Natural Light Versus Artificial Light: Which is Better?

A Post By: John Mclntire

Light is the backbone of photography. Without light, there are no photos. After all, the word photo means light. However, which type of lighting is best: natural or artificial? There are a lot of proponents for either camp, but this article will try and dissect the argument from both perspectives, and give you a chance to add your opinion at the end.

Natural Light

The arguments in favor of natural light are many, which means it’s not difficult to see why it is attractive to many photographers.

The pros of natural light

Cost

Natural light costs nothing to make use of; there are plenty of gadgets and accessories available, such as reflectors and diffusers, that do help to maximize results, but even without them, it is easy enough to get beautiful results using natural light, without spending any money. This apparent lack of a financial entry barrier makes it much easier for most photographers to immediately assume a preference for natural lighting.

Learning Curve

Learning how to see, manipulate and utilize light, whether natural or artificial, is the most critical skill set for a photographer to learn. Fortunately, these break down into many individual skills that can be learned one at a time. In terms of natural light, a lot of these skills are easy to learn and put into practice. For example, you can read a tutorial on using an area open shade to diffuse and soften the light, then put it into immediate practice ten minutes later.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that cameras are designed for use in natural light first. So, a new photographer working their way through the technical basics of their camera, such as metering, aperture and shutter speed, is almost certainly learning with natural light, thereby improving both their camera and lighting skills simultaneously.

Semantics

This point may seem a bit strange, but I have seen it crop up in various conversations, and it does affect some people’s perceptions. We live in a world that is currently obsessed with the word natural. It seems difficult to go more than five minutes without seeing words like organic, all-natural and free from. Of course, most of this applies to food and health products, but the mindset and lifestyle that go with it have become so expansive, that it has seeped into all manner of other aspects in our lives. Whether or not you buy into that sort of thing, try to ask yourself what sounds better and more appealing: natural or artificial? This may not seem rational in terms of photography (an inorganic, mechanical medium), but the appeal is more of an emotional one, and more often than not, emotion trumps rationale.

The biggest concern here is one of marketing. A photographer who refers to themselves as a natural light photographer may very well simply be attempting to appeal to the quite large demographic that holds value over that kind of thing.

The cons of natural light

While natural light has its advantages, it is not without its own set of shortcomings.

Unpredictability

While the sun is a near constant during daylight hours, the availability of light is only one factor that needs to be taken into account. Clouds and other weather conditions are just a couple examples of things that will alter specific qualities of the light you are trying to work with. Softness, intensity, and color can all change in a split second at the whim of mother nature. If you are attempting to work towards a specific goal, these changes can be a nightmare.

Night

After sunset, what do you do if you’re in a situation where you still want (or need) to take photographs. If you’re relying solely on natural light, the answer is: not a whole lot. Many photographers have no problem with this limitation; however, try to imagine what you can achieve with just another hour or two a day working towards your photography.

Environment

Aside from its effect on light, shooting outdoors means you are at the constant mercy of the weather. Cold temperatures, rain, snow, and wind can all make for some uncomfortable experiences for both you and your subjects or clients.

If you’re photographing in areas open to the public, you may be subject to the whims of passers-by. This can lead to an unwelcome audience, or even worse, hecklers. Believe me when I relate, that nothing kills the general mood of a session for both the subject and the photographer faster than excessive and undue attention from strangers.

These environmental problems can often be solved by finding an indoor location andusing window light. While the effects of weather and other people are gone, this solution is not without its own limitations. Window light, while often beautiful for photography, can be quite dim and may require slower shutter speeds than you might like for portrait photography. A lack of space is also a common problem when shooting indoors.

Artificial light

Like natural light, artificial light, whether strobes, flashguns or continuous lighting, has its own set of advantages and shortcomings.

The pros of artificial light

Convenience

By owning an artificial lighting solution, you have the means to take photographs at any time day or night, indoors or out, and the weather has no effect on you. If for some reason you want to do food photography at midnight, by all means, go for it.

If you own a set of flashguns (speedlights), they are not only convenient, but portable as well, and can be taken just about anywhere and set up with ease.

Versatility

With studio strobes and the like, the sheer number of ways that they can be used for a vast array of creative results is their strongest selling point. These range fromsimple one light setups that mimic natural light, to complicated setups with seven or more lights.

