Photography Is Like Playing Guitar

I recently watched a video about Roy Clark discussing some of the greatest guitar players he had ever seen.

It got me thinking:

Playing guitar is a lot like photography.

At first, that may sound like an odd comparison. One is music and the other is visual art. But the more I thought about it, the more similarities I saw.

The instrument doesn't make the musician

A great guitarist can pick up an ordinary guitar and make something meaningful happen.

Give another person the same guitar and the result may be very different.

The difference isn't necessarily the instrument.

It is the person using it.

Photography is much the same.

We can spend hours discussing cameras, lenses, megapixels, autofocus systems, dynamic range, ISO performance and the latest technology. All of those things can be useful.

But none of them determines whether a photograph is meaningful.

A photographer can use a $10,000 camera and make boring photographs.

Another photographer can use a relatively inexpensive camera and make photographs that stop you.

The camera is the instrument.

The photographer is the musician.

Technique matters—but technique isn't the photograph

A great guitarist needs technique.

They have to understand chords, timing, rhythm, fingering and how to control the instrument. Years of practice allow them to do things almost instinctively.

Photography is no different.

We need to understand shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus, exposure and composition.

But imagine listening to a guitarist whose entire goal was to demonstrate how many notes he could play per second.

Technically impressive?

Perhaps.

Interesting to listen to?

Not necessarily.

Photography can fall into exactly the same trap.

Look at my sharpness.

Look at my bokeh.

Look at my high ISO performance.

Look at my dynamic range.

Look at my 100-megapixel file.

Those things can become the photographic equivalent of playing as many notes as possible.

But the obvious question remains:

What are you trying to say?

The great players don't just play notes

What separates a great musician from someone who has simply learned to play an instrument is often difficult to describe.

There is feeling.

Timing.

Interpretation.

Knowing when to play—and when not to play.

The musician isn't thinking:

"I need to demonstrate this technique now."

They are responding to the music.

Photography works the same way.

A photographer isn't simply collecting technical achievements.

The photographer sees something.

Something catches their attention.

Maybe it is the expression on someone's face.

Maybe it is the relationship between a bird and its environment.

Maybe it is light falling across an ordinary object.

Maybe it is a moment that will never happen again.

The technical decisions should serve that observation.

Knowing when NOT to do something

This may be one of the most important similarities.

A good guitarist knows that playing another note doesn't necessarily make the music better.

A good photographer needs the same restraint.

More sharpening doesn't necessarily improve a photograph.

More contrast doesn't necessarily improve it.

More saturation doesn't necessarily improve it.

A wider aperture isn't automatically better.

A faster shutter speed isn't automatically better.

A longer lens isn't automatically better.

And filling the frame isn't automatically better.

The question isn't:

What can I do?

The question is:

What does this photograph need?

There is no single "correct" setting

This is where photography discussions sometimes get strange.

Someone asks:

"What settings should I use?"

And somebody responds:

"1/1000, f/8, ISO 400."

But settings without context don't mean much.

A guitarist doesn't have one correct setting for every song.

Photography doesn't either.

If I'm photographing a bird in flight and my intent is to show the bird isolated against a clean background, I may make very different decisions than if my intent is to show the bird within its environment.

If I'm photographing a person, my decisions may change depending upon whether I'm trying to record their appearance, their personality, their relationship with someone else, or simply a moment in their life.

The photograph determines the technique.

Not the other way around.

The best photographers develop a voice

Listen to enough great guitarists and you can sometimes identify the player without being told who is performing.

They have a sound.

Photography can work the same way.

Not necessarily because every photograph follows the same formula, but because the photographer has developed a way of seeing.

Their photographs may reveal what they find interesting.

What they notice.

What they ignore.

How they interpret light.

How they approach people, wildlife or landscapes.

Their photographs begin to say something about the photographer.

That is much more interesting to me than simply producing technically perfect files.

Practice should solve problems

A guitarist doesn't become better simply by playing scales forever.

Scales have a purpose.

They develop skills that can eventually be used when making music.

Photography practice should work the same way.

Don't just go out and take 200 photographs because someone told you that great photographers shoot thousands of frames.

Go out with a problem to solve.

