TPW: Photography Magazines
May apply to many other types of magazine!
Added on the 20th of September, 2025
Magazines can be very useful when they provide news, introduce you to new things and offer trustworthy reviews. Yet when they focus on a narrow remit, such as photography, there's only so much that can be written on each possible topic.
I live in the UK and one thing we have a lot of are magazines. I don't know if this is normal around the world, but it's inescapable here. I'm about to begin complaining about photography magazines aimed at amateur and enthusiast photographers, but my comments could equally be levelled at any other hobby with a similar spread of magazines.
The first thing I'm going to say is that photography magazines can be incredibly useful. Information on new equipment, showcases from prominent photographers and guides on how to become a better photographer are all worthy inclusions. Unfortunately they also have to be able to keep this going month after month while remaining fresh enough to maintain a loyal readership.
That last point presents a challenge which I have yet to see any relevant magazine overcome. Autumn? Better run "20 great ways to capture landscape colours"! Winter? Better run "10 tips for winter landscapes"! In between months? Better run "50 ways to take better portraits" or "create perfect B&W images in PhotoShop"!
Seriously, how many times can you read what is essentially the same article year in year out and still feel you're benefiting from the magazine?
Another problem is down to the numbers I used. 10, 20, 50 - the articles don't get longer, so the more tips you're presented with, the less information you're getting per tip. I've seen articles with barely a sentence per tip and with no space to provide any useful information. I can't see any way you would actually benefit from this sort of thing. In general, if you need to know how to improve your photography in a particular area, you need a decent amount of explanation to provide guidance so you can pick up your camera and go experiment.
In reality I can't think of any way for magazines to avoid the general issues I've mentioned, though a race to the bottom through higher and higher numbers of tips to make their cover look appealing is definitely not the way to go.
My advice to the buyer and reader of such a magazine is to consider if you are benefiting from continuing to buy them. If not, stop. Go back to the issues you already own and spend time with a single article. Don't just read it through then move on to something else, break down each separate piece of advice and then look at your own photographs and work out how each one could be improved by applying that advice. Next time you go out with your camera don't just snap away. Slow down, think about the advice and work out how to apply it to the scene in front of you. You'll benefit far more from working directly with just one or two tips like this than reading countless articles on the subject.