Camera Settings vs. Creative Photography

When students arrive for my basic photography course on Saturday mornings, I always overhear the same conversation: "I just got a new camera! It has so many buttons and options; I really need to learn how to make the most of it”. While grasping how to operate your camera is undoubtedly a necessary step, many students at this stage don't realize that becoming a better photographer primarily involves developing their creative skills and vision. Ultimately, being a fine photographer is much more about you and much less about your camera.

To make fast advances in the quality of your photography, it is beneficial to understand the relationship between camera settings and creative photography. In short, knowing your camera settings is just about knowing how to utilize the equipment you will use to capture the photograph you envision.

Camera settings are just a fraction of photography; creative decisions make up its backbone.

You will understand this clearly once you master camera settings. Instead of having a sudden revelation about how to take a good photograph, you will discover that many new decisions arise, and these are more complex than adjusting your camera settings. You will need to consider how to frame your subject, where to stand, which perspective to use, and factors such as exposure, depth of field, lens, and focal length, among others. No camera, no matter how sophisticated or expensive, can make these decisions for you. These decisions represent what photography truly is. The camera and its settings are merely tools to capture your creation.

I find little common ground with photographers who constantly discuss camera settings while pursuing great photographs. To me, it's like writers who aspire to produce a bestseller but spend all their time debating the pen and paper they will use, instead of actually writing the book. Yes, I do understand that you need a pen and paper to write, but I firmly believe your primary focus should be on the creative development of the book, rather than the color of your pen.

Learning camera settings is a finite process. On the other hand, creative choices can be continuously improved. 

Understanding camera settings is a finite endeavor. There is a limited amount to learn about aperture, for instance. Eventually, you will have a complete understanding of the camera settings, and there will be nothing more to learn or gain in that area. At my photography school, camera settings are covered in a one-day course, where you will leave with the knowledge of how to set your camera correctly for any situation - 100% guaranteed. In contrast, you can continually improve your creative decisions, and I hope you will. This aspect of photography is limitless; you remain a student for as long as you photograph. You can continue to grow in how you see your subjects and envision a photograph.

Camera settings are transferable knowledge; creative decisions are not. 

One handy aspect of camera settings is that they embody transferable knowledge. By "transferable knowledge," I refer to the insights you can acquire that will help you consistently make the right decisions in any situation. For instance, I can confidently teach you how to select a proper aperture or shutter speed every time, regardless of the circumstances. However, when it comes to choices about framing, perspective, focal length, and other compositional elements, that's a different story. Those decisions must come from you at the moment you’re facing your subject, based on your intentions and observations.

I hope you now recognize that achieving excellence in photography is rooted in making superb creative decisions. The tangible aspect of camera settings makes them an appealing focus in the pursuit of better photography, but beyond a certain point, that focus is merely an illusion. Improving your creative choices is undoubtedly a challenging journey that requires a significant investment of time, resilience in the face of setbacks, and persistence. However, if you remain determined and continue to persevere, you will ultimately be rewarded with stunning photographs.