11 Most Excellent Ways To Improve Your Photography in 2022 (And Mine!)

OK, it is a new year, and I want to start 2022 with something positive that will get you and I thinking about some ways to improve our photography in 2022.

So here are my 11 most excellent ways to improve your photography in 2022 (and mine)

Go out more and take photos with intent
Really work on the composition of each and every photo you take
Get a critique of your photos

Niche down
Simplify Stuff
Do one new thing

Listen to the Photography Explained Podcast!
Get your workflows sorted
Ignore the snobs and the noise

Stand out from the crowd – be bold
Be more you (or me!)

OK – that is the 11 things that came to my head after I thought about this for a while, and yes I really have thought about this, honest.

So, let’s look at each of these one by one, and then take all this good stuff and get stuck right into making 2022 our best every year of photography. And hopefully other stuff too.

I will come back to this stuff throughout 2022 to let you know how I am getting on ok?

1 Go out more and take photos with intent

The best way for you and me to improve our photography is quite simply to get out more and take photos. I am not talking of just going out and taking photos without any thought though. I am talking about going out and taking photos with intent, with thought, with a clear idea of what you want to create, what you want to capture.

And I mean create. Photography is the process of creating new things, which can sometimes get lost in the noise.

This could involve some thinking, scary I know, but one thing that I am going to do more of in 2022 is think.

Stuff like this.

Why am I going out taking photos?
What do I want to create a photo of?
What am I going to do with the photo(s) I create?

And no, we do not have to get too deep into this, we don’t have to get too philosophical (a term which hardly applies to me).

Just have a think and go out with intent, go out with a plan. Trust me you will thank me for this. It really works, and it costs nothing!

2 Really work on the composition of each and every photo you take

I have said this before. Composition is king. And I really mean this.

And I mean really work on the composition. You have to work at this.

Why?

Well getting the best composition can transform photos from indifference to excellence. This is not a sure fire way to take masterpiece photos every time (I wish), but you will take more interesting, pleasing, creative, appealing photos trust me (which I hope you do).

And you should enjoy yourself more once you start to think about the composition of your photos more.

Adding to my first point, every time you take a photo think about what you are including in the composition, and what you are not including.

Look at the elements in a photo and how they relate to each other.

I find that it helps if I put my camera on a tripod. This slows me down and makes me think more. If this is not for you fine, but give it a go (if you have a tripod that is!).

When you have taken a photo study it on your LCD monitor or electronic viewfinder. I know this is not the best way but you will get an idea of what you have captured.

And the hidden benefits of doing these two things?

When you start going out with intent, and really working on composition a magical thing will happen.

OK should happen. Might happen. Can’t promise but go with me here. It certainly did for me, and I hope that it will for you.

And what is this?

You take less photos. And the photos that you take are better.

Yes seriously.

Less photos, and better photos. What is, quite literally, not to love? This applies to my commercial and personal photography work, right across the board.

And I absolutely love it!

3 Get a critique of your photos

Now that you are taking better, more considered photos, get a critique of your best stuff. I am not talking family and friends here I am afraid, who will probably just say that your photos are great.

No I am talking about someone who knows their stuff.

You can post stuff on social media, but the problem here is that whilst you might get some valid comments you will get lots of people liking your stuff in a vain attempt to improve their profiles. And from people who, let’s be honest, don’t really know what they are talking about.

I am talking here about getting a coherent set of photos together and finding someone who knows what they are talking about giving you an honest critique.

My first critique was a complete eye opener, and happened when I applied to join the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP).

Joining a professional body is a great way to grow as a photographer, if you want to. But if not find someone reputable who does critiques – trust me this will be well worth the time spent getting a set of photos together and paying someone to critique them.

One last thing here – you have to be prepared for criticism, be able to take it and also to act on the advice offered. It hurts at first believe me but is pain well worth going through….

4 Niche down

Yes niche down. Become excellent at one thing. This is where more magic happens.

I used to be all things to all people, trying to work in all areas of photography, doing

Weddings (OK I did one and it terrified me!)
Corporate head shots

Insurance work
Architectural photography
Real estate photography and floor plans

Commercial photography
Product photography
Advertising photography

Store openings
Lifestyle photography

That kind of thing. I am sure there are many others.

