Why You Should Study Other Photographer's Work

A friend and fellow photographer recently related an unusual experience they had in a discussion with a professional photographer. They asked the professional if they had seen a photo by a well-known photographer. The professional replied, “Oh no, I never look at other people’s work.” Unfortunately, my friend wasn’t able to follow-up on that comment. In our discussion, about it we both felt it was a rather strange practice not to want to study other photographer’s work. Or is it?

Why Some Say You Shouldn’t Study Other Photographer’s Work

Since we didn’t have the chance to pursue this more deeply with the professional, I did some online research. It turns out the idea that you shouldn’t study another photographer’s images isn’t as uncommon as you might think. Some of the reasons people may believe this are:

Some people believe that they are so good there is nothing they can learn from anyone else. After all, they already know and can do everything.
They lack confidence in their own work – As a result, they may be intimidated by looking at images from really good photographers and feel inadequate.
It may influence you to imitate others rather than create your own vision or style.

Personally, I’m not buying this. The first two are just two sides of the same coin. Either your ego is too big or you lack self-confidence. These are really issues that go beyond photography. They won’t be issues just in your photography. If you’ve got these problems, they’ll be exhibited in everything you do. Deal with your life issues and then you’ll be able to concentrate on improving your photography.

In regards to being influenced to imitate someone I don’t see that as a big problem. Imitating someone’s work as a learning exercise is a valid approach. It is only a problem when imitation becomes the ultimate goal. I just don’t believe that will happen all that much. We can look at musicians as an example. There are a tremendous number of musicians in the world. Despite this, only a very tiny fraction has a life aspiration of being in a tribute band.

Reasons For Why You Should Study Other Photographer’s Work

I believe we can learn a lot by studying other photographer’s work. It’s a valuable tool in improving our skills. Here are my reasons:

It helps you get a good feel for your actual skill level. “Nice shot” is something we all hear a lot but it really doesn’t mean much. Only by comparing ourselves to others do we get a true appreciation of what our skill level is.
Learn what you need to improve. Although we excel at some photography skills, we may find some of our skills are weak. By looking at other photographer’s work we can more readily identify which of our skills need some improvement and set out to correct them.
Your creativity may be sparked. We may see new techniques, compositions, POVs etc. that we hadn’t thought of before. This can lead to a burst of creativity in our work.
Perhaps the most important reason is that mentally deconstructing someone’s photo can cause us to learn new techniques and spur creativity.

Deconstructing An Image And The Questions It Raises

When we mentally deconstruct a photo, we are trying to figure out the process that the photographer used to make the image. Often these questions lead us to learning new skills or techniques. Some of these questions, in turn, cause us to look inward to think about our own images.

How Did They Do That?

How did they do that? is usually the first question that comes to mind. “That” can refer to the entire photo or just one small aspect. This makes us stop and think about how they may have taken or processed the image. It can easily lead us to googling and investigating various things. Since we don’t usually have the benefit of the photographer to lead our thought process our detective work often leads us down dead ends. However, even dead ends are a significant learning opportunity. As a result of going through in this investigation, it spurs our creativity and makes us think of ways we can use our new found skills.

Why Did They Do That?

The “why” is often just as important as the “how” a photographer makes and image. We have to theorize about why a photographer chose a particular composition or processing technique. This can especially useful when the photographer has violated one of the photography “rules”. Should they have followed the rules or why does it work better to not follow them in this case? What can we learn from this?

Why Do I Like This Photograph?

If we like a photographer’s work we have to ask why? What is it about the image that “speaks to us”? What techniques can I learn from them that I can use to generate the same emotional response with my photos? Not only is this a learning experience based upon what other do, it causes us to be more introspective as to what we want to accomplish with our photos. That’s always a good thing.

For me the benefits of studying other photographer’s work far outweigh the minimal possible downside. Practicing your art is about growing and learning as an artist. Studying other photographer’s work is a good way to do it.