Beginner photographers these days are challenged by an overabundance of information. Between YouTube, books, blogs, and quality websites like Adorama Learning Center, it’s too easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of information available about photography. It’s because of this that beginner photographers will sometimes make facepalm-worthy mistakes, just because they didn’t know any better – they’ve lost the forest for the trees. So here’s a list of six mistakes that you can easily avoid.
- Not cropping in-camera: A very common beginner mistake – you have this great shot, but it’s far away. So you say, ‘No problem, when I put it on the computer I’ll crop it closer.’ That’s not going to make you a better photographer. If you can get the shot right in your camera’s viewfinder, do it! It’ll make you a better photographer two ways: First, you’ll learn how to compose better. Second, when you do pick yourself up and get closer to your subject you’ll probably discover five more, different, and maybe better shots than the one you originally had in mind.
- Not reading your camera manual: This is something professionals have trouble with too. J Read the manual! Please! Yes, maybe you know that ultimately photography comes down to a few factors – shutter speed, ISO, focal length, and aperture. But your camera can do so much more – why not take a half hour to just flip through the manual to see what else it can do for you?
- Shooting only .jpg: Your camera, quite likely, has the option to save the image information as either a .jpg file or a RAW You probably know that the difference between them is that the .jpg file is pre-processed in the camera, so it’s easier to share and view. The RAW file was not processed at all, so you need to do the processing yourself in your computer. But that also means that you can pull more out of the picture than if you had allowed the camera to process it. Many beginners shoot in .jpg (and so do many professionals!) but there’s a point where you shoot a picture and you say to yourself, ‘Oh, I think there’s more in this picture!’ And if you shot only in .jpg format, you’re stuck – you can’t get that out. That’s why you should shoot RAW and .jpg together (check your camera manual – many cameras have this ability). If you’re not ready to deal with the RAW files just delete them – but the day will come when you took a photo that will push you to pull out the RAW software that came with your camera, Photoshop, or Lightroom.
- Limiting yourself to one genre of photography: You’re a beginner photographer. You have a macro lens