Practising Photography is Essential for Beginners

“If you’re not practicing, you’re not learning”

Learn­ing pho­tog­ra­phy is reward­ing, but it’s also a skill that requires effort to retain, main­tain, and improve. If you’re not prac­tis­ing, you’re not learn­ing.

I’ve been teach­ing group pho­tog­ra­phy cours­es in Toron­to since ear­ly 2018, and one thing is clear: prac­tice is essen­tial. It solid­i­fies the the­o­ries you learn, builds famil­iar­i­ty with your cam­era, and makes using it feel nat­ur­al. With­out prac­tice, the knowl­edge I share with you dur­ing these well-taught lessons won’t stick for long.

Here’s why prac­tice mat­ters, illus­trat­ed with real exam­ples from stu­dents I’ve taught, along with prac­ti­cal advice to help you put your learn­ing into action.

Practice fortifies your photography knowledge

Pho­tog­ra­phy is a mix of the­o­ry and appli­ca­tion. You might under­stand the con­cepts of aper­ture and its effects, shut­ter speed, and ISO, but until you’ve prac­tised them, that under­stand­ing remains abstract and ten­u­ous. Prac­tice bridges the gap, let­ting you see the direct impact of your cam­era set­tings on your pho­tos.

In my begin­ner pho­tog­ra­phy cours­es, stu­dents who prac­tise between lessons retain knowl­edge bet­ter and progress faster. For instance, those who spend time work­ing on depth of field or freez­ing motion with shut­ter speed not only under­stand these con­cepts but also learn how to apply them quick­ly when the sit­u­a­tion demands it.

In con­trast, stu­dents who don’t prac­tise often strug­gle to recall con­cepts dur­ing the next les­son. Even if they under­stood the mate­r­i­al ini­tial­ly, it fades with­out rep­e­ti­tion.

Digital photography makes practice simple and affordable

Prac­tis­ing pho­tog­ra­phy today is far eas­i­er than it was in the film era. Back then, pho­tog­ra­phers had to take detailed notes about each shot—the expo­sure set­tings, light­ing con­di­tions, and com­po­si­tion—so they could com­pare those notes to the effects they saw in the result­ing prints.

But there was always a delay. You had to fin­ish the roll of film, take it to a devel­op­er, and wait for the results. Only then could you eval­u­ate your work and fig­ure out what went right or wrong, or if you loaded the film cor­rect­ly.

With dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy, that entire process is imme­di­ate. You can exper­i­ment with set­tings like ISO or white bal­ance, take a shot, and see the results instant­ly. You no longer need to main­tain detailed notes about every man­u­al expo­sure, either—your cam­era auto­mat­i­cal­ly records meta­da­ta for each pho­to, so you can review the set­tings at any time.

Prac­tis­ing with dig­i­tal cam­eras is not only faster but also cheap­er. There’s no need to buy rolls of film or pay for devel­op­ment and prints. You can take as many shots as you need with­out wor­ry­ing about costs beyond the ini­tial invest­ment in the cam­era.

Practice builds muscle memory

Cam­eras are com­plex tools, and for many begin­ners, nav­i­gat­ing their con­trols can feel over­whelm­ing. Even if you learn how to use key fea­tures in a les­son, it’s the act of prac­tis­ing that trans­forms that knowl­edge into func­tion­al mus­cle mem­o­ry.

One stu­dent I remem­ber was a high school­er who took my begin­ner course to help with her art pro­gram. She quick­ly mas­tered her camera’s con­trols over four lessons. How­ev­er, about a year lat­er, I saw her name on my course list again. It wasn’t an error—her moth­er emailed to explain that because her daugh­ter hadn’t prac­tised, she’d for­got­ten most of what she learned. With­out that crit­i­cal rep­e­ti­tion, her mus­cle mem­o­ry nev­er devel­oped, and the camera—and even­tu­al­ly, the concepts—became for­eign.

In con­trast, stu­dents who make an effort to prac­tise between lessons show up ready to move for­ward. They remem­ber what they’ve learned and can focus on new mate­r­i­al rather than re-learn­ing the basics.

Practice helps overcome common photography learning barriers

Pho­tog­ra­phy can feel daunt­ing to begin­ners. There are two main chal­lenges: under­stand­ing the­o­ry and fig­ur­ing out how to use a cam­era. Those who strug­gle with both often face the steep­est learn­ing curve.