Basically I took any work that I could, and said yes to everything. Sure I was getting by, but all I was doing was getting by. I had no focus, I had no plan to market myself. And I was often working for a pittance, getting work by being a cheap, general photographer.

And I had so much gear and completely muddled workflows. More on that later.

And then when I made the move to photographing buildings only it all changed.

My image capture, composition, thought processes, they all became clearer, and I began to thrive and grow as a photographer. And now I enjoy my photography much more. And people know that this is all that I do.

And I do not work for a pittance any more.

5 Simplify Stuff

I have over complicated things in the past. I have got myself into all sorts of a mess, muddled, confused, bewildered.

And now? I have simplified everything as much as I can.

Ask yourself this question, about your photography (and anything else that you want to)

“If it was simple, what would it look like?”.

There is no magic to this, no secret formula, it is just a case of taking a step back and looking at stuff that you do.

Let me give you some examples of things that I have simplified

Photography gear – by getting rid of stuff that I did not need/ use
Image processing – I use Lightroom for everything. If I need to remove stuff I use Photoshop (just for that), and if I need to change the sky I use Luminar.

Camera settings – I have these completely down now, so much so that on a shoot all I need to change is the focus point.

6 Do one new thing

I know, I said niche down. But in doing that you will find something new.

Last year I created a course, How To Become A Real Estate Photographer. See I stayed within my niche and created something completely new and different, which I would have never done before.

But find new things within your niche, now that you have one. This is the beauty of niching down, you have a much narrower view to explore.

Another saying that I quite like – “an inch wide and a mile deep!” And in that depth you will find new things that you would have never come across, just like me.

7 Listen to the Photography Explained Podcast

Oh come on, I had to work this in didn’t I? In my Photography Explained Podcast, available on all good podcast providers (as far as I am aware), I explain one photographic thing per episode in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant detail.

This was my new thing in 2020 which I have stuck with and love doing.

So go on, give my show a listen and let me help you in 2022.

8 Get your workflows sorted

This was a game changer for me. Let me tell what I am talking about first.

Preparation for a shoot
Doing a shoot
Processing

These are the three biggies that transformed things for me when I started looking at them, and really thinking about my photography workflows.

Workflows – this just means how you do stuff.

Preparation

I have a written workflow for my gear prep, which means that I don’t forget anything and always turn up for a shoot fully prepped. And on time. And at the right place.

Doing a shoot

I have my camera settings all sorted before a shoot, and I do shoots in a structured way. Doing shoots is actually the fun bit as everything else is sorted.

Processing

I have my own processing workflow which allows me to quickly and efficiently process images for clients, and all with my own look.

All this stuff helps me work more professionally and efficiently, and gives me more time to enjoy my photography.

Seriously the end point of this is loving photography more than ever, as it has become easier again.

9 Ignore the snobs

Photography snobbery. I hate it. You know thing things like

“You have to take photos in manual mode if you want to be a proper photographer.”

Nonsense. No you do not.

There is so much of this out there, so much so that I created a web page called Photography Snobbery.

And I invite you to send me your examples of this please which I will add to this page of my website.

And there is so much noise out there. So many distractions. So many things that pull us in different directions.

One thing that I am going to reduce in 2022 is the number of emails that I subscribe to that I never read – more than I am happy to admit I can tell you!

10 Stand out from the crowd – be bold

This is what I am going to do more of this year – make myself more visible, be bolder and no doubt get shot down more for my opinions, which I know not everyone agrees with.

But that is just fine. I am ready.

I am doing things much more my way in 2022, rather than following the crowd. I am going to mix things up with my podcast, blog and You Tube channel, and also on how I take photos.

Yes 2022 is the year that I go the way I want to, my brave new world.

Do you fancy doing the same? If you do let me know and we can do this together.

Like I say, it is noisy out there, and to stand out you have to be bold and do your own thing.

11 Be more you

I am injecting more of me into everything that I do. I am going to take how I take photos and work on that more in 2022, I am going to work more on my own style, my own way of taking and processing images.

And this all sounds rather exciting.

And I am going to add more me to my blog, podcast, well everything that I do.

What makes you unique is you, so get more you out there into the world in 2022 and see what this does for you.

Rick McEvoy Photography