How To Challenge Yourself Becoming A Better Photographer

Photography By: Matt Barnes

We all want things to be easy, stress free, and effortless. So much in fact we often overlook 

the benefits of a challenge. To continue improving our skills we have to regularly challenge

ourselves. Challenges may not always present themselves to us, we have to go looking for

them, create them. We must be constructively critical of our own work through self

examinations of our art to discover our weaknesses. Once we can pinpoint that, we know

what we have to work on to bring our photography to the next level. To get you started,

here are a few challenges that can help you down the path to improvement.

Photography By: Aaron Farely

Prime Lens

Try limiting yourself to using nothing but a prime lens for a set amount of

time, e.g one week, a month, etc…In doing so, you will be challenging your creativity and

your eye for composition. Since you will be shooting at a fixed focal length, the best way to

frame a shot may not always be very obvious. In many instances you will have to call on

some critical and creative thinking to get the composition just right. Creative thinking should 

become a part of our everyday process as photographers and this challenge is invaluable for 

instilling it in one’s system.

Photography By: Cristopher Martin

Revert To Film

We've mentioned this one in a previous post, but it’s such a good approach that it’s worth

bringing up again. One of the main benefits of shooting digital is it affords photographers to

take tons of images at a margin of the cost of film. Conversely, one of the benefits of shooting

with film is that it encourages photographers to save money by getting the shot right the

first time, thus eliminating the need to take 40 frames of the same subject “just to make

sure”. Fundamentally, taking a few backup shots of the same thing is a sound idea; however

,it let’s us get a little a lazy by giving us a safety net. Making a mistake with film hits us

where it hurts the most, our wallets. Not wanting to shell out tons of cash for those digital

camera inspired safety nets, shooting on film forces us to slow down, think about our

exposure settings, framing, etc so we don’t have to shoot through an entire roll of film just for


one salvageable image.

Photography By: Micheal Nagar

Self Assignments

Think about what your goals are as a photographer. If you were to start taking photographs 

as a means of making a living, what kind of photography would you choose? Product

photography, fashion photography, fine art, what style most appeals to you? Once you have

that decided give yourself a self assignment. Future product photographers could use any 

common household object and do a mock-up photo-shoot of it as though you were doing it for 

an advertisement in a magazine. Fashion photography minded people could enlist a 

fashionista friend and do a glamour shoot. Whatever it is that strikes your fancy, create an

assignment for yourself and conduct it as though you were being paid to complete it. 

This will encourage you to take pride in your work and ensure that you are always doing the

best you are capable of doing.

Photography By: Micheal Nagar

Pay Attention To The Details

It’s easy to look at the big picture when we are out looking for things to photograph. First 

impressions are important, but don’t use them as a means of dismissing a subject altogether.

Spend a day out in the field photographing nothing but textures, angles, lines, and maybe 

even shadow play. In doing so, we are making ourselves look past the obvious by getting up 

close and personal with it’s composition, which more often than not goes by unnoticed. It will

teach you to be more thorough in evaluation a scene and before you know it, you’ll be finding 

photographic inspiration in everything around you.

Photography By: Christoph Martin

Challenges are, well, challenging, but they should not discourage us from continuing on our 

journey to become a better photographer. Regardless of your skill level, look at challenges as 

a means to better yourself and to better your art. Recognize what is hard for you and keep 

doing it over and over until it becomes second nature. Don’t let your weaknesses frustrate 

you, put them to work instead. Use them as an excuse to pick up your camera and go out 

shooting.



See Reference