How can I photograph this bird while still showing its environment?

How can I show the relationship between these two people?

How can I use the available light?

How can I make the background less distracting?

How can I show movement?

How can I make the photograph communicate what caught my attention?

Now you're practicing photography rather than simply operating a camera.

Don't confuse the instrument with the artist

This may be the biggest lesson I take from the guitar analogy.

A better guitar doesn't automatically produce better music.

A better camera doesn't automatically produce better photographs.

Better equipment can certainly remove limitations. It can make some things possible that were previously difficult or impossible.

But once the equipment is capable of doing what you need, the limiting factor often becomes something else.

What do you see?

What are you trying to accomplish?

Why are you making the photograph?

That's where photography becomes more than operating a camera.

The camera is our instrument.

The photograph is our music.

And just as I don't want to listen to a guitarist simply demonstrating what his fingers can do, I don't want to make photographs simply demonstrating what my camera can do.

I want the equipment to disappear.

I want the technique to serve the idea.

And I want the photograph to communicate why I stopped and looked in the first place.

That, to me, is the difference between taking pictures and making photographs.

I'm not a writer so I a gave this prompt to chatGPT "I believe that guitar playing is like photography. Listen or watch https://youtu.be/Ge254sHYFzc?is=rmuEqQuCIeO9uNoi to see if you agree.

If so write a Blog post write it From the point of photography." and that was I read before I used in the Blog post.

Turn Your Photos into a Learning Database

 Joe Edelman often speaks about of improving your images. Some his theme is Learning from your mistakes. It's not about the occasionali misfires, out of Focus. It's about your intent or the Why you took the photo. His articles and videos are on Intent , How to make a Visual Database , Don't be afraid to SUCK and many more.

My way is using the lightroom classic meta data to record my intent and what to do next along with all settings. To accomplish that I have used the Print module and the photo info and custom settings. A example image using my print User preset

I remembering my Visual Database is helpful but to me writing it down is an active tha improves me.

How do I do that? For Lightroom Classic there are several metadata fields can be helpful when I take the time to fill them in. Ok Larry how?

Use the Print Module and create a User Preset and print a JPG shared folder on you device. No you have a Photo Learning Database you can review and possibly share to others.

This is my print preset template 

Print Info on a photo: My One-Click Lightroom Classic Print preset

  Print Info on a photo: My One-Click Lightroom Classic Print Preset

Setting up prints in Lightroom Classic often involves jumping through the same visual hoops—dialing in margins, placing stroke borders, positioning watermarks, and ensuring your cell sizes match your paper stock. To streamline the process, I built a custom Print module preset that formats images for printing in a single click.

Here is a look at a sample print layout created directly with this preset:

This image shows the fields I used that include the Title, Caption and the camera info includes selected EXIF Data and other fields in that are available in Library Metadata.

Tokens used;  title, caption, "Camera Info:"  model exposure ISOSpeedRating focalLength meteringMode exposureProgram exposureBiasValue "Photo Intent;"  headline; "Challenges you had"  altTextAccessibility; "Next time;" extDescrAccessibility ©copyright

Please note the the " " areas are Strings in the Text Template Editor box.  Also to end the extDescrAccessiblity using space and alt+0169 to add the copyright symbol  in a Windows computer. 

Why Use a Print Preset?

Creating a consistent presentation for physical prints saves time and eliminates tedious layout tweaking. This preset automatically configures:

• Precise Cell Margins: Leaves ideal borders for handling, framing, or matting.

• Layout Dimensions: Matches standard output proportions without clipping your image boundaries.

• Stroke & Border Finish: Adds a clean finish to separate the image cleanly from the paper background.

Download & Installation

1. Download the Preset: Link to preset.

2. Open Lightroom Classic: Jump to the Print module in the top navigation bar.

3. Locate the Template Browser: On the left panel, find the Template Browser section.

4. Import: Click the + (plus) icon on the Template Browser header, select Import, and navigate to the downloaded .template or .lrtemplate file.

5. Apply: Click the newly added preset in your Template Browser to apply the exact layout to any active image in your catalog.

