More About Teaching Photography

More About Teaching Photography

by William Lulow

I have been doing a lot of teaching recently, and it has made me think more about what good teaching is all about. I have had several students in the past year or so, who have really progressed from not knowing how to use their digital cameras, to becoming really proficient at it. One of the reasons for this is that I have been able to teach the basics of how exposures are determined MANUALLY from a concept of how light behaves and how digital cameras, in particular, operate. My technique also involves an assessment of where a student is on the “learning curve” and what kind of information that student really needs in order to progress.

Any good teacher who knows his or her subject matter thoroughly, should know what a student would need to better his or her efforts at making images. In my case, I always begin with a question period to determine what my student’s knowledge is and how far they wish to take their instruction. Some want to start their own businesses eventually. Others just want to improve their techniques enough to get more from their image-making equipment. Whatever the student’s level, the teacher needs to be able to fashion assignments that will help her not only to understand the process, but to be able to control it as well in practice. The very best way of learning anything, from a language to a technique, is to immerse oneself in the study completely. This means to examine in detail, all the various nuances of the subject until a good knowledge base is achieved. Teachers also have to understand, at the same time, that not everyone has the desire or the time to devote to this endeavor. So a determination must be made at the outset as to how far the student wants to take his or her learning. Once that is agreed upon, the lessons can then have an objective purpose as well as result.

As a trained educator as well as a photographer with over forty years experience with virtually all types of assignments, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine anyone not wanting a complete knowledge of photography. But, for whatever reason, not everyone has the same goals in mind when learning anything. I have played golf for most of my life and I am a better-than-average golfer. But there is a level of practice that I just have not been able to commit to over the years. I have studied the game and have watched better golfers and have had a few lessons even, but I just don’t have the time or desire enough to take my game to the next level. A sport is one of those endeavors over which a person has limited control. I have seen expert golfers or baseball players go through slumps where they can’t figure out what they are doing wrong enough to improve their performance. In golf, sometimes you just get into a “zone” and you do everything right. Other times, you can’t do ANYTHING right!

Photography is not quite the same. Once you learn the correct procedures and techniques however, you will not forget them. You might forget something here or there on occasion, but the basic knowledge won’t change. And, the basic rules of light and how it is used to create images will not change either.

One of the best ways to learn a new technique is to have a good teacher explain it to you and then take you out to practice it for yourself. Here I am helping a student with portable flash and exposures in a dance studio. In this instance, I showed the student how to make these images and she then went and did it for herself.

Here, a student and I went on a field trip to do a couple of portrait images. We were working with a telephoto lens in order to make the backgrounds soft. This was my shot of him, followed by his shot of me, using the same techniques of composition and exposure calculation, here with the addition of a speedlight to fill in shadows:

So, my teaching technique consists of explaining the principles of exposure, composition and lighting, then demonstrating them, finally having the student go through the same motions and notice that it produces the same effect. Then the practice will produce the desired effect. We do this many times during the course of my six-lesson package, so after only this brief introduction to making good pictures, the student leaves with the knowledge of how to practice the basic techniques. Then, it becomes a matter of more practice until the student becomes really proficient at exposure determination and begins really to think about the kinds of images he or she likes to make and discovers how best to make them. This is the best way to teach as well as to learn the craft.

There are any number of videos available as well these days, that will demonstrate how to use your camera properly, but without having the same machine in your hands and to see for yourself how everything works, it’s not always easy to put all that into practice. When I was learning these techniques for myself, I was working for other photographers. I was in their studios and I could see not only what I needed to learn, but I could also look around to see other things. I could see where every piece of equipment was stored, how it was cared for, when it was used and how the photographer used it. I was able to see for myself what the studio environment was and how different photographers did things differently. It was an invaluable education for someone like me who was determined to learn everything I possibly could about the profession I had chosen.