The Top 10 Skills People Want to Learn in 2019 and How to Learn Them
By: Danny Forest
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Development, Education, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration

#7. Photography

Me taking a portrait photo of my wife in Nepal

My definition: Learning to use a camera to take good photos.

Photography is a very broad skill, much like drawing. More and more people are interested in photography due to the rise of smartphones and DLSR technologies. It’s now easier than ever to learn and is a great satisfying skill to both learn and apply.

Sub-skills

Terminology

Framing

The rule of thirds

Composition

Reading the histogram

Types of cameras

Understanding the basics: Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO

Portrait photography (has many sub-skills)

Landscape photography (has many sub-skills)

Object photography (has many sub-skills)

Action photography (has many sub-skills)

Macro photography

Long Exposure photography

Photo editing in Camera Raw

Photo editing in Photoshop

Photo editing in Lightroom

and many many more!

My story with Photography

I used to not care for photography at all. When I bought my iPhone 6 a few years back, it was the first time I was armed with a good enough camera. I started taking shots and playing around with them on various apps. I started enjoying it.

When I took a trip to Iceland, I decided I should probably step it up if I wanted to take beautiful photos. It turns out the little bit of research I did paid off and I started taking decent photos.

Then I travelled around the world for a year. I took over 15K+ photos on that trip. I got a lot better and people thought I was actually a photographer. So I decided to buy my first DSLR in India and continued the trip with it. I learned a whole lot.

I was later contracted to take professional photos of NGO operations for Sundara and the opening of a new WeWork location in Bangalore, India.

I’m learning portrait photography this month and will be practicing with these beautiful people: Carla Diaz, Diana Jabba, and Kevin Nguyen.

How to learn it?

The best 80/20 I found was to learn about the rule of thirds. You can learn that in less than 5 minutes and instantly, your photography is at least 2x better.

The rule of thirds is one of many framing techniques and it’s worth it to look into the other ones too. Many amateur photos are good but lack proper framing skills. Note that you can and should crop your photos during post-production to frame them better.

Another very important as aspect is to learn proper exposure. Learn what is perfect exposure, what’s underexposed and what’s overexposed. Learn to read the histogram. Learn to use that to your creative advantage.

Both of these things don’t require expensive gear. A DSLR helps for exposure, but you can expose a photo properly with a phone too.

For a month, practice a specific style you’re interested in. I started with landscape. In retrospect, I actually find it to be the hardest one to create photos that stand out.

When ready to purchase a camera, find one that comes with a lens that allows you to shoot the style you’re interested in. You’ll learn that, in most cases, the body doesn’t matter as much as the lens.

I’d suggest learning a new style only once a month. Focusing on one style at a time will give you enough practice to become good enough at it.

Resources

Free

Paid