There are countless technical skills that photographers pick up over time, such as exposure, composition and post-processing. But the single most valuable skill I’ve learned isn’t about settings or gear – it’s learning how to read a photograph.
Not just appreciating an image, but really decoding it. Understanding how it was made, how the light is behaving, what the focal length is doing and why certain decisions work. Once you can break a photograph down, you can start to replicate what you admire – and eventually, adapt it to make your own.
When I was starting out, I would pore over the portraits of Dan Winters, Joey L and Albert Watson. I’d study the shape and position of the catchlights to figure out what kind of light source was used, whether a softbox, window or bare bulb, and where it was placed.
I’d pay attention to the sharpness of the shadows to judge whether the light was hard or soft. I’d look at the background falloff and depth of field to get a sense of the aperture and focal length. Then I’d head into the studio and try to recreate it.
Where possible, I’d track down behind-the-scenes images from the shoots to confirm whether my analysis was accurate – and over time, I got better at being right.
First, I copied faithfully. Then I made small adjustments. Eventually, I didn’t need the reference images; I could build the light I wanted from instinct and, most importantly, build on the framework to create my own approach.
Though I focused on portraits, the same theory can be applied across all photography. Once you learn to see how light interacts with form where it falls, how it wraps and how much it reveals or conceals, you gain control over your own creative decisions.
Whether you're looking at fashion work, still life or street photography, the clues are always there in the edges of shadows, the direction of reflections and the texture of the light. You just have to slow down and look.
In my experience, photography isn’t just about learning how to shoot but learning how to see. And once you learn how to break down a photograph, you're no longer just consuming images but building your visual vocabulary and adding those tools to your toolkit.
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