3 Ways to build confidence as a photographer

1. Intro Build Confidence as a Photographer: When you are starting the journey of becoming a photographer, there are questions, doubts, and need for guidance to help you into this creative career. Hello, I'm Cecilia Cruz, editorial and documentary photographer based in Mexico. I decided to become a photographer after buying a point and shoot camera one birthday, almost 13 years ago, and falling in love with the creative side of photography. I wish someone had told me how to navigate the ups and downs of being a photographer. Now I run my own studio and teach college and online students to share my passion for photography. One thing that worried me since day one was the question, Am I good enough to start my freelance business? What I know now is that this worry doesn't go, but there are ways to always improve and build confidence and be on top of your craft In this class, I'm going to tell you how I keep with my confidence as a photographer. There are three key practices that help me overcome my doubts as a creative, actively working in photography, as a professional. If you are starting in photography or have a bit of experience in it. This class is for you. Join me here on Skillshare to learn my pro tips and make them your own. To have a bright future in photography where you can trust your instincts on skills. In this class, all you need is a bit of time to take the lessons on your camera to practice. These three steps can make a lot of difference in how you approach photography and keep falling in love with it. I'm here to guide you and to make the journey of photography a little bit easier, come to Skillshare and let's get started. 2. What others have that I don't have: It is unavoidable that we compare ourselves to others and what they are doing. I do it all the time, but I have come to appreciate their work with an admiration instead of jealousy. I think that in order for us to be confident in our work is necessary to recognize what we can do at this moment and what our weakest points are. Comparison helps us analyze where we are. and where we want to go with our photography. Maybe you already have photographers that you admire. And that you want to do, What they do. That's great. It means that you are thinking of what type of photography you want to pursue. Portrait, travel, pet, product, fashion photography, just to name a few. Ask yourself. This when you see their work, what is it that I like about their photos? Make a list or mental note of the characteristics that attract to you. Could it be how they use the light, the type of subject matter, the landscapes they use of color and so on. These characteristics give us a good idea where we want to go aesthetically because we recognize them as pleasing to the eye and interesting. Even if you don't know how these characteristics are calling terms of composition, you know that they make a great picture. At the end. Here is where your exploration of photography as an art starts. Knowing what makes a good photo and how to achieve it will bring you one step closer to being sure of where you want to do with your camera. 3. What makes a good photo?: What makes a good photography? Well, this is the million-dollar question. In my own experience, there are certain characteristics that make one photo better than the other. Of course, appreciation of a photo is very subjective and changes from person to person. But there are specific things that we can implement in our practice to make better photos. In the first lesson, I asked you to make a list of characteristics. You like from photos you like. You will see that you are on the right path. If we compare a list, I also wrote a list of the characteristics that I have learned throughout the years of practice and reading a lot of photo books. The first one is the use of light. Photography is writing or painting with light. Observe how the light creates shadows and highlights in your subject. Take the moment to analyze the quality of light is itself. Is it hard, is a dimm, or bright? Remember that light changes throughout the day. Early in the morning is soft and warm, midday is harsh and bright, and the sunset changes back intensity and color. Also the light changes with the seasons. Always be mindful of what you want to show in your photos with the kind of light that you are choosing. The second one is the use of space. When I talk about a space is not only the physical space where you are shooting, also the frame itself. Whatever genre you are photographing, always pay attention to your surroundings. And what do you want to include or not in your photos? Choose wisely your locations for the purpose of the photo shoot. E.g. if you want to do street fashion, pick places that transmit that vibe. Next, consider the framing. How much of your subject, the background you are including. You want the subject to fill the frame or you just want a portion of it. The next one is the subject matter. One mistake that I often observe in my students is that they have a problem deciding what the main subject of the photo is, depending on the type of photography you are doing. Always make sure that the subject on interest is very clear to the observer. If you are doing portraits, focus on the eyes because the face is what you want to connect. Always make sure that you are very clear with your intentions of the subject matter in your photos. Use light, color or texture and placement. The next one is intention of creation. Taking a photo is not hard. Anyone can do it. But making a photo with an intention, that's where it gets a bit complicated. It doesn't have to be very complicated, but you have to establish the purpose of why you are creating an image or what you want to communicate to the viewer. If you are doing family portraits, why do you want to do them? Why they are important to you? If you're doing product photography, why brands should come to you? So you see, you have to observe and you have to take a lot of things in consideration when answering this question. I also struggle when creating my own work. But believe me, once you have this part very clear, is so easy to create with an intention. 