Control

Another great strength of studio lighting is the control it offers you over your final photograph. By controlling every bit of light in your scene, artificial lighting negates the unpredictability that you get with natural light. If you want a particular look or mood, all that you have to do is set up the lights, and take photos until you have your results. There’s no worry that a cloud will move in and block your light.

Reliability

Apart from removing the environmental issues associated with natural light, studio strobes and flashguns are quite reliable. Most models in the moderate price range, and above, are very well made. This means that the power output, as well as color output, is consistent every time it fires. This a huge advantage over the fast changing conditions of natural light.

The cons of artificial light

Cost

Probably the most off-putting aspect of studio lighting is cost. It doesn’t matter whether you choose studio strobes, flashguns (speedlights), or continuous lighting; decent quality lighting equipment does not come cheap and a good set, along with modifiers, can easily cost over $1000. With natural light being a free and capable resource, it’s easy to understand why so many photographers steer clear of artificial lighting.

Learning Curve

Another initial disadvantage of studio lighting is the amount of knowledge you have to gain, in order to start using it. It’s very possible to accidentally take a beautifully lit photo in natural light. With artificial light, that’s next to impossible.

A lot of photographers, me included, would probably gladly tell you how atrocious their first attempts with studio lighting were. To get good results, you have to spend an enormous amount of time reading and practicing. This involves things like new aspects of aperture and shutter speed in relation to flash, qualities of light, effects of modifiers and the dreaded inverse square law.

So, which is better?

In my opinion? Neither and both are better.

It depends on the job at hand. Both are just tools to be used at each photographer’s discretion. After all, nobody walks into a newly built house and waxes lyrical about the type of hammers that were used. Good photography is good photography, no matter how it was made. If something screams out to be lit with natural light, then natural light is better. Likewise with artificial light.

Each method is capable of stunning results and I would rather have a full toolkit to use for every opportunity, than miss out on something because I restricted myself from using the right tool for the job

5 Steps to Increase the Sharpness of Your Photographs

A Post By: Jeb Buchman

Here are five steps you can take which help to increase the sharpness of your photographs:

1) Keep your lenses, filters, and camera sensor clean

Somewhat of an obvious point, but a very important one nonetheless. If your lenses and/or filters have dust or debris on them, however small and unnoticeable to the naked eye, it can create ugly soft spots on your photograph. There have been countless times I was in such a hurry to go shoot, I didn’t check the glass to see if it needed a good cleaning. This especially holds true if the lens I am using has been sitting on my shelf for a while, collecting dust. Even if the lens has been wrapped up in a pouch with a cap on top, it can still accumulate dust on the outer element.

Quick side issue: This is why it’s a good idea to keep a protective filter over your lenses when they are resting on a shelf, or when you are traveling. Along with the front lens cap, a protective filter helps to keep dust off the lens glass. If you get scuff marks or dirt on a cheap protective filter, who cares? But if you scuff up the outer element on the lens, it’s costly to fix.

Back on point: It can be very frustrating to think you’ve got yourself a good shot, only to upload the images to your computer and see ugly spots scattered all over the image. You can use the Dust and Scratches Filter in Photoshop, use the healing brush, and/or clone away only so much before the smudges become a real time-consuming burden.

This is easily avoidable if you make it a routine to clean your glass before heading out to shoot.

2) Shoot at the lowest possible ISO

The higher the ISO, the more noise you introduce into the image.

Sometimes you absolutely have no choice but to shoot at a higher ISO. For example, if you are in a poorly lit gym shooting your kid’s basketball game, you are going to need a relatively high ISO to freeze the action, even with a fast lens. Newer cameras mitigate this issue somewhat, because they are able shoot at higher ISOs without a significant amount of noise.

Additionally, if you are only going to be displaying low resolution photographs on Facebook or elsewhere on the internet, or printing small 5X7 pictures, you can get away with some noise in the photo. But, if you are going to be creating larger prints, or will be showcasing the images on the internet at a high resolution, you want your images tack-sharp, and lower ISOs undoubtedly help. There are all kinds of software programs which can help reduce noise in a photograph, but the more noise you are correcting, the softer the image will become.

This segues nicely into the next step because, if you lower ISO, your shutter speed will slow down (assuming aperture is constant). One way to shoot tack-sharp photographs at slow shutter speeds is to use a sturdy tripod.

