Photography has changed an enormous mount over the last century. Even over the last three decades, we’ve seen a complete revolution in the way we do just about everything. Nowadays, digital cameras do the vast majority of the work that film photographers used to do. Before, photographers carefully pondered settings, everything from shutter speed and aperture to the focus of each frame.
Today, however, it is possible to simply let the camera handle all of that for you. No matter what camera you use, from a smartphone to a DSLR, modern equipment actually makes it kind of difficult to take a photo with poor exposure or one that is out of focus. That is because now, we have full automatic settings
and even autofocus to assist us with these tasks.
Does all of this mean that the photographer’s job is easier than ever before? Absolutely not! In fact, I would argue that the photographer’s job is at least as difficult as it ever was and maybe even more difficult. It is simply that the focus on skills has changed.
Now, it is less about knowing how to adjust settings to create the perfect exposure and more about knowing how to use computers, software, navigate the internet, design web pages and so much more.
Of course, technical skill with your camera is still important. If you leave it on automatic settings indefinitely,
then you’ll never learn how to manipulate aperture or shutter speed to create various kinds of blurs and other effects, for example. But the point stands: In order to create art, these skills are somewhat less important than, say, knowing how to use Photoshop or similar photo editing software.
But enough of all of
that! Let’s look at some of the top skills that photographers today are expected to know...
