't anything other than a light meter and the ASA level of my film to worry about, and was it in focus of course!
I hope anyone reading this gets that urge to follow a similar approach to simply worry about what they are looking at as opposed to diving into the menus to adjust things.
Keep up the excellent work pal 👍
mate i spent ages replying to this and it just didnt post. Hope you are well and good to see you teaching the next generation now as well. Your dad was right, since then we just lost so much focus on what we are actually doing.
Saatchi& Saatchi got big with their ""single minded proposition" that's Martin's advice from 3:00 and further.
Great video Martin 😊
Can you remind me if have a video when you have covered what picture style’ you use for your Canon 5dmki and 6dmki? Do you adjust the picture style settings?
I always shoot Raw and have never used jpeg. Just wonder what you have found best for you. Thanks
Hi Colin, I often use prolost which is a flat nuetral style but really you can just use standard as well. Ive used that more recently as i know just to protect the highlights a little anyway.
@@MartinCastein thanks Martin. Don’t know what Prolost is but will read up 👍
My pro photographer friend told me the secret to taking good pictures, is to understand how the camera sees light.
Has anyone experimented with in-camera Jpeg Picture Style sharpening in the 5D Classic? I intend to myself, but am wondering if anyone has found a reasonable starting point. I'm finding the default sharpening settings aren't enough, and I'm getting tired of selectively sharpening keepers after the fact. Cheers
Hey Martín ..a question and advice....i have a canon 90d AND 6d....i have money for one lens ...which you choose or recomend....Sigma 24-35 f2...canon 16-35 f2.8..both ff and second hand...and the Sigma 18-35 f1.8.... if you hace Time please!! Thank you
what do you shoot?
Lately ...street photography ,buildings..a little bit of everything...
out of those lenses id probably get the canon 16-35.
Thank you sr....my photos aré nothing great...but help me alot with my stress...and at the end of the day i take photos for me...thank you and all the Best for you...
This will sound blasphemous but I developed my instinct by shooting with my phone and a ricoh GR digital, which is a point and shoot. A wide angle lens forces you to look for compositional elements and how they come together to form an interesting image and imo lenses on the wider side help to tell a story better. You also develop a feel for a specific focal length and can see the final image better without having to put a camera to your face. The deep depth of field eliminates another variable - aperture, so that's another distraction removed. I noticed that I was fiddling a lot more with my DSLR and couldn't capture the moment as well, not least because of its size. I'm just less likely to use it. I would just never shoot in jpeg with a modern smartphone - the images look like overprocessed rubbish but the raws often look no worse than from my DSLR.
that sounds ideal!!!!!
👍
@8:20 Are you sure that is a 'technical' and not in fact a UK cultural problem - as I have not seen these things you are describing where I am.
Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) as a 10 year old broke his camera.
While it was being fixed, he practiced taking photos by blinking.
He practiced instinct. No camera. No excuses.
thats supreme mindset
@@MartinCastein Lartigue is my favourite photographer. Do a quick image search and you will quickly see his remarkable skill at timing the shot to freeze gravity. His early race car photos are what lead to cartoonists drawing speeding cars with slanted oval wheels. He didn’t think himself a photographer and only revealed his work very late in life.
Additionally, turn image review OFF. Make it more like a film experience so you have the anticipation and surprise of seeing your images for the 1st time all together.
i do it all the time with my iphone camera. Takes the pressure off.
Just got to think that you have a camera that has a roll of film in it and it's going to cost you money to develop and you can't edit them because they're not digital. Remember the time it was fun to take pictures. One thing I have to do is when I see a picture I got to stop and take the photo instead of waiting for another time as the light has changed and the photo is gone. If you don't shoot for yourself, why do you shoot?
Of course you can edit film.
@@lesberkley3821 Not when I started, things are not as easy as they are today.
Sometimes you shoot for a photo editor or working in tandem with a writer on a book project. They very much want to see their vision realized.
Sir, you could be the best photography teacher ever!
I wish!
Jpg mode is illegal. I don't want to go to jail.
I mean its only a matter of time anyway.. 🤣