3) Use a sturdy, well-grounded tripod

On a tripod, you can shoot at any shutter speed and the camera and lens will (ideally) stay motionless. This assumes your camera is firmly fastened to the tripod head, and the tripod’s foundation is well anchored and balanced on the ground. Don’t take that for granted – just because you’re on a tripod doesn’t mean everything will stay locked in place. Make sure your tripod feet are solidly on the ground before setting up the camera (I usually press down relatively hard on the tripod to make sure the ground won’t give way…this is especially important on loose ground like mud, wet rocks, or sand).

Then, once your composition is set, make sure your tripod head is locked in position. Additionally, If your tripod has a hook beneath the centre column, hang something with a little bit of weight on it to further lock down the tripod (I usually hang my backpack on the center hook). Even a gentle gust of wind, or the vibration from a nearby car passing by, can introduce minor camera movement into a tripod setup, so you want that setup locked down as tightly as possible.

4) Mind your shutter speed

If you are going to hand-hold the camera, it is customary to choose a shutter speed that is at least as fast as the reciprocal of the focal length you are using. For example, if you are shooting with a 50mm lens, then you will want your shutter speed to be at least 1/50th, or faster, to get acceptable sharpness. Any slower and you risk motion blur. If you are shooting with a 500mm telephoto, then you want at least 1/500th or faster, and so on. The one caveat to this formula is if your camera or lens has some sort of additional stabilization, like Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR – called Image Stabilization or IS on other cameras). This will allow you to shoot at slower shutter speeds, usually by several stops, without introducing significant motion blur.

5) Lock-up the mirror before firing away

When you are looking through the viewfinder in a DSLR, what you see is the light which passes through the lens, but you don’t actually see it until it bounces off a couple of mirrors. The light of the scene enters through the lens, bounces off of a mirror that sits at an angle directly in front of the shutter/sensor, then it travels through a pentaprism or penta-mirror, before it finally reaches the viewfinder.

So, in order for the exposure to be taken, the mirror in front of the sensor has to flip up, then the shutter opens to allow light to hit the sensor. If the mirror flips up at the same time the shutter opens, there is the potential for very slight movement of the camera due to vibrations caused by the mirror flipping up.

Most modern DSLRs give you the option of locking the mirror up well before the exposure is taken. The Nikon D810, for example, gives you the option of locking up the mirror anywhere between one and three seconds before the shutter opens (Nikon calls it Exposure Delay Mode). I always choose three seconds, unless there’s a need to shoot quicker. That makes sure the camera is nice and still before the shutter opens and the exposure is taken.

Note: if you’re using a mirrorless camera you don’t have to worry about this step!

This is also helpful if you forgot to bring along a remote shutter. Pressing the camera’s shutter release almost always causes slight movement in the camera. But, if the camera waits a couple of seconds after the mirror flips up, it gives the setup time to become completely still again.

Do you have any additional tips or tricks to increase sharpnes in your images? Please share in the comments below.

Understanding Natural Light Part 3: Direction of Light

A Post By: Oded Wagenstein

In this third chapter, you will learn:

• How to control the direction of natural light in the field.
• How to understand the different effects the direction of light will have on your portraits. How to mix light colors to create depth.
• A few advanced techniques, like using reflectors or flags.
• How to practice using exercises.

Please note that as a portrait photographer, I will be discussing portraits, and using them as examples. However, this knowledge applies to any kind of photography.

Working with natural light does not mean compromising

Most people will tell you that while working with artificial lighting will allow you to fully control the lighting situation in your shooting, working exclusively with natural light will limit your ability to control the lighting to almost zero. In my opinion, this false assumption is leading many photographers to mediocre images. Stating that the lighting is poor, because “that’s how it was” when they made the photo, is not acceptable.

So, the first step in controlling natural light is to carefully plan your time of the shoot. In the preview articles, we have discussed how the quality and color of light are affected by time, and weather, during the day. Now, let’s understand how the direction of light will change throughout the day, and how it will affect the lighting situation in our portraits.

Frontal lighting

Frontal lighting refers to light which comes directly in front of your subject (the light source is behind you and the camera). The situation is possible or when your subject is facing the light source (for example face directed to a setting or a rising sun). Another possibility is with reflected light. Like in this image, Dialsiz was standing in the shade, but in front of her was a bright sunny wall, reflecting the sunlight directly on her face.