One stu­dent comes to mind—a retired man whose wife gift­ed him half a dozen pri­vate pho­tog­ra­phy lessons. He had a great eye for com­po­si­tion and could instinc­tive­ly frame com­pelling shots. How­ev­er, he relied on auto­mat­ic mode for years and was intim­i­dat­ed by the tech­ni­cal aspects of using man­u­al set­tings. His cam­era, like many dig­i­tal mod­els, had a labyrinth of menus, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to find and adjust com­mon set­tings like shut­ter speed or white bal­ance.

Dur­ing our one-on-one lessons, I focused on build­ing his con­fi­dence with man­u­al expo­sure and help­ing him nav­i­gate his cam­er­a’s con­trols and inter­face. After each ses­sion, I assigned him home­work designed to solid­i­fy what we cov­ered. For exam­ple, I asked him to prac­tise using aper­ture pri­or­i­ty mode to con­trol the depth of field, adjust ISO for low-light con­di­tions, and exper­i­ment with expo­sure com­pen­sa­tion for tricky scenes.

How­ev­er, he was bal­anc­ing a busy retire­ment filled with fam­i­ly com­mit­ments, trav­el, and vol­un­teer work. He rarely found the time to prac­tise between lessons. As a result, each ses­sion began with revis­it­ing the basics—how to change set­tings, access the appro­pri­ate menus, and apply the con­cepts we had already dis­cussed.

At the end of our lessons, his progress stalled because he often skipped his prac­tice home­work. With­out a con­sis­tent effort to rein­force what he’d learned, we spent much of our time revis­it­ing basics instead of advanc­ing. It was a clear exam­ple of how neglect­ing prac­tice can under­mine your suc­cess.

Prepare for real-world photography scenarios

Pho­tog­ra­phy is about cap­tur­ing moments, and many of those moments are fleet­ing. Being able to quick­ly adjust your set­tings is essen­tial when you’re pho­tograph­ing a fam­i­ly reunion, a vaca­tion, or a spe­cial event.

Prac­tice ensures you’re ready for these sce­nar­ios by help­ing you adapt to chang­ing conditions—like shoot­ing in low light or freez­ing motion on a sun­ny day—without hes­i­ta­tion. I’ve seen hes­i­ta­tion spi­ral into a flur­ry of rushed adjust­ments that only make things worse. This often hap­pens dur­ing the fourth and final ses­sion of our group pho­tog­ra­phy lessons, where stu­dents apply every­thing they’ve learned to pho­to­graph using man­u­al expo­sure. Some over­think it, while oth­ers get stuck in a cycle of com­pound­ing mis­takes, and stress takes over. Prac­tice not only improves your tech­ni­cal skills but also helps you rec­og­nize when mis­takes start to spi­ral, so you can pause, take a breath, and approach the prob­lem with a calmer, clear­er mind­set.

You can practice photography on the mundane

You don’t need a pic­turesque loca­tion, beau­ti­ful weath­er, or per­fect light­ing to prac­tise pho­tog­ra­phy. Seek­ing ide­al con­di­tions is often just a delay tac­tic, whether you real­ize it or not. The sub­ject doesn’t matter—what mat­ters is spend­ing time with your cam­era and build­ing famil­iar­i­ty through con­sis­tent prac­tice.

I often tell my stu­dents to prac­tise at home by pho­tograph­ing every­day objects: your socks, house­plants, or pet loung­ing on the couch—these are all fair game. Adjust your aper­ture, exper­i­ment with expo­sure com­pen­sa­tion, or test your focus modes. The point is to repeat­ed­ly inter­act with your camera’s con­trols and set­tings until it feels natural—so you can adjust them by tac­tile sen­sa­tion alone, much like touch-typ­ing.

Practice turns knowledge into skill

Pho­tog­ra­phy is a skill, and like any skill, it requires prac­tice. Even the best-taught lessons won’t stick with­out effort. Dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy makes prac­tis­ing sim­ple and afford­able, so don’t wait for per­fect conditions—just grab your cam­era and start.

Whether you’re shoot­ing your socks or the view out­side your win­dow, the sub­ject doesn’t mat­ter; using your cam­era reg­u­lar­ly does. Feel­ing stuck? Join a pho­towalk to explore, meet oth­er pho­tog­ra­phers, and get inspired.

Prac­tice is what makes pho­tog­ra­phy sec­ond nature. Skip it? Well, I’ll see you back in class. 😉