How To Be a Better Photographer In 5 Easy Steps. 

Long time subscriber but never commented before. Thank you for such a thoughtful and thought provoking video. As a relatively new photographer I saw many of the points you make in my own efforts. Notably the quest for image perfection over image content and the ego boost of “likes” on social media. I am certainly going to try and be mindful of what you say as I move forward. Thanks again for this video and all your other content - your style is a refreshing change from a lot of what’s out there and I’m so glad you don’t subject us to an opening of coffee brewing and some of the other antics.

I'm very fortunate to have found you from the very start of my photography journey and can't emphasize enough what a beautiful influence you are for me. Both through your work and through your attitude. Every time i watch your videos I feel calm and energised to go out and shoot for the beauty of itself. Thanks, Kevin

Happy Birthday Albie !! Thank you for sharing your knowledge Kevin ..... 5 great advice !

Loving and agreeing with all the tips 👌

Yours is the only channel by far that i watch from beginning to end. I hope you keep making videos like this one. Bravo!

❤ Another great one Kev!

Brilliant video once again Kevin. Thank you.

Another ace video Kevin, thank you!

Great Video :) I’m going to try that black and white shooting technique for sure :) Many thanks…

I have been following your works for many years now and I have learned a lot from your pictures on shooting only black and white and also did some photo films for a client work, which they loved it a lot. Keep educating and sharing us your invaluable insights. Thank you and cheers.

Great advice, Kevin!

Love these tips. Timeless advice. I can understand the value of black and white vision, but personally I try to see in colour because I want colour to be a character or a subject in my composition often. I shoot street, doc, and travel mostly. It's not a colour critical genre at all, but I find colour contrast draws my eye when I'm out and about more than light contrast, and gives me another tool in my belt to guide focus through particularly a layered scene. It also means that flat, overcast, or poor light isn't as frustrating as it used to be. Excellent video. 🙏

BRILLIANT!! ty!!

Really excellent tips as always Kevin, thanks ❤

Awesome video Kevin 🔥 great advice👌🏼

Well done sir, thanks for all you do!

Thanks ❤

Canon FV mode has become my favorite. I used to mostly use AV until I got a M6 mark II, Once I discovered FV, I knew I would always use it. Everyone has a favorite mode. I do some themes. Caturday,, Monochrome Monday and stuff like that.

Great tips thanks

You popped up in my feed & glad it did. I enjoyed the inspiration. Subscribed.

Love all of your work Kevin , Been a fan for many years , And on your love for FUJI I purchased the XT2 and absolutely love it , Thank you for your advise on the Fuji products. Keep them coming your a amazing photograher Many thanks .

I’ve been following your work for many years now and have always been a huge fan of your documentary style wedding photography. Thanks for putting this video together! Loved all of your advice but particularly fond of becoming a better observer and embracing the imperfect. Great words to think of when I find myself falling back into the trap of taking repetitive, predictable images. Thanks Kevin!

Great video kevin! I agree with the use of P mode in fujifilm x-t5.

Another really informative video, Kevin. Being a better observer is really important tip and clearly explained. I have been using my Fuji in A mode for a while now and it makes picture making fun. Lovely collection of images at the end too.

Fantastic content. You capture interesting moments like no other. Some of your tips, I've never heard before. Thumbs up 👍.

Thanks for one of the most helpful, well thought out, kind, and convincingly presented dope slaps I've had the pleasure of finding. The truth behind each of those five bits of advice made me stop and question how I've been going about my photography. Many thanks for the wake up call, and now to go and set my Fuji to A. A. and A. Slainte !

Really good advice. It will help me a lot. A big thanks :)

That was truly inspiring, not shot in P mode for the 5 years I've had a camera. This will be my next street setting.

My friend, you pretty much sum up all the things I strive to put words on. But you nail the words far better than me. Good video! Thank you.

Visualizing a scene in black and white can be immensely beneficial for a photographer. By mentally stripping away colour, the photographer is compelled to focus on the inherent tonal contrasts, textures, and shapes within the scene. This heightened awareness of light and shadow allows for a more precise understanding of how they interact and contribute to the composition. It encourages the photographer to seek out strong lines, patterns, and contrasts that might otherwise be overshadowed by colour distractions. Furthermore, envisioning the scene in black and white encourages a deeper exploration of mood and emotion, as the absence of colour often enhances the dramatic impact of an image. Ultimately, by pre-visualizing in black and white, photographers can cultivate a sharper eye for composition and a more nuanced understanding of the visual elements that contribute to compelling imagery, resulting in more powerful and evocative photographs. Great video and P Mode should be part of every photographers arsenal, and don't forget, you can still adjust ISO and exposure compensation, very quickly (and other settings) to fine-tune the exposure or achieve a specific look/creative effect. There are many roads that lead to Rome, and it's all great fun!

Thanks for the great tips. I counted "shoot in spot meter mode" as another tip!

Very nice video, enjoyed and agree with all your points. Especially “currency of likes”. Love the “24 hour film” at the end. Very special.

11:58. Thank you! I rarely shoot in program mode. I’ve felt that a ‘real photographer’ wouldn’t shoot in that mode and to get real photos, you need to dial in all the setting etc. The fact that you use that so often really shook me. I need to adjust my thinking! Thank you for saying this…. I have a photo shoot outdoors today and I’m going to look into some of the auto shooting.

