The Old Rules of Photography Didn't Become Obsolete. Some Photographers Just Stopped Learning Them. Why the fundamentals that shaped generations of professional photographers still matter in the digital age There was a time when becoming a good photographer meant learning your craft. You learned to understand light, anticipate a moment, compose a photograph, work with your subject and, perhaps most importantly, recognize what makes a photograph worth looking at. Today, almost anybody can pick up a camera, put it on automatic, take hundreds of pictures and call themselves a photographer. Modern cameras are remarkable. Autofocus can find an eye, exposure systems can compensate for difficult lighting, and software can fix an astonishing number of mistakes. But there's one thing technology hasn't figured out how to replace: photographic judgment. Some of the old photographic adages might sound outdated to a generation raised on digital cameras and social media. They aren'...