My Lightroom Classic Photography Workflow

My Lightroom Classic Photography Workflow

I was viewing an YouTube video about DxO. I didn't watch much and started to look at the comments. On the top was a rant about the Adobe subscription. I thought many miss what is available and how useful the ecosystem is.  I had only scratched the surface for the last 10 years I have been using it.

So I used chatGPT to discuss my limited use of how I was using the ecosystem. And after several conversations of my use. I asked chatGPT to write my way. Most of the following is our workflow. My thoughts his words. I'm still implementing the the process.

My workflow is built around intent. There is no single correct Lightroom workflow because the purpose of a photograph determines what I need to do with it.

I don't believe a Lightroom workflow should be a rigid set of rules. The workflow should support the photographer's purpose rather than dictate it. What I do with an image depends on why I made it, what I see in it, and what I ultimately want to do with it.

1. Import

I import the photographs I want to bring into Lightroom Classic and place them in an appropriate broad category folder.

An import does not necessarily represent a complete shoot. I may import an entire shoot, part of a shoot, or selected photographs. The important point is that the photographs being imported are the photographs I have decided to bring into my Lightroom Classic catalog.

Immediately after import, I begin the organizational and culling process.

2. Location Information

When the camera provides GPS information, I use that information rather than creating location keywords.

Lightroom Classic's Map module provides a useful way to work with location information. When appropriate, I use reverse geotagging to add location information based on the GPS coordinates.

If GPS information was not recorded but I know where the photographs were made, I can select the appropriate photographs and assign their location using the Map module.

This keeps location information in location metadata, rather than unnecessarily duplicating it in my keyword structure.

3. Initial Culling

My culling process is designed to separate photographs that deserve further attention from those that don't.

I use Assisted Culling as an aid, not as the final decision maker. Its purpose is to identify photographs that may have technical problems or may otherwise warrant rejection.

I review the images Assisted Culling identifies as rejects. If an image has potential despite being identified as a reject, I can promote it to the Selects for further consideration.

The important point is that the computer does not make my final artistic decisions.

4. Two-Pass Culling

After the initial culling and review, I use my two-pass culling process.

The first pass is intentionally fast. I am looking for photographs that create an emotional or visual response and avoiding the temptation to pixel-peep or analyze every technical detail.

The second pass is where I slow down and critically evaluate the photographs that survived the first pass.

I look at such things as focus, composition, exposure, distractions, timing, expressions, and similar or duplicate frames. I also consider whether another photograph better accomplishes what I intended.

The complete two-pass process is described in my article:

A Two-Pass Culling Workflow in Lightroom Classic

The purpose of the two passes is not to make perfect decisions in two seconds. The purpose is to avoid spending significant time evaluating photographs that don't deserve it while protecting the initial reaction that caused me to notice an image in the first place.

5. Ratings and Editing

Once I have identified photographs worth developing, I use star ratings to express my judgment about them.

My typical working convention is:

• 4 stars — photographs I intend to edit or develop.

• 5 stars — photographs I consider particularly strong.

• 5 stars + Green — my favorites or photographs I consider among the best.

These aren't universal rules. They are part of my system and can change when my purpose changes.

I then process the photographs in Lightroom Classic. When Lightroom doesn't provide the tools I need, I use Photoshop for more advanced editing, such as complex masking or localized adjustments.

6. Organization

I organize my physical folders using broad photographic categories such as:

• Animals

• Education

• Landscape

• and other major categories appropriate to my library.

Within Lightroom Classic, I use Collection Sets and Collections to provide another level of organization.

For example:

Animals

• Birds

• Mammals

• Other Wildlife

This is not intended to create a perfect representation of my photographs. There is no perfect photo organization.

A photograph can belong to multiple collections without creating duplicate files. That allows Collections to provide organizational views that would be impossible to reproduce with a rigid folder hierarchy.

7. Keywords

Keywords provide another layer of organization, but their purpose is different from folders and Collections.

I use keywords primarily to describe what is in the photograph.

For example:

• Birds

• Great Blue Heron

• Mammals

• White-tailed Deer

• Wildlife

• Flowers

• Architecture

Keywords allow me to find photographs across my physical folders and Collections without requiring my folder structure or Collection hierarchy to anticipate every possible future search.