4. I'm not good enough or am I?: The first day of class with my students at university, I always ask them if they have had previous experience in photography or what kind of things they want to learn to improve during the semester. Only a few have tried photography before using a professional camera, but most of them also only use their cell phone camera. So don't dismiss the cell phone camera, please, because this one is how you engage daily on photography and start learning about angles, colors and spaces. And so many of them also tell me that they are not creative. They have no idea how to use a pro camera. And that they would like to know how to make photos that are very aesthetically pleasing. Well, all of these concerns can be addressed with the three approaches to make you confident in your photography. And as I said before, you can do them at any stage in your career. They are good practices to keep you motivated. If today you are feeling that your photography is not good enough and there are doubts and you have doubts of your abilities as yourself. This, what are my strong points and my weak points in photography? Write it down. And this is only for you, but be honest, this will help you clarify your own path. When I was studying for my masters in photography, they asked the same question. at this moment, I said that I wanted something different from baby and family portraits and weddings. I wanted a different subject matter and also I wanted to know how to develop film. The way I approach my crossroad was analyzing the three parts of my practice and seeing which one needed more attention. And what could I do to improve it. 5. Step 1: the technical skill: The first one is the technical skill. Okay? So now that you have recognized the areas where you don't feel very strong in your photography, we can address how to improve them. The first step to gain confidence and where most of us fail at the beginning is that technical skill. What do I mean with technical skill? Well, this is when you want a photo to look a certain way, but you don't know how to get there. You don't know what to do with it. And all the buttons in your camera, which one to push to have the look you desire. Your camera is an instrument, a piece of technology that you need to understand what it does in order to make it work for you. So don't freak out because you need to take your time to read your manual and to spend some time exploring the physical aspects of your camera. Because you want to advance from using your camera in automatic mode to manual mode. I know that this is challenging, but trust me, once you know what certain buttons to push in your camera, you are good to go with practice. You will do this in no time without even thinking about it. Your camera has two main parts. The body, where the sensor or the battery and the memory are. The lens. If your camera is point and shoot the lens will be attached to the camera. But if you use a mirrorless or DSLR, you can change the lenses. In the body. There are many buttons and the menu offers a lot of things that you can customize. But remember that you don't have to change everything in your camera, just what works for you. I recommend that you familiarize with the following concepts where you can change them in your camera. The first one, we're going to use the camera in manual mode. Your camera has different modes of working that gives you control over changing the exposure. The manual mode or M, let you change the exposure to your liking. You can interpret the light however you want. Different to the auto mode where the cameras computer make all the decisions on how to interpret the light. In this comes, the aperture, this one is the one with the letter "f" and has a number next to it. As small number, like a four means that more light is getting into the sensor helpful when you are doing photos at night. A large number, like f8 f11 or f13 means that less light is going to hit the sensor. So if you have a sunny day, a large number is really helpful. The next one is the shutter speed. This is a measure of time and it tells in a fraction of a second or a full second how much of the light is going to enter to the sensor. This is also a sequence of fractions, and it has a denominator. If it is small like 40, 10 or a half, it means that the shutter speed that will let more light coming into the sensor. If it's a large number, like 125, 200, 500 means that is going to be a fast shutter speed and less light is going to hit the sensor. The other one is the ISO, this is the sensitivity of the sensor to the light. This one, we usually leave it to 200, but you can change it to a large number to make your sensor much more adaptable to the light and absorb more light from the ambiance. The exposure triangle is that the one that's conformed with the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO. So take your time also to learn more about it in my classes or other resources. The white balance. This one means that different light sources have a specific temperature. Sunlight sources are warm. Some others are blue and I often recommend that you leave it to auto white balance AWB because most of cameras are very good at recognizingthe type of light you are using. So feel free to use the AUTO balance or change it according to the light you're using. Your lenses, e.g. can change depending on the type of camera you are using some are really good because they are starter lenses and they are very versatile. E.g. these one is 16 mm, 50 mm, F 3.5-5.6. What means these numbers is e.g. the ones with millimeters, it's the focal length. It tells you the angle of vision, e.g. 16mm means a wide angle and 50mm means and narrower angle. So these kinds of lenses that have two numbers are very useful because you can zoom in or zoom out to yours. So if you have one of these kind of lenses, go for it, explore and check where it does. Also remember that you can focus your subject, using automatic mode or manual mode, always center on the eyes. The next parameter is the image file types. Your camera has several types of files that you can use. Jpeg is the popular one because these are small-size files that have very compressed information. But if you want to start editing your images for a more professional look, use