As photographers looking to improve our craft, we watch YouTube videos, buy online training, read articles, and maybe even take a class or two. We can pursue our quest for information and consume all of these trainings and never see a marked improvement. The key to getting better? Get those reps in.
About a year ago, a landscape photography workshop client noted that I helped him “get the volume of reps” he needed on his camera to improve his camera skills. This comment gave me pause at first, but then I remembered he was a former college athlete, and reps was his way of saying the volume of practice he needed. As any athlete knows, you can watch your sport of choice on TV and replays online, but you will not get better simply by watching your sport.
You won’t even get better by reading books on your sport. You have to get the practice in to make the improvements. Without practicing what you’ve watched, read, or even what your coach has told you, you aren’t going to improve.
Photography is the same way. Not only do you need to consume information on the skills you are looking to learn, but you also have to actively practice them and get the reps in. That is how you see improvement and begin to build a strong foundation.
While most of my work is landscape photography oriented today, I have done a fair amount of portrait photography ranging from fashion to senior portraits to corporate headshots. When I was new to the genre, I would watch YouTube videos on how to ligh.
