Advancing Your Photography Skills Through Restrictions

In photography, limitations imposed either by the gear you are using or the situation you find yourself in can be really frustrating and can lead sometimes into losing interest in a particular kind of photography. While this is to an extent true, you need to start seeing things from a different perspective, as restrictions and limitations can be the best way to learn new photography skills and techniques. Success comes with experience. And experience can only be acquired through the different failures you lived and the obstacles you faced. So, even if you already own all the gear you need and you have been taking photos for several years, imposing some restrictions on yourself can help you advance your photography skills even further.

Gear restrictions:

Having many lenses and a huge variety of filters, doesn’t necessarily mean you will be able to use them properly. Limiting yourself by using a specific piece of gear will get you to know it better and to master every aspect and option it provides. So, consider using only one lens and one camera, for sometime, and you will see how the gear will become obsolete and how you will get to focus more on what really matters: subject, composition and light.

Go fully manual:

Photo by hyperboreal

All cameras now, come with different metering modes and various focusing modes, making getting an accurate exposure and a well focused image quite easy. But in order to learn how each element affects the exposure and the final result you get, you need to be able to experiment with it  manually without any camera automatism interfering. So set your camera manually for every step of the picture taking process, and experiment with the variation of shutter speeds, apertures, and ISOs to see how the photo changes with each of these elements. Also, set your camera to manual focusing, to work on getting it to focus on exactly what you want.

Think film:

Photo by Josa Jr

In the film days, photographers didn’t have memory cards with gigabytes of space to store the photos.  Film only allows for a limited number of frames to be taken (12, 24, 36, etc). This can be beneficial if applied to digital photography, as usually photography freshers tend to shoot many photos without prior thought and consideration. So, when going out on a photo walk, or when working on a project, think film and impose on yourself a predetermined number of shots that you shouldn’t exceed. 36 can be a good a start. This limitation can help you by making each shot more valuable and thus, you will put more thought and energy into perfecting each and every photo you take.

Another film inspired limitation, can be to shoot only black and white for a period of time. Shooting in black and white isn’t like shooting in color, and not every composition which seems interesting in color will be as interesting when shot in black and white. So you need to learn how to decide when to use each technique, and this can only be done by experimenting with black and white until you learn how to see a reality full of colors in Gray scale. Imposing this limitation on yourself can help you in achieving that.

Only shoot at a specific time:

Limiting your photographic activities to only a specific time of the day will lead you to concentrate on the problems you might face in that time of the day and will also teach you how to find and make beautiful photos whatever the lighting conditions are. You can for example shoot only at night for a whole week or you can choose to only take photos at midday with its unflattering sun light and harsh shadow. After some practice in these conditions you will understand that there is not such thing as a bad time or light for photography. Every time of the day can be magical if you learn how to deal with the light.

Composition/ subject restrictions:

Restrictions can be in terms of composition or in terms of the choice of subject. For example, if you still can’t master the rule of thirds, work on it exclusively and try to compose all your photos based on it. Once you feel more comfortable using it, you can allow yourself to break it and to compose in more varied ways. You can also limit your photography to only one type of subjects. For instance, if you are still finding a hard time photographing people, forget about everything and take only photos of people for a period of time. Concentrate on the things which you don’t master and keep experimenting, asking around, reading, etc, until you find answers to all your questions. Once you master a subject, move to the next one you find hard to tackle.

Photo by žųĦą!ŕ ăĦмąď

Editing restrictions:

Many times photographers take photos without making the proper camera settings or without composing the shot properly which results in more and more editing (cropping, color correction…). While it can save a few shots, editing doesn’t deal with the problem at its core. The problem is within the photographer. You need to work on getting the shot perfect at the moment of its capture. So, limiting your use of post processing software will make you work harder to get things like white balance, color saturation and framing right at the moment you press the shutter release button.

If you are of those who always see the cup as half full, you will understand how limitations and restrictions can change the way you take photos and can be a really effective learning opportunity.