7 SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS PROs DO (that you can too)!

Are you looking to improve your photography in 2024? Here are 7 quick things you can change that will make a difference.

NIKON GEAR (Main STILLS camera)

FILM GEAR

OTHER PHOTO GEAR

0:00 Introduction
1:07 START A PROJECT
1:53 INSPIRATION
2:22 LEARN A NEW SKILL
3:22 REVIEW OLDER IMAGES
4:48 SLOW DOWN
6:17 PLAN NEW LOCATIONS
7:42 PRINT YOUR IMAGES
9:03 INVEST IN EDUCATION

[judilecompte]

Nigel, you didn’t include small printing firms in the links. I’m particularly interested in US firms if you know any. Also, how about the link to Adam Gibbs video?

[ianwoolner]

Happy New Year, could I get the links to the printers pls?

[alanpinn]

NIgel - "It doesn't get any better than this"... especially when you've got a Terry's Orange on your desk! Lol. You need to take that on your next outing - and an apple to go with it. Keep up the great work!! Happy New Year and all the best for a productive 2022!

[longliveclassicmusic]

I love how it's 2022, and a label maker is still exciting. I feel you, dude. I need one too!

[davetucker]

The apple is my favourite tip! I have taken this one from previous videos and it really works! I often used to eat and apple as I rambled, but now I save it for a particular situation when I'm trying to decide how to photograph a specific scene like a waterfall or a tricky woodland scene, and after sitting and observing for the time it takes to munch an apple, things are always so much clearer! Thank you :)

[oznerolrc]

Hi, Nigel! Best wishes for 2022, waiting to see your new projects... Just received your books Vista and Woodlands, really great job!! I agree on your tips, even if not always I'm able to follow them...

[TheJoshuaPeg]

As always, these are some excellent suggestions. I have certainly found that printing my images to be a really effective way of seeing detail I missed in Lightroom. It’s improved my photography no end.

Thank you Nigel 😁

[MichaelShainblum]

Those prints looked so gorgeous Nigel, happy new year!

[detlefalbrecht]

Thanks so much for this perfect inspiration for 2022! Each of those 7 tips is worth doing. I was happy to see that I'm already doing 4 of them... :-) So I wish all the best for YOUR photography in 2022!

[faerialimages]

Brilliant, thanks so much NIgel - shared to three of my groups so hope you get some more likes!

[lfalowerambion]

Where do I find the links to the printers you recommend?

[jamesv.wilkerson]

Couldn't agree more about printing your work. It is so amazingly satisfying to see your work printed. There is such a sense of accomplishment to see your printed work. Just that one extra step makes a huge difference.

[johntravena]

All good advice! The color wheel is to image makers as the circle of fifths is to musicians. Knowing the science of color is to know how to think about it.
Some of the best nature writing I’ve read is in a little book on the Cairngorms named The Living Mountain by a Scottish woman named Nan Shepherd. She was very Taoist - like a spiritual geologist or something. Maybe geologian (geologist+theologian)?😉 Looking forward to your episode on the Cairngorms..

[maartenroes-francken]

Thanks. That was really helpful. You mention using a print company. Can you recommend one in the UK; perhaps the one you use? My Epson printer will only print A3 max but I want to start gettin bigger prints e.g. A2 +

[awd]

Thanks, yeah, I really need to slow down. I'll try to keep that in mind this year.

[_andrewjscott]

Great video, can’t seem to find the links to the printers in the U.K.?

[autofocusrossswansea]

Great video as usual, thanks Nigel, I especially liked the 'slow down' tip which, as you get older, is very relevant. I like to put my tripod on the floor somewhere near where I want to be, and then scout out the shot as much as possible while keeping an eye on changing light conditions. Only then do I get set up and take some shots, usually bracketing and concentrating on focus point and relevant aperture for that point etc. There is one thing I would like to say which may sound like a critique, but it isn't meant that way, so here goes. When I was in my late 20's I bought an SLR film camera, a very good one, with a very good lens. I was another two years adding a wide angle and a telephoto - all primes, at the time, zoom lenses were not particularly doing well in tests which put me off. That camera, and those three lenses were my kit for over 30 years. When I relented and went digital, I have owned no fewer than ten cameras along the way. I have lost count of the lenses but they too must be in double figures by now. I eventually got the D850 and some great glass, and the results are stunning. It pains me to see that you have moved to mirrorless, and changed lenses. When you look at it, it seems that for some reason, the best camera in the world becomes obsolete within two or three years - which is crazy. I have a camera which cost over two thousand quid, and four lenses which cost not far short of four grand. Two of these I bought while using a D810 but they still cost that much money. To see you and your contemporary photo bloggers (and you are definately not among the worst in this respect) ditching the very camera I am using, and the lenses, and going to the next great thing, in such a short time, makes me reflect on my days with the original SLR I owned. If we were golfers, I can understand that you start off with a nice basic set of clubs and if the bug bites, you upgrade to a new, top of the line set, but do they go on and on and on, constantly changing? Getting back to photography, my ongoing experience with the D850 is that unless I want to enlarge beyond 30" wide prints, I have already wasted the £1000 I had to stump up for the D850 (on top of what i got for my D810 body when I sold it). Why? Obviously the resolution from the D810 matched, within a hairsbreadth, the resolution I get from the D850. The difference only shows up on extra large prints, or, well cropped images. It pains me to see so many 'photo bloggers' not only upgrading, but some are now ditching full frame completely and going for the Fuji GFX 100s - a camera with a few lenses that will be nudging 12 thousand pounds!

At what point does an 'enthusiast' stop? In my case, definitely NOT going to change my D850. The silent shooting mode, the focus stacking mode, the brilliant resolution for normal modes - I think a change of system now, for me, would cause a divorce, and knowing my luck, she'd get the camera gear in the settlement!

I hope you (and more to the point, the other main players in the photo blog industry) will take a pragmatic view to system changes. Enthusiasts, for the most part, don't have oodles of cash to throw at this hobby. I understand that you sometimes need to show the latest and (if it is truly) greatest, but I can't justify another penny on gear. I suspect I am not alone in saying this, so let's keep our minds on technique and move away from gear for 2020. The past two years has restricted us so much, the last thing we want is enthusiasts like me sitting at home thinking, oh my God, how can I get the money for a Fuji, or a Z9 etc etc.

Keep doing what you do, please, and continue to dazzle us with your photography, which is up there with the very best. Happpy new year to you Nigel, and to all who read your blog and comments from old xarts like me! :).

[gerryphilpott]

Happy new year and thanks for the great tips. I took down a few notes on this one.

[lead-dog]

Awesome Nigel. Thanks. So great of you.

[Snakeplisskin]

I'm putting together a bit of a portfolio of last years pictures and I've been slowly going through them and I realized that even something as simple as getting the cropping just right made such a difference.

The apple is funny cause, lately I've been packing a snack and water bottle in my bag when I hike and do photography. It's almost always an apple.

I've been visiting a lot of my favorite places year round and seeing how the seasons can change dramatically the kinds of pictures you can take. There's this river that flows into Lake Erie here in Ohio, it's not very large but it runs through a lot of metroparks. There's one about a half hour drive south of me that's actually an arboretum with all sorts of flowering plants and trees. They have pines which look amazing after a heavy snow fall. In autumn, at the right time of day you can get the leaves reflecting off of the river as long as it's barely flowing.

I pretty much live on Lake Erie so it makes for lots of pictures year round. The piers, the wild life, the boats, the lake, lake houses. We have so many metroparks. We have abandoned stone quarry parks. Thanks for the tips. Some things to think about this year.