Teaching Photography

Note: I write about teaching often as I still have a number of students who come to me for one-on-one lessons to help them improve their picture-taking abilities.

Teaching Photography

by William Lulow

I have taught photography since about 1988, a mere eight years after I officially opened my business. Since I have always been a student of the photographic processes and have a keen idea of how my never-ending, learning journey has really helped me over the years, I have come to see it as my chance to give something back in return for a fairly successful career. I also seem to have learned that I needed to prepare for a time when I no longer had the stamina to take assignments that required that I be on my feet all day. So, teaching was an ideal second career, especially when it involved a subject that I loved and at which I was accomplished. (I actually have a masters degree in Education as well as in Radio, TV, Film). In addition, I have been able to take pride in the progress of all my students. One in particular, progressed from actually being afraid to touch a new camera her husband bought her, to beginning a product-oriented photo business in North Carolina.

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 images. Whatever the student’s level, the teacher needs to be able to fashion assignments that will help him or 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 as completely as possible. 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 sports, 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, 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.

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:

Here, a couple of students were able to purchase some lighting equipment I recommended and began to do some good studio portraits:

So, the 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 be both efficient and productive. Once certain basic techniques are taught, the student can then expand on them to develop their own ways of doing things or simply repeat the lessons to achieve results.

This is a workshop I did last year for some of my former and current students:

One thing I personally learned this year was to make the switch to monolights after more than fifty years of shooting with hard-wired strobes. I know monolights have been around just about since I began my business, but I have always tended to prefer wired systems because I never wanted to have to worry about batteries and their charge status. Well, now the ease of use of the monolights has made it worthwhile. The solution is simply to purchase enough extra batteries so that you always have a good charge.

As a teacher, each lesson really needs to build on the previous one. You teach a technique, then the student practices it. Then you move on to the next. This way, the knowledge base is added to and expanded after the practice. The student then gets that feeling of accomplishment that is so important. Basics are just that: they are the beginning. No matter how one person executes them, no two photographers will do everything the exact same way. Each will develop his or her own methods and techniques after a while.

I love to see students progress in their skills over time and it becomes a rewarding experience for everyone. And, since photography and especially digital imagery is how most people make their pictures these days, I think it is important that people learn how to do it properly so that their images continue to be a way of documenting their history on this planet. This is why I love to teach and my techniques are really the best way to do it.