This is what holds photographers back 

"Sharpness be damned. Your photo sucks!" Should be made into T-Shirts. 😂

I’m a jaded 68; commercial trenches 44 years….and I’ve always said: If the technical merits are the first thing mentioned about a shot….then The Shot apparently doesn’t make a dent! And the CAPTURE is everything. It’s not f/1.2. Or 1.4. Or 2.8. It’s…..the shot. It’s not cropped vs FF; it’s not Canon, or Sony, or Fuji, or….ANY brand. It’s really about…the space between your ears. YOUR imagination, your ABILITY….

I can agree that we've all been there: everything is a tool, and every tool has to work to the advantage of the story being told.

This channel has got to be one of my most invaluable find of anything of 2024

LOL..... I LOVE your truth and honesty... spot on, straight to the point FACTS !!

I was so happy that I don't worry (too much) about any of the things that beginners worry about. And then, you get to narrative and I realize my photos are good, but there is too often no narrative.

Another great thought provoking video. Would be interesting to hear the average age of the photographers with agents. I'm sure as people get older, how in touch with the zeitgeist they are diminishes. I also don't think there is nothing wrong with being more interested in the technical side of photography. The photographers with the creative ideas need assistants.

Well said.

I enjoyed that day in the studio, I can still smell the biscuits now. 🤣

Well Scott thanks for that. Very informative as always but it made me stop and restart certain areas a few times. Love the bonus at the end. Always nice to see professionals at work.

i understood nothing you said in the first part of your video. the second part was very insightful. thank you.

My concern as a newbie photographer other than taking the best photos possible when on assignment, is the niche and target I am positioning my business in. The gear part is solved in day one: get something that is good and does not break, period (Canon, Sony, Nikon, whatver). The intricate part is how to aggregate perception of value to the customer + deliver a result that beats that, every time. How to communicate the right message for my audience, my geography. When to say NO. Identifying red flags and above all else learning on a daily basis: lightroom, photoshop, light, art in general. Gear is the least interesting bit, it just needs to work and be practical.

Well said Scott!

Is this a new camera, lens, lighting? It looks really good!

I learned the old-school way with film. My gen tends to view 50mm lenses as overpriced kit lenses. Remember 50mm was the kit lens for SLRS. As a photojournalist and sports shooter, Bokeh was the norm because of what we shot. When working in the studio f/16 is normal for me. You pick the settings for the job. Too many new photographers view RU-vid as gospel. I took one RU-vidr to town when he said his gear determined his style and zooms were too complex for him. The thing about RU-vidrs is they parrot each other.

I think something that holds alot of photographers back is just so much bad advice that's out here on youtube. You've gone over in past videos about how there's RU-vidrs who are not working professionals in this industry (mckinnon) who regurgitate the same info as other RU-vidrs who only shoot for youtube and that's whats stunting the growth. You nailed it on the head about aperture and dof though. The amount of times I've gotten weird looks from photographers who are blown away that I shoot product and food at f8 - f16 is unreal

I once attended a talk of a fashion photographer and one particularly striking photo came up. Someone asked him : "What was your settings?" As if merely having his camera with the same settings, he will be able to reproduce the photo.

Hey, I do macro now and then and I need to care about abberation and especially diffraction lol

Well said!

Club judges focus [pun intended] on many of the very things you list!

Honestly . All I care about is producing what the client, (art director) (person hiring me) what they want and need the image to do. If I feel the image needs to be handled differently I first produce whats asked for then deliver both - asked and my perception.

Yay Im not a beginner any more(according to your beginner worries)! Does that mean my photos do not suck?😅 Im not 100% there with your pro worries yet tho. My biggest worry right now is how to combat fatigue as im on a Kirmes (something like a weekend Oktoberfest like lokal thing that every town celebrates) and i noticed that i would not go all in because i feel liek i have to save some energy. (its not the kind of event a clear minded pro would delve into tbh but its fun and good for exposure you wont make much money as they barly break even them self). TL;DR how do i deliver despite being kinda worn out (but with plenty of time to relax on the horizon)?

All the technical details matter but not to miss the forest for the trees Skill / talent Then composition Then lighting Then editing / color Then theory / abstract story behind the photo Then glass Then camera body (Depends on the style of photography of course)

I came back to photography as a hobby after a few years. This meant that I missed starting when bokeh had become a thing. I also used to work in a camera shop and even then I rarely looked at the in-depth specs for a lens. It never made my photography any better or helped in my job.

I had to laugh about the whole bokeh discussion. I'm def very much aligned with your view on this as it's mine as well. Worry about the creamy texture of the background that's out of focus but..what about the freakin subject?! Gezuz and thanks for the laugh ~Chuck in BIrmingham Alabama USA

I used to worry about all the technical stuff, until I realised clients don't really care and people don't notice. Then I felt less bad about shooting on an old camera. Now I worry about colours (yes, you're right about that one), and composition (to a point), but probably even more than that, I worry about the subject matter and whether shooting a project is going to do anything for my portfolio or credibility. If I'm getting paid well for a shoot, I won't care whether it's dull or not, but if it's just a normal job it's becoming harder and harder to shoot boring/average things, because I know it will just pay an average amount and won't do much for my career (it could even damage it if I put out non-interesting work). I basically hit a point where I realised the most successful photographers were the ones shooting the most interesting subjects, in an interesting way. I think saying it has to be original is perhaps over doing it, because is ANYthing original these days? But it definitely has to be interesting and you can't be seen to be simply copying someone else.

