Photo Etudes: The e-Book

A few weeks ago, I introduced the concept of a Photographic Etude (pronounced ā – to͞od).

The concept of an etude comes from music where specific techniques are studied in isolation. The idea is that when the technique is later encountered in a piece of music, musicians can more easily use that technique and return their focus to the interpretation and expression of the music.

I proposed the idea that we could have Photographic Etudes where we practice basic photography techniques in isolation from making more artistic photographs.

I returned to the idea of a Photographic Etude this week and compiled an e-book focusing attention on the photographic techniques of composition, focus, light, and motion.

This free e-book will be available to subscribers to my website PhotoYoga sometime later this week. If you would like to be the first to receive this e-book, sign up for the PhotoYoga newsletter at

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Here are a few etudes to get you started. I’ve setup an album on the PhotoYoga Facebook Group to allow you to share the images you make as part of a photo etude.

Final Thoughts

Musicians study etudes to improve their technical skills. The ultimate goal is to learn the skills, integrate them – and then forget them.

The skills themselves are foundational and secondary to the expression and interpretation of the music.

Photography is the same. The skills learned in this book are not the end goal, they are foundational to making expressive photographs. How you use these skills is what matters.

Now, go out into the world and make meaningful photographs!

Don’t forget to sign up for the PhotoYoga newsletter to be the first to get the free e-book.

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This post is sponsored by PhotoYoga.

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