I don't need to make location keywords a major part of this system because Lightroom's location metadata and Map capabilities provide a better way to handle geographic information.

8. Collections Are Flexible

Folders answer one question:

Where is the photograph physically stored?

Collections answer a different question:

How do I want to group or use these photographs?

A photograph can be in a physical folder, belong to several Collections, have multiple keywords, have a star rating, and have a color label—all without creating multiple copies of the photograph.

This is why I don't try to build a perfect folder structure.

Collections and Collection Sets solve the problem of having more than one way to organize the same photograph. Keywords provide yet another way to find it.

9. Favorites and Finding Photographs

My use of ratings and color labels gives me several ways to find photographs.

For example, I can find:

• All Green photographs

• All 5-star photographs

• 5-star Green photographs

• Photographs matching particular keywords

• Combinations of these criteria

This makes the Lightroom Classic catalog much more powerful than simply browsing folders.

I can use these searches to create Collections for particular purposes without moving or duplicating the original photographs.

10. Syncing

I do not automatically need every photograph in the Adobe cloud ecosystem.

I selectively synchronize Collections when I have a reason to make those photographs available through Lightroom Web or Lightroom Mobile.

Sometimes I may synchronize a group of photographs from a shoot because I want to work with them on another device. At other times I may synchronize only my best photographs for viewing or sharing.

The important distinction is that Sync is a purposeful action, not a backup strategy.

Lightroom Classic's synchronization makes Smart Previews available through the Adobe ecosystem rather than requiring my original RAW files to be uploaded.

This provides considerable practical value without changing Lightroom Classic's role as the hub of my local photo library.

11. Sharing and Presentation

One of the advantages of the Adobe ecosystem is that the same Lightroom Classic library can support several different purposes.

Depending on my intent, I can use:

• Lightroom Web for web-based galleries and sharing.

• Lightroom Mobile for viewing and sharing photographs from a mobile device.

• Shareable links when I want someone else to see a group of photographs.

• Adobe Portfolio when I want to present photographs as part of a website or portfolio.

The photograph doesn't have to be reorganized or duplicated simply because I want to use it for a different purpose.

12. Export

Sometimes the destination is outside Adobe.

For example, if a photography group asks me to provide photographs in a shared Google Drive folder, I can use Lightroom Classic's filtering and selection capabilities to identify the photographs I want and then export copies in the required format.

Export is therefore another purpose-driven step.

I don't export a photograph simply because Lightroom gives me an Export command. I export it because I have a reason to deliver that photograph somewhere else.

13. Backup Is Separate

Organization in Adobe and backup are separate processes.

My Lightroom Classic catalog, photographs, Collections, keywords, ratings, edits, and the Adobe ecosystem provide a system for organizing, processing, finding, presenting, and sharing my photographs.

That does not make the Adobe ecosystem my backup system.

My original photographs and catalog require a separate backup strategy designed specifically to protect them against loss.

Keeping these two functions separate makes the purpose of each system much clearer.

Why I Use This Workflow

The common thread through all of these steps is intent.

I don't ask:

What is the correct Lightroom workflow?

I ask:

Why am I doing this, and what do I want to accomplish?

That question determines whether I need to cull an image, edit it, rate it, add a keyword, put it in a Collection, synchronize it, share it, export it, or simply keep it in my library.

My system therefore isn't intended to be a universal Lightroom workflow. It is my practical workflow, developed around how I photograph, how I evaluate photographs, and how I want to use my library.

The Adobe Ecosystem Adds Value

Lightroom Classic remains the hub of my photographic library, but the value of the Adobe ecosystem goes beyond Lightroom Classic itself.

Folders provide physical organization. Collections provide flexible photographic organization. Keywords describe what is in the photograph. Ratings and labels express my judgment. Culling determines which photographs deserve further attention. Editing develops the photographs. Sync makes selected photographs available across the Adobe ecosystem. Lightroom Web and Mobile provide access and sharing. Portfolio provides presentation. Export connects my library to services outside Adobe. Backup protects the library independently of all of this.

The value isn't simply having several Adobe applications. It is the way those applications work together around the photographs I have chosen to make and the purposes for which I want to use them.