Thank you for the great advice. I will put them into practice this week! Sincerely Gary

Dear Kevin! Thank You for all of your insight. It has been quite a few years since I bought my XT3, challenging every "serious photographer" while photographing action sports with a Fuji camera. Love the podcast and my best regards to Neale James. Promising myself every week to drop a question, but incredibly busy. Thank You for your hard work to keep this channel going . Cheers Carlos

Excelente vídeo! Felicidades para seu filho, para você e para toda sua família. Abraços do Brasil!

Thank you Kevin. You make some great points and I couldn't agree with you more on your view of that older wedding photo in B&W. I despair sometimes when listening to comments about noise on images, and blown highlights etc. Pick up older (and i'm only talking of about 1980/90 etc) photo books and look at the work of great photographers like Steve McCurry etc. Marvellous images that capture the moment. There is a saying that Rick Sammon (another well known photographer) uses - If you are looking at the noise then its not an interesting photograph.

Thanks Kevin excellent information

Very good tips from a talented photographer. Especially the one about the "likes" on Instagram & co. Which exposure metering mode do you use in P-Mode?

Beautiful end segment Kevin.. for me I'm reminded of something John Lennon said 'life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans' that means, for me, while you're working hard to keep a roof over you're head etc: etc: time is slipping by and before you know it the kids have left home and are having kids of their own! what I'm trying to say, rather badly, making images like this is a great legacy as well as a great family album.. treasure the moments with your family, because as I say, they will slip by way too fast! Sorry for the long post but I hope you get my drift.

Thanks for these thoughtful and thought-provoking tips. Always enjoy your videos. I shot solely in colour for years and measured the results in 'pop'. But I reckon my photography has improved much more since I started shooting and seeing in B&W. Now all I have to do is wean myself off the likes......;-)

I like your photos. I learned your video. Thanx a lot. When you shoot candid photos, are you always using burst mode?

Awesome video Kevin. I started out shooting black and white in the late 70s. To this day I often shoot black and white film, and when shooting colour especially of people I generally do a mon conversion, I just love it. Funnily enough just before digital kicked ff I shot a wedding of an older couple, they knew their stuff, they wanted black and white HP5, nothing else. I told them better to shoot in colour then I can get a set printed in black and white as well, because you know colour can divert the eyes away from things....but no they're were adamant H5 only. Fair play so I shot the wedding handed them the prints, laddo was fizzing he was well chuffed, lassie was very quiet. A few days later I got a call asking for a meeting with them, she went off at me for making her look haggered wtf, laddo was sat silently, I tried to explain black n white hides nothing that why I suggested a colour shoot. I felt like crap, she was not happy, finally laddo stood up said mate you did a great job, I love the photos, and when my wife sses her the way I see her she will love them too, before he finished the lastword I was out the door fast as fek, it put me off weddings for a while.

Cheers, Kevin. A timely reminder of the important things - the things that make the difference. Albie's a bit bigger now. "Errrrr, dad, stop it with your camera." KBO.

Hi Kevin Great advice What do you recommend to make a group shoot of 4 persons? Which exposure 2.8? And also spot meeting?

Great video Kevin. i have already internalised some of the things you talk about e.g. shooting in mono but still can't get my head around shooting in P mode. For weddings in particular I need to control shutter speed and depth of field and for street, shutter speed is important for either freezing or creating movement. How would that work in p mode?

Très agréable instant de vie en Angleterre. Chaque photo est très belle, on retrouve un mariage indien, dont la mariée est belle, ensuite la vue du pont où on se trouve, et la vue de la fête et de l'anniversaire avec une ambiance très agréable.J'aime particulièrement votre vidéo,elle résume à elle seule la vie dans de Pays.

Expounding on one point; I never delete images either in camera or from my archives.... Why? well first of all I am always concerned that deleting images off your camera's memory card will somehow lead to file corruption when you cause gaps in your file numbering. That is just me being overly cautious I guess. And secondly, I will sometimes revisit images years later and have a new appreciation of an image I dismissed originally. I can't tell you how many times I pulled up images taken twenty, ten, or five years ago that have become favorites of mine now. Today with advanced editing tools many of these old toss-away images now has new life, plus after years forgotten we tend to come in with new eyes on an image we thought were bad for what ever reason.

Great tips :) Ps. Did you use the x70 for the birthday photos? Of the 23mm f2? I think was the x70 :)

Joe Buissink’s home webpage has a beautiful shot of a bride kissing her new husband. It’s slightly out of focus. Content. Moments. Oh. And he uses/used P mode a lot of the time.

There’s a lot of snobbery in photography regarding P mode and “shoot raw or go home” type of crap.

P mode is lazy. You may be taking the picture. You have limited control over composition, because the camera chooses the f/stop. So you have no control of depth of field. Generally the camera sets the shutter speed to the fastest reasonable shutter speed because it wants to prevent camera shake, but modern cameras compensate for that now. So you don’t know what the camera will choose for your settings based on the Exposure Value. If you get a great picture with P mode, it’s luck. For the most part the camera does a good job with Program. If I were to use automatic functions of my camera, I would pick aperture priority. I want control of the depth of field. The only time I think shutter priority is good to use is when I’m shooting action where I control stop action or motion blur. Having stepless shutter speed or aperture can be an advantage at times if you can get a true meter reading with the TTL meter. Technical ability with the camera is only part of photography. Your eye for an image is just as if not more important. Composition will make or break the picture. It’s a skill but an art, but composition is also subjective. This is only half of photography. The second half is in the darkroom, in the case of digital photography, it’s in the computer. You make or break your pictures there.

Are you better photographer..?? Who the hell are you 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