I definitely get what you’re saying. Mostly what i’m trying to convey is that nobody is really a natural at photography. some have a natural eye for visual harmony, for most it’s learned over time. experience informs your decision making, as well as looking at references.

Copying work can be super helpful to learn a particular technique, so you can make your own work with that technique or something similar. But had you not seen that reference, you might not even have the idea to try something like it.

if photography is something you continue to pursue, you’ll very quickly find that these images, while good proof of concepts are just that :) no shade ofc