Pros: Frontal lighting will usually illuminate your subject’s face evenly, without any shadows. It will create an aesthetic and balanced look, which is why this setup is very popular in fashion and beauty shoots.

Cons: The lack of shadows will create a lack and depth and drama.

45 degree lighting

As the name suggests, this refers to a situation where the light comes from an angle of 45 degrees from the nose of your subject. This is extremely popular lighting setup in portrait photography, which is sometimes called Rembrandt lighting. It can be easily achievable with side light coming from a rising or setting sun, or by positioning your subject at a 45 degree angle to a window.

Pros: in this lighting setup, you will note how the light illuminates your subject’s face gradually. Creating a gradual shadow, and in our two dimensional art form, shadows usually mean depth and volume. That is the reason this setup is so appealing in the eyes of most viewers.

Cons: The dramatic effect of shadowing parts of the subject’s face might not be suitable for your visual story.

90 degree lighting

As the name suggests, this refers to a situation where the light comes from an angle of 90 degrees from the nose of your subject. It can be achievable with side light coming from a rising or a setting sun or by positioning your subject at a 90 degree angle to a window.

Pros: Extremely dramatic effect, which is almost impossible to ignore.

Cons: This dramatic lighting setup can be a little over dramatic, and with the right subject, this lighting can be scary! It all depends of course, on what you want to evoke in your visual story.

Backlighting

This refers to a situation where the light comes from behind your subject, and in front of you.

Pros: Backlight will create highlights in the contours of your subject, and unlike with frontal lighting, this will create a sense of depth, and a clear separation between the subject and the background. Unless the light source is very dim and fully covered by your subject’s body, working with backlight will force you to be creating with your photography, as it will make the exposure a bit more difficult. This is where switching from the automatic mode can be handy. While overexposing can be good for creating a burned out background or a lens flare, underexposure will usually result in a nice silhouette (as above)

Cons: As mentioned, this one is a bit more advanced to handle, and will mostly require switching out of your camera’s automatic mode, but again, a great opportunity for some creative photography.

Light from above

This refers to a situation where the light comes from directly above your subject, like during midday.

Pros: This interrogation room style lighting setup will not be flattering to most faces. Light coming from above will result in deep shadows on your subject’s face, making the forehead shadow the eyes, and making the nose shadow the chin. However, it can be used as a way of creating a very dramatic image. Oscar-winning Cinematographer Gordon Hugh Willis, did a groundbreaking work in Francis Ford Coppola’s movie, The Godfather, with the combination of underexposing and positioning the lighting source above the actors’ faces. He managed to support the dark and mysterious sense of this movie, with the audience was unable to see most eyes throughout the movie.

Cons: As mentioned, when handled right, this lighting setup, can lead to great and creative results. Otherwise, you subject will look like he or she is going to answer some tough questions.

Controlling natural light

Basic: in the simplest form, controlling natural light is first in the planning. Choose the right time to be outside, or take your subject indoors to use the soft light coming from a window.

Advanced: You can control natural light almost like controlling artificial lighting, with the help of reflectors or/and flags.

Reflectors are used to bounce light into the subject’s face. For example, if you are dealing with light coming from above, you can overcome the problem of dark eyes by illumining them using a reflector. It can also lighten the dark side of the face, if needed, in the case of lighting from a 45 or 90 degree angle.

You can see the reflection of the reflector used to bounce light back into this man’s face.

A flag is usually a piece of black fabric that can be used to block unwanted light and create shadows (shadows mean a sense of depth remember?) on the subject’s face. To use a flag properly, you will need somebody or something that can hold it. That is the way I use all kind of flags in the field. I have used my hat (which I was holding in my left hand) to shadow an overexposed forehead numerous times, or using the help of an innocent bystander that was asked to stand in one spot for a moment, to create a shadow when needed.

8 Tips to Stay Motivated and Inspired by Your Photography

A Post By: Anthony Epes

Taking photos is one of the most inspiring and exciting of pursuits. It can encourage you to have adventures, see the world in a newer, fresher way, meet interesting people – all while creating something that is totally unique to you.