RAW files, these ones, have all the information you need about the photograph that you just took. So you will need a software to interpret all the information in these raw files. But if you are practicing well just use JPEG, this is the first step to build confidence and I believe will have the most impact in your work and your perception of your value. When you can manipulate your camera with knowledge, no matter what kind of light you are using, you will feel very strong in your work. It also applies to knowing how to edit a photo or using different softwares. And if you're using studio lighting, also take the time to explore and see how everything works. Look for tutorials, websites, or ask someone in photography for help. 6. Step 2: Conceptual skill: Going back to what photographers, the photographers that you admire and the characteristics of their work that you wanted to including yours. All of these things make the idea of a good photograph. When I talk about the conceptual skill, bear in mind that one of the photographer's job is to create images that say something. Images that connect with an audience and transmit an idea as clear as possible. But how can we work on the conceptual skill? First of all, you need to figure out what do you want to say with your images. E.g. when doing family portraits, what do you want to transmit? Is it happiness, unity, a fun time celebration, or any other feeling? These words can be translated into composition principles and aesthetic properties. Happiness is related to bright light, soft, and warm, using groups and closeness indicate unit is celebration. People moving dressed in colors, give us the idea of having a good time. You see, when organizing a photoshoot, it is always a good idea to have reference photos of what you want to do. It helps clarify the poses, the use of space, the angles, the aesthetic. Even if you think you are not created for enough, you can do research to help you in your practice. My advice for becoming confident in your conceptual skill is to follow photographers you admire and analyze their work. Look at the trends in photography to see what people want. Take a lot of photos whenever you have a chance, develop your own style in time. And if you'll need to learn something new, go back to the technical skill. This will help you reinforce your conceptual skill. 7. Step 3: Practice, practice, practice: The third step is simply practice, practice, practice, make a habit of doing something in photography. Many times a week if you can daily, that's perfect. It is best to grab your camera and shoot regularly that only doing it sporadically. The brain is a muscle, it has muscle memory. And when you are learning how to use your camera in manual mode, you want to be able to move things without even looking. Only with practice, you will achieve this. So practice makes perfect. But also practice makes a confident photographer. Because if you take photos at different hours of the day, indoors or outside with people or animals, landscape, places, you will feel much more comfortable grabbing your camera and creating. You will recognize that the type of photography that appeals to you, but only with doing, you will feel much more accomplished in this chosen career. Let me tell you how I practice on a daily basis. There are two things that I enjoy doing and I don't I don't have to be perfect on show everyone what I've been doing. First. I have dogs, they are my loves and I photograph them every chance I get eating, sleeping at night, running well, you get the idea. And the second is that I love photographing the moon. And it always comes out every month, every logical subject matter, I've been taking photos of the moon for the past three years, every month. Sometimes when the sky is blue others when you can barely see the moon, orders in a storm or eclipse. But always on a full moon These two type of things brings me happiness and joy. It's a very good excuse to take out my camera, which by the way, is always at arm's reach in the living room with full battery and memory space to make a lot of shoots. 8. Are you feeling more positive?: So are you feeling more positive now? I hope you do. So. These three ways that I use to feel confident in my photography, I hope they work for you as well. Photography is about imagination, perseverance, trusting your knowledge, and continually keep working. It doesn't matter if you are just starting or have many years doing photography. We never stop learning and discovering something new about ourselves throughout photography. To round things up, let me share with you how I keep up with the rapidly changing industry or freelance photography. Here's a list for you. I know I love lists. The first one is when I started with photography, I did a lot of genres But eventually, I settled on editorial and documentary photography. This is because I wanted something for the business side and something for the personal side of photography. So you go and find the genre of photography that works for you. I love watching tutorials on lighting equipment reviews and business advice. For me, photography is very tactile and I like reading blogs and websites, but I really love photography. Magazines and books. My desktop subscriptions or the British Journal of Photography. and the Leica Fotografie International books are great. Editing and retouching portraits is challenging. I've been refreshing my Photoshop skills to edit my own work, and to keep things interesting. I challenge myself to doing something different in photography and creative that I wouldn't normally do. So that's it. Here is what I do actively in my work to keep my craft going, to be confident in my freelance journey as a photographer, I am sure you will find your own set of things that you want to work for you. Above all, remember to have fun doing photography, shooting photos, and exploring the wonderful world of photography. I'm going to leave you with a list of exercises that you can do. In the meantime, choose the ones you like and share with us your work. I am more than happy to continue this conversation in the project section. You can also check other classes and new ones are on the way. Have of a wonderful day and see you around.