The best photography advice is the advice you discover by shooting, not by reading. But a few pointers can save you months of frustration.
I’ve been shooting seriously for about a year. I’m not qualified to teach photography. But I am qualified to share what confused me, what clicked, and what I’d tell my past self if I could.
Technical Lessons
1. The Exposure Triangle Is Simpler Than It Sounds
Three things control how bright your photo is:
| Setting | What it does | Side effect |
|---|
| Aperture (f-number) | Controls how much light enters | Lower = more blur (bokeh), Higher = more in focus |
| Shutter Speed | Controls how long light hits the sensor | Slower = motion blur, Faster = freeze motion |
| ISO | Controls sensor sensitivity | Higher = more noise/grain |
Start with Aperture Priority mode (A or Av). You control the aperture, the camera handles shutter speed. This lets you learn depth of field while the camera keeps exposure correct.
2. Shoot RAW, Not JPEG
JPEG is a compressed, processed file. The camera makes editing decisions for you and throws away data. RAW keeps everything — you can recover blown highlights, lift shadows, and adjust white balance after the fact.
The files are bigger (25MB vs 8MB per photo), but storage is cheap. The editing flexibility is worth it.
3. Autofocus Modes Matter
- AF-S (Single Shot): Focuses once when you half-press the shutter. Use for still subjects.
- AF-C (Continuous): Keeps refocusing as the subject moves. Use for kids, animals, sports.
- Eye AF: The A6400’s killer feature. It finds eyes and locks on. Leave it on almost always.
I shot my first month in AF-S and wondered why all my photos of the kids were blurry. They don’t hold still. AF-C + Eye AF solved everything.
4. The Histogram Is Your Friend
The LCD screen on your camera lies — it looks different in bright sunlight vs shade. The histogram is the truth. It shows the distribution of brightness in your image:
- Bunched left = underexposed (too dark)
- Bunched right = overexposed (too bright)
- Clipping the right edge = blown highlights (unrecoverable)
Learn to glance at it after every few shots. It takes two seconds and saves hours of editing frustration.
5. White Balance Matters More Than You Think
Auto white balance is fine most of the time. But learn to recognize when it fails:
- Mixed lighting (indoor + window light)
- Golden hour (camera tries to “correct” the warm tones you actually want)
- Artificial light (fluorescent gives everything a green cast)
Shooting RAW lets you fix this later, but getting it right in-camera saves editing time and helps you see color more accurately.
“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” — Ansel Adams
Composition Lessons
6. Get Closer
Your first instinct is to include everything. Fight it. Move your feet. Fill the frame. Most beginner photos improve dramatically by simply getting closer to the subject.
“If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” — Robert Capa
7. Backgrounds Matter as Much as Subjects
A beautiful subject against a cluttered background looks amateur. Before pressing the shutter, scan the edges of your frame. Look for:
- Distracting bright spots
- Objects “growing” out of your subject’s head
- Busy patterns that compete with the subject
A slight step to the left or a wider aperture can clean up a background completely.
8. Light Is the Actual Subject
The difference between a snapshot and a photograph is usually light. The same scene looks completely different at:
- Golden hour (first/last hour of sun) — warm, directional, long shadows
- Blue hour (just before sunrise/after sunset) — cool, moody, even light
- Overcast — soft, diffused, no harsh shadows (great for portraits)
- Midday — harsh, unflattering, high contrast (challenging but not impossible)
I plan my walks around light now. If golden hour is at 5:30 PM, I’m outside at 5:15.
9. Break the Rules (After Learning Them)
Rule of thirds, leading lines, symmetry — learn them so you can break them intentionally. A centered subject is “wrong” according to the rules, but sometimes a face dead-center in the frame is exactly the right choice. Rules are training wheels, not laws.
“The best camera is the one that’s with you.” — Chase Jarvis
Mindset Lessons
10. Volume Creates Quality
You won’t take a great photo by thinking about it. You’ll take a great photo by taking 500 mediocre ones and learning from each. Photography is a reps game.
11. Compare Yourself to Your Past Self, Not to Pros
Instagram is full of photographers with 20 years of experience, $10,000 of gear, and professional editing workflows. Comparing yourself to them is like comparing your first React component to the Atlassian Design System. Useless and demoralizing.
Instead: look at what you shot last month. If it’s better than what you shot three months ago, you’re growing.
12. The “Good Camera” Myth
People see a nice photo and say “you must have a good camera.” Nobody looks at a good book and says “you must have a good keyboard.” The camera is a tool. Vision, patience, and practice are the craft.
That said — a better tool does remove limitations. I can do things with the A6400 that were physically impossible on an iPhone. The key is knowing which limitations are yours and which are the gear’s.
13. Edit With Restraint
My early edits were aggressive — cranked saturation, heavy vignettes, maximum clarity. Now I aim for edits that look like I didn’t edit at all. The goal is to make the photo look like what my eyes saw, not what Instagram thinks looks cool.
14. Share Your Work (Even When It’s Scary)
Posting photos publicly feels vulnerable. What if people think they’re bad? What if a “real” photographer judges my composition?
Do it anyway. Sharing creates accountability, invites feedback, and documents your growth. My @slashaviLens feed is as much a learning journal as it is a portfolio.
The Engineer’s Edge
Being an engineer actually helps with photography in unexpected ways:
| Engineering Skill | Photography Application |
|---|
| Systematic debugging | Analyzing why a shot didn’t work (focus? exposure? timing?) |
| Iteration mindset | Shoot → review → adjust → shoot again |
| Tool proficiency | Learning Lightroom’s interface quickly |
| Attention to detail | Noticing small compositional elements |
| Patience with learning curves | Not giving up when the first 1,000 photos are mediocre |
I update this page as I learn. Photography is one of those crafts where the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. That’s what makes it endlessly interesting.
