Improving Your Photography by Learning from the Masters
- Sep 5, 2017
- 2 min read
Every once in a while we photographers need some mental stimulation in order to keep growing our photography. I've found that one of the best ways to push yourself forward as a photographer is to challenge yourself. One interesting challenge can be in the form of paying homage to a great photographer's work in order to learn new composition, lighting, posing or editing techniques.
There are many great masters out there to choose from. Some of my favorite photographers are Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Annie Leibovitz, Steve McCurry, Jimmy Nelson and Yousuf Karsh. Each of these photographers has a distinct photography style, poses their subjects in a deliberate manner, lights the picture in a particular way and edits their images using specific techniques. You can then choose to apply some of their techniques and styles in your photography.
For an even greater challenge, try pushing yourself to emulate the work of those photographers who's photographic styles differs from your own.
I really like the lighting and unique posing Irving Penn uses in his photographs and I've taken a number of portraits in the past that were inspired by his work.
Here are some of my favorite ones.
This following image is actually a self portrait I've taken.
If you'd like to check out Irving Penn's work, you can visit the Irving Penn Foundation website.
In my future posts I'll explain how I've taken photos such as these, what editing processes I've used in order to achieve this look, as well as show how you can take similar photos with relatively simple gear.
Which photographers inspire you? What about their images catches your eye? If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment and post images inspired by your favorite photographers below!
Thanks for reading.
Yehonathan
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