“We are born makers, and creativity is the ultimate act of integration – it is how we fold our experiences into our being.” – Brene Brown

But what happens when your well of inspiration runs dry, when you can’t get excited by your images or you feel stuck in a rut? Most photographers, even professionals, have periods when creating feels like wading through glue. You get tired or bored with your own images.

So, why do you (we all) get stuck?

The destructive habit of habit

As most of us, you are probably immersed in habit – you do almost the same things each day, every day. Making your coffee in the same way at the same time, going to work on the same route at the same time, eating the same kind of food each evening. It’s almost like you stop thinking and just do.

“As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge” – Henry van Dyke

Your brain has made a great effort to get you into the state of habit. It makes life easier for you so that you don’t have to make tonnes of new decisions every day. But, if you are lost in habit you aren’t seeing new things, doing new things, or trying things in new ways. Habit will strangle your creativity.

So how do you get out of this cycle?

The way to fill your life with inspiration and motivation will be different than others – depending on how you create and what drives you. Here are some ideas:

1 – Leave your camera at home

If you’re someone who is always out and about with your camera, taking lots of photos – abandon it for a while. It’s easy to get carried away. Instead of taking time to see and compose, you are likely just taking shot, after shot, after shot. If you are bored with the photos you are taking – this is probably what’s happening to you.

I would encourage you to start examining the world in a different way – not as a photographer, but as someone who hears, feels, smells, and absorbs the atmosphere around you. Using all of your senses is a wonderful way to help experience the same world, but in a different way. It will help you gain a different perspective.

Sound is a particularly evocative sense for me – the crackle of dry autumn leaves under my feet, the low hum of trains on a railway line in the distance behind me, the vibrating thump of music in a bar, a conversation drifting past me. Tuning in to senses that you usually don’t prioritize (because we photo lovers tend to put our sight first, don’t we) will also help you anchor yourself into the present moment, pulling you away from your busy mind, and into the world so you can eventually see more interesting and unique things.

Challenge: When you are ready to start taking photos again, set yourself the challenge of taking just three photos a day, for 15 days. If this sounds hard, then it’s the perfect challenge! This will help you be more precise and thoughtful in your approach. You will work harder to create a smaller number of better photos. So – what will you take with your three images?

2 – Make taking photos a habit

Now, let’s consider the reverse. You are someone who doesn’t take photos very often – maybe you wait for an occasion like a walk in a lovely area, good light, or a holiday – then my advice is the opposite. If photography is something that you pick up only now and again, you’ll never get into the rhythm of creating, you’ll never develop the skills of really seeing the world and composing great images. The act of creating is like a muscle – the more you do it the stronger it becomes.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

By creating a habit of creating, you are making a declaration to yourself that photography is a very important part of your life. It also helps to get your subconscious organized in a way that it knows you are going to be calling on it more regularly. It starts preparing. I know this sounds strange but it’s like anything you do regularly, your body and your mind get used to doing it. You are in the mood and the wonderful act of creativity starts to energize you in new and exciting ways.

Challenge: If getting into the habit of taking photos is tough for you, then this is the challenge for you – take 50 photos every day, for 15 days. That will kick start your creativity, and imbue your day with the looking and seeing and noticing that is necessary to take great photos.

3 – Take photos not to see the result, but to enjoy the process

When you see small children making art there is a beautiful joy that they get by just doing it. From feeling the feathers before they glue them on an egg box, to painting wild splashes of colour on a sheet of white paper. In fact going out with kids, and watching them look at the world in such an open way, is great training on how to be present with the world around you.

With kids there is a complete enjoyment in the process of making – and that is something we, as photographers, sometimes forget. Perhaps because the act of creating is so instant – the click – we forget that it’s our whole creative process which leads up to that click.

“What moves me about… what’s called technique…is that it comes from some mysterious deep place. I mean it can have something to do with the paper and the developer and all that stuff, but it comes mostly from some very deep choices somebody has made that take a long time and keep haunting them.” – Diane Arbus

I do my best work when I am totally present, totally in the zone, not thinking about emails, or jobs, my to-do list, or my kids – but looking with wonder at a beautiful cloud, or some rain dripping off of a leaf. And if you need encouragement – isn’t it just great to cut yourself off from all of your responsibilities and absorb yourself in the wildness, the peace, the craziness, the beauty of the world?

