5 Desirable Qualities Every Good Photographer Should Have - Adorama (2024)

Being a good photographer is more than just mastering your camera or owning the best camera gear — say aSony Alpha a7 IV,Leica Q2, or a Panasonic Lumix GH6— and it’s instead about the inherent qualities that allow a photographer to see beauty in the most unexpected places and capture that beauty in a photograph.

So what makes a good photographer? It depends on what type of photography you’re in. Every niche demands different desirable qualities—pet photographers need to know how to properly interact and connect with animals; sports photographers need to be quick, strong, and agile to get the best shots; and so on.

But, of course, some of these qualities will always overlap, and many are critical to how to make money with photography.

Here are five desirable qualities every good photographer should have:

1. Creativity and Imagination

Photography, for all intents and purposes, is a form of art. Therefore, it requires a creative mind—and plenty of imagination. A good photographer must be able to look at something ordinary, or even extraordinary, and find a million different ways to interpret what he’s seeing and convey those interpretations in beautiful and meaningful photos.

As you may have already heard, composition is everything in photography. Even if you aren’t concerned about the artistic side of your craft, composition is still key in producing good photographs. Sure, some basic composition rules can guide you, but at the end of the day, creativity and imagination are the best guides for stellar compositions.

2. An Eye for Detail

A good photographer must have a very keen eye for detail to ensure that all elements within the photo—the lighting, the composition, the subject, and everything else in between—work together harmoniously to convey the right vision or message.

Key elements that make up a photograph:

• Lighting
• Composition
• Storytelling
• Emotion

Even the tiniest detail can make or break a photograph. So having an eye for detail, and being meticulous when scrutinizing every single element to ensure cohesiveness, is very important in producing the perfect photograph.

3. Patience and Flexibility

No matter how much you try to control every variable, things just won’t go your way at times. There will be days when the lighting won’t cooperate, when your models or clients will be exceptionally difficult, or when your camera just won’t give you the desired results.

And of course, there will be times when you’ll have to take a billion photos just to get one perfect photo.

Whatever photography field you may be in, patience (lots of it) is always an essential quality to have. You need to be patient enough to wait for the perfect lighting. You need to be patient enough to deal with crying babies, hyperactive animals, and difficult clients. And most of all, you need to be patient enough to keep trying when you simply can’t get the right shot.

In addition to patience, you also need to be flexible. The two qualities go hand in hand—you need to be patient enough to deal with whatever comes your way, and you need to be flexible enough to make the best of undesirable conditions.

4. Good People Skills

Being a professional photographer means working with people—whether it’s a client, a model, or even a fellow photographer. Thus, being a good photographer requires good people skills — it’s one of the essential photographer qualities. You’ll also need to network to obtain clients and partnerships, so knowing how to connect and communicate effectively with others is imperative.

When you’re photographing people, knowing how to take a good photo simply isn’t enough. You also have to know how to interact with your subjects to make them feel at ease, get them to cooperate, or draw out all the right emotions out of them.

5. Passion

What sets a good photographer apart from the rest? Passion.

When you’re passionate about what you do, it will always shine through in your work. It takes a lot of time and effort to make it as a professional photographer, and the ones who do succeed and manage to make a name for themselves are those who are truly passionate about their craft.

Passion makes the photographer—it will always make you work a little harder, push a little farther, and strive to be better than you were the day before.

What Makes a Good Photographer?

If you want to know how to be a good photographer, you’ve already made the first step towards becoming one. A good photographer is passionate about photography and willing to learn and improve continuously.

Acquiring technical skills is just the beginning. A good photographer also needs an artistic vision and storytelling skills. All these take time to develop, but they will become your second nature soon.

It is essential to train your eye to see the world as “images” and observe the tiniest details even when you don’t have a camera at hand. You need to be curious and go beyond the obvious. Great photographers can find something unique and beautiful in the most ordinary scenes. They are always looking for stories and fresh ways to capture them for their public.

How Long Does It Take to Become a Good Photographer?

Each photographer has a different path, and it’s up to you to find yours. For some, finding their artistic voice is a given. Before ever pressing a shutter release button, they know what they want to say and how to do it. Others need to emerge into the world of art, take photography classes, study the work of the masters of photography, and practice a lot before arriving at their destination.

The struggle isn’t in learning how to manipulate a camera or choose lenses and locations. The hard work of photography stands in finding something that speaks to you and motivates you to pick up a camera. A good photographer connects with the subject and creates meaningful photographs. Only time can say how long it will take you to get there. But don’t rush to the finish line; enjoy the process.

What Personality Traits Does a Photographer Have?

Once you know the skills needed to be a photographer, you can start exploring the personality traits of a photographer. The first quality you should have is patience. Things will rarely go according to plan, and you must find the inner strength to follow through. So, focus on building patience, resilience, and adaptability.

You will also need a good dose of communication and management skills. A photographer deals with many people, from clients to coworkers, logistic helpers, and subjects. You should learn to negotiate respectfully, know when to compromise and when to stand up for your artistic purpose. Remember your goal: to capture meaningful stories and deliver the message to your audience. A good photographer finds the best way in any situation, even if it isn’t the way they imagined.

Feature Photo by Marco Xu on Unsplash