I have two things I say to anyone who goes on about uninspiring technical details: 1) All these modern cameras are better than the skills most of us posesses, so just choose the brand that fits/feels best in your hand, and 2) Implied sharpness is the only sharpness I care about. As long as nothing else is sharper than the thing that is supposed to be the sharpest, I’m happy with almost anything✨

I’ve never given two shits about Bokeh, and some of my best photos were taken with a $25 35mm CCTV lens on an Olympus PEN camera. Where does that leave me?

“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept” Henri Cartier-Bresson, "It's sharp enough" Mark Mann

I don't think I've ever cared about bokeh lol, always found the discussion on it dumb. Chromatic aberration on the other hand I find important, at least when it comes to considering buying a lens. But this is mainly because I'm often shooting with bright open steel frame windows behind my subject

But, RU-vid tell us to worry about all of these things (bokeh, sharpness chromatic aberration, colour fringing) not you though, which is refreshing thanks

Spot on, although I do somewhat disagree with you on chromatic aberrations/fringing. For modern lenses CA is basically a non-issue, and what little there is can usually be corrected automatically, but there are older lenses (like the Sigma 50mm I have) that completely destroy details, give your model a giant purple halo, and make jewelry rainbow colored. I guess what I'm saying is, don't buy old lenses ;) Worrying about bokeh is indeed silly (unless it's actually distracting, in which case you should probably reconsider what you're doing). Instead consider it to be a character that can be used creatively.

Here's what I think is the real answer. Tech being more or less spot on, including no weird donut bokeh and no focus misses in final selected image and so on are merely expected minimums - but they ARE expected and you NEED to get them right unless you have some really good excuse like you're a wartime correspondent. But that's ALL they are - baseline minimums. Nothing more. It's like if a novelist bragged about the fact that their book had no typos or spelling errors. Now you can use unique lighting tricks (unique, not copying others on the internet) to do unique things, and truly mastering light as a storytelling tool is important - but I agree many photographers get hung up on obsessing over basic stuff. I mean, yeah a bought a Canon 85mm 1.2. It's great, especially in how it rolls off the point of focus which reminds me of how Cookes do it. Now I know when to bring it out based on composition and I no longer really think about it. It's a baseline

I must be a good photographer then because the last thing I care about are settings or quality of the camera, just the result. 😂 I paint in the same way and have done for 50 years so perhaps I'm not entirely a beginner, just changing the medium. I paint with anything as long as I have something to paint with and on. I am completely clueless about cameras and use any at hand. I do feel incompetent when I hear people discussing gear but I can usually fight with it and get the result I want. If I ever had a commission with specific criteria, then I would be lost.

Sharpness is a bourgeois concept - Henri Cartier-Bresson.

The only thing that concerns me after a major history in the film and TV world, advertising and commercial world, is how to pay the bills on an ever decreasing pool of high quality International work, the fact that I am now old, and all my CD's and staff have, gone, retired, or died. Even the networks, agencies and productions are changing, and technology is making everyone an expert, lol. I think I'll retire and grow bananas, LMAO!!!

All great points!

I rarely worry about the technical aspects of photography unless it is required of a shot. If the shot is good, no one cares about what lens, how many megapixels, etc. I've seen technically perfect shots that absolutely suck. I've seen shots that suck precisely because they are technically perfect. I've taken more than my fair share of sucky shots in 40 years.

I lost focus, literally. The camera used to be my tool. Now i have become the tool of my camera. It makes great pictures but i do not anymore.

Nobody touched the fruits

The same with movies. When DSLRs with video capabilities became affordable (starting with Canon 5DMKII), everyone was doing F1.2 in video to replicate "cinema". That generation just made some of the most awful looking "cinematic" videos... it's still around a lot in Hollywood from that generation and on.

I don't care about chromatic aberrations but I feel like I should. Probably a sign I watch too much RU-vid.

People who are constantly focussed on the 'wank' details need to go and have a good look at themselves in the mirror. People. Real people, you know, those people who we call consumers don't care!! They have no interest in all the technical, nonsense. Most don't even know the words. People see an image they like/love or hate/don't like. How it's made, what it's made on or with makes very little difference to the consumer. I've said it before. No one in the history of the world has ever said, WOW!! F16 at 1/125 at 100 iso. I'll buy it!! The key is to take photographs that people love, like, want and desire. Get a good camera, get some good lenses. In fact. Spend more on the lenses. The lens is way more important. A great camera with a crappy lens make crappy images. A great lens on a cheaper camera will always produce better results. Then go out, have fun, enjoy the process and stop worrying about all the camera wank and wankers.

Bokeh, shmoke, the only thing that matters to me is that the out of focus background help my subject stand out. Show one subject clearly with the background supporting it. Only nit picky photographers care about bokeh, the client could give a rats ass about it.

"bokeh", I never heard that word, until I started shooting digital, and personally I cant stand it, "Lovely bokeh" I don't care. To me it is the subject of the photograph that matters, or to use the trendy word "the hero". As far as I am concerned, the priorities should match the subject, ie for sports, focal length, shutter speed, iso and aperture, equals exposure! In my film days I had filters to adjust the colour temperature, now obsolete. Yet colour temperature is still important. Not long ago I saw the portfolio of a professional fashion photograph, perfectly lit, perfect exposure, technical;y perfect, yet it was so boring.

Is that Pat Metheny?

Bokeh; I still dont understand the obsession with it, I need context in my photo.

Volume levels are low.

I can't wait for this orange and teal crap to end. By the way, in ten years you probably will still be wearing a similar outfit.

I‘m sorry to say it but you ought to find something new to talk about. I really like your style and your personality but you keep rehashing the same ideas and concepts. I hope this is seen as the constructive criticism it is intended as

Sorry but the notion that ' if you work is not original then it has no value' is a total non sense. Any photography course would explore this and tell you that is wrong.

At least a tad of the fruit was ated.....