4 – Start a project

Sometimes I find my attention gets fragmented – with all of the work I do, my family, etc., so that I’m jumping from task to task, and not getting deeply involved in anything. A few photos here, a few photos there. This is when I like to jump into a project.

Key advice for projects: Choose a subject that you are blown-away passionate about. It could be anything – the colour violet, armpits, salt mines, trees, your kids, men with mohawks – it doesn’t matter what it is, you can bring something new to a subject if you make the effort.

“I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned in forty years about photography. Through clouds to put down my philosophy of life – to show that (the success of) my photographs (was) not due to subject matter – not to special trees or faces, or interiors, to special privileges – clouds were there for everyone…” Alfred Stieglitz

The key point is that it’s not so much about technique, but the passion. Why? Because:

• When you hit a roadblock or life distracts you, you’ll be less likely to abandon the project if you are really excited about it.
• Passion will help drive you to create a new and interesting perspective on your subject.
• When you feel something when you are taking photos, you are more likely to take a photo that contains feelings. Why is that important? Because you want people to notice your photo, to feel a connection with it. Most images we look at are flat and devoid of feeling. The best photos communicate both a visual idea and a feeling, we are moved in some way by it.

“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” – Don McCullin

5 – Do something completely different

I’ve talked about how habit can be a force of good for your photography – by making you commit to a regular practice, and exercise that creativity muscle. But it can also be a negative force – you get so used to your ways of doing things, or your lifestyle, that you don’t push yourself in new ways.

Think about the kind of things you normally photograph. Now think of some you’d be terrified to photograph, and go and photograph them. So maybe you’re great at landscapes. You like photographing the odd person if they happen to be in the shot. But the idea of taking a close-up or a portrait of them terrifies you. So do that. Or you’ve always wanted to get up onto some rooftops and photograph your city from up high. But the idea of asking for permission, etc., makes you feel nervous. Just go for it!

“You may never know exactly what you need to do, or exactly where you’re going. But if you are willing to start taking tiny steps, and keep going, the dots will connect over time to create something beautiful and fulfilling.” – Lori Deschene

6 – Remind yourself why you take photos

It can be easy with your photography to get into that should way of thinking – “I should take more photos! I should be better!” But scolding yourself rarely gets you anywhere (with anything). Instead, I encourage you to think about what photography really means to you, what are the benefits beyond the fun of taking that photo. How does it enrich, energize and enhance your life?

Ask yourself:

• What does photography give me?
• How do I want to be creative in my every day?
• Which of my photos or projects am I really proud of?

When you connect with the reasons why you do things, it’s so much easier to stay committed and motivated.

7 – The trap of perfectionism

Often we stop taking photos, or we start slowing down or moving off on a tangent when we are working on a project, because the feeling of not being good enough starts to insidiously infect us.

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life” – Anne Lamott

Who cares if you try things that don’t work. Who cares if some of your photos aren’t great? Stopping yourself from doing something you love, before you’ve done it, is crazy. Recognize you have the fear, but don’t let that stop you. Fear goes away eventually.

Be aimless and wander. Resist those urges to make your photo explorations productive. Ignore the output and focus instead on what you see. Listen. Follow things that spark your interest.

8 – Get inspiration – indirectly

I really believe that inspiration for your photos can come from all kinds of places. It just so happens that my favourite photographer of all time, Ernst Haas, agrees (if you don’t know him,look him up). He said:

“Beware of direct inspiration. It leads too quickly to repetitions of what inspired you… Refine your senses through the great masters of music, painting, and poetry. In short, try indirect inspirations, and everything will come by itself.”

So fill your life with creative inspiration of anything that moves you. Beautiful music, looking at bizarre paintings, reading wild adventure books – it doesn’t matter what it is, if it excites and moves you then it’s right for you. The more you remind yourself what feeling excited and creative feels like, the more your body and mind will imprint that into yourself.

Along that vein, I also like to remind myself of times when I have felt super creative, super in the flow, and I was taking great photos. It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you’ll never take a good photo ever again (happens to me all the time, especially when I am starting a new book), but just think back to a time when you were taking great photos and in the zone. Remind yourself of that, and it will be easier to get back into that space.

I hope those ideas help. I’d love to know if they do – and what you do when you get stuck. Comment below, I’d love to hear.