"Dear Thom: I just got my first serious camera. How long until I can photograph like a pro?" Signed FuturePro.
Dear FuturePro: Longer than you think. Signed Thom.
As you might have figured out, I've done a series of "how" articles, where I tackle some of the "how" questions I get in my In Box. This particular question is a tricky one, as there are hidden bits and pieces as well as a not perfect answer.
10,000 Hours
The not-perfect answer is the so-called 10,000 hours theory, which came from studies by Anders Ericsson, et.al., and was discussed at length in Gladwell's recent book, Outliers. The 10,000 hour number supposedly makes you a "gifted performer...before they win international competitions," so sets a very high bar, basically one of a top performer. Obviously, not all pros are top performers, they're just better and more consistent performers than most (but not all) amateurs.
Unfortunately, the 10,000 hour idea has been mostly debunked in subsequent studies. There isn't a specific number of hours that gets you to a specific level of performance.
Still, I think most people underestimate just how much time it takes to really achieve very high levels of competence at something.
10,000 hours would be five years of full-time work. Hmm. A truly dedicated college student who figures out what they want to do by the end of their sophomore year isn't going to achieve that by the time they graduate. Which is one reason why they get entry level jobs: many need more time.
In photography or videography these days there's a double-edged problem: you not only have to learn what to do in the field with a camera, but these days you need to usually have competence at the computer, too. You might have to put in a large number of hours both taking photos as well as post processing and editing.
In other words, to become a respected, working professional, you probably have to become expert at two things. One of the dirty secrets of a few pros is that they don't spend any of their time at the post processing/editing side. They have employees that do that work for them, or they work for an organization that has photo editors that do that work. Thus, they can spend their time concentrating on and becoming an expert just on the capture process.
The Young and the Restless
I don't think it's surprising that the incoming wave of high-competency photographers tend to split into two groups: the young and the old.
The young have had cameras in their hands for most of their life (via smartphones). Early on they're deciding that creating imagery is what they want to do (often because they also grew up on social media), and thus they've spent huge portions of their time practicing at it. Social media also has a feedback mechanism. Thus, if you post poor work, you'll hear about it. As you post better work, you get more followers.
The young often come out of their schooling with high passion and with plenty of hours of image taking under their belt. All they have to do is keep those two things moving. Keep the passion alive, and keep practicing.
The Old and the Restful
At the other end of the age spectrum, we've got older folk who often now have flexible professional jobs, a reasonable retirement account, and even post-children free time.
They know how to spend their time wisely, usually aren't distracted by 100 possible hobbies, and build their practice hours regularly right into retirement, where the hours pile up even faster. They have the means, both financial and with time, to do accelerated learning.
My only caution to the older generation is that you can't take long breaks from it. You must photograph and process regularly, even if it's only for a few hours a week. That's because the corollary of amassing lots of time at something is that you can't maintain that expertise with 0 hours. It's sort of like running: you can take days off here and there, but once you take more than two weeks in a row off, you're generally going to step backwards in ability and have to rebuild.
There's a quote from the music world that is relevant here (and it doesn't matter who said it first; many have said it in various forms): "If I don’t practice for one day, I notice it in my playing; If I don't practice for two days, my friends will notice it; If I don't practice for three days, everyone knows it." (Earliest citation I can find is 1877, pianist Hans von Bülow.
Since the purpose of photographing is to show others, the implication in that quote is that if you stop practicing, it will show up in your photography.
The Tweeners
It's the folk in between the young and the old, trying to juggle raising a family and working 40+ hours weeks at a non-photo job to try to make the mortgage payment that have the biggest problem with amassing practice time. They certainly don't have any available that approaches 10,000 hours. Not in five years, not in ten years, often not in twenty years (which would be ~10 hours a week).
You shouldn't read into that last statement that you can't get better at photography if you fall into that age group.
But remember, the question was "photograph like a pro." That takes real commitment of time, resources, and energy.
The four basic things becoming a pro requires tend to be:
- money
- time
- energy
- skill
You can often use one or more of those four to help generate one that's missing, like money and time to generate skill, which is exactly what we're discussing here. But time almost always is the tough part. You can borrow money. You can get motivated in some way to increase energy. You can develop skills. But you can't invent time you don't have and you can't buy more at The Apple Store or Walmart or amazon.com.
Don't Get Flustered
There's one last thing to note in this discussion: don't get flustered.
Overnight successes take at least five years in my experience. You will have ups and downs in that time. The downs can wear you down emotionally and rob you of much needed energy, which in turn may cause you to not commit more time.
It's a really tough hill to climb to pro-dom. But it's not Sisyphean. You can get the rock to the top. Just don't expect to do it quickly. Oh, and you have to keep working to keep the rock on the top of the hill.