How to Make Wonderful Images
“Image is the power of observation, not the application of technology.” Ken Rockwell.
How have I made all my best shots? By noticing something cool and taking a picture. The important part is noticing something cool. Taking the picture is easy.
Your camera has NOTHING to do with making great photos. You have to master technique of course, but that’s just a burden to get out of the way to free yourself to tackle the really hard part. The hard part is saying something with your images.
Image is an art. It’s abstract. Therefore it’s difficult for many people to grasp. It’s easy and lazy to think a camera makes the photos. It’s easy to blame bad photos on a camera. When you get better you’ll realize you would have been better off to pay more attention to your images and less to your camera.
All cameras, especially digital ones, offer about the same image quality in real use. The real difference is how easy or possible it is to make the needed adjustments to get decent photos in each different kind of real-world condition. Test charts shot under controlled conditions completely ignore the real world and thus only compare performance for one limited aspect of performance under only one combination of conditions, which is why those tests have nothing to do with how your photos look. That’s why I ignore lab test reports and just try for myself. Lab work is useful for sorting out minutiae otherwise invisible between similar cameras in real photography and that’s it.
Image is like golf. They are both fun, popular and require some equipment. Very few people can get others to pay them to do either one for the same reason. Each takes a lifetime of constant practice, getting better and better little by little. Most golfers play for decades and never hit a hole-in-one. Photography is more complex than golf. Why does anyone expect ever to make a perfect photograph?
