How to Improve Your Photography in 2025
With the start of a new year, it’s a time when we all make resolutions and plans for how to improve things in our lives. I like to go beyond just “get my abs back” or “slow down on the coffee” type stuff and think about how to make better photos, as well. Here are some thoughts that may help. Wishing you a wonderful and successful 2025 with your photography!
Take a lot of photos
This seems rather obvious, so I’ll start with this one. You have to actually do a thing more in order to improve at the thing. It’s like an athlete practicing their skills, or working out. Going out to shoot is a workout, and the more you do it, the better you get. You get more comfortable with your gear (especially if you picked up new gear at Christmas) so that you can move the dials into position more easily, without having to stop what you’re doing and look at the camera.
But you also better develop your eye for a shot. You start to recognize aspects of what you consider a good shot and you start to see them come together. You know the settings you need and you get them dialed in quickly.
“You’re first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson
But, this isn’t just about volume. You can’t just take a lot of photos aimlessly and expect to improve. These “workouts” need to be intentional. Have a goal and work on it while out shooting. Focus on composition and lining up a good shot. Think about what you are doing while you are doing it. Don’t just go through the motions. Make the reps count.
2. Edit a lot of photos
After taking photos, you edit photos. For me, that’s equally as fun as being out shooting. And again, this is exercise. Don’t just aimlessly move sliders. Be intentional and focus on bringing your vision to life with the edit. And these tips are unrelated to any specific program. You can do similar things in your editor of choice.
Focus on the light first
This is obvious, since photos are all about light, but it’s super important. I always start by adjusting the light in my images, and I continue to pay attention to that throughout the edit - which means I continue to adjust it the entire edit as well.
Careful with the colors
I love colors, and love enhancing them as well. But I have learned to be careful with it (well, most of the time LOL). All editors have a plethora of color tools. You don’t need them all on a photo. Pick just a couple to accentuate the color (and adding Saturation and/or Vibrance across an entire image is not the answer). Also, don’t enhance every color. Pick one or two key colors to bring to life in the edit. They don’t all have to pop off the screen. It actually looks better when they don’t.
Target your edits with masks
I’ve said plenty of times that masking is the most important editing skill, and I truly believe that. Once I learned how to use masks, and then started using them in my edits, my results improved significantly. Masking is about control, and a great editing result comes from controlling the light, detail and color. It doesn’t matter what editor you use - they all have great masking tools these days. Spend time learning this skill and your results will improve, 100% of the time.
The funny thing I have realized about masking is that at first, you apply a few masks to a photo and you are finished. The result is much better than before and you are happy. That is great. But I have found that these days, I am often applying 10-20 masks per photo. It’s this strange phenomenon that occurs once you learn masking. You actually start to SEE differently when editing, too. You start to realize there are countless little things you can do which will subtly enhance the edit. In other words, it changes your vision.
Step away from the edit
As fun as editing is - and it’s a LOT of fun - sometimes you have to step away from it in order to get a better result. I believe that our eyes get tired and we need to stop looking at an image to get a true sense of the edit. This is doubly true if the image is really colorful. I believe that we get desensitized to all the color and don’t recognize when we have gone too far (this happens to me a lot). I call this explosion of color a “visual sugar rush” and though it is fun to look at for a while, it’s a bit too much and walking away for a bit helps us reset and recalibrate to what a normal amount of color should be.
3. Edit for yourself
This is a hill I will die on LOL. I’ve said plenty of times that if you like the photo and/or the edit, then it’s a good photo. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Photography is art, and art is subjective. Don’t waste your time trying to make other people happy (obviously this applies only to when you are shooting for yourself - if you are hired for a client job, then you have to make the client happy). Don’t chase “likes” on social media either, which is the same thing. Sure, our egos want acceptance and great feedback. We are human, after all. I’m just saying don’t make that the focus of your photography. Enjoy what you do, please yourself with your art, make images that you love and cherish, and you will be much happier with it.
4. Shoot for yourself
If you take on a lot of client work, or create a lot of content for your photography business, it’s useful to step away from that and just shoot for yourself. This is something I want to work on in 2025. Instead of going out with the intention of something I can use in my content, I want to just go out with the camera in a free-flowing sort of way with no expectations and no parameters. I want to just enjoy the act of being out and taking photos. I find that freedom translates into better images a lot of the time. If nothing else, I can tap into my creativity and work those creative muscles without any “consequences”. If you are like me, it’s easy to get caught up in the need to create content. I intend to carve out “me time” for photography as well. It’s my own form of practice, which I need as much as anyone.
5. Have fun
Be sure to always remember that photography is fun. Sure, sometimes it’s work too, and it can be frustrating at times. But it’s fun. It’s a beautiful, fun and creative outlet for our inner artistic selves, and we need that like we need sunshine. Go have fun taking photos. It doesn’t matter if they are good, or if anyone likes them. Do this for yourself and enjoy it. Someday we won’t be able to do it any longer, and we need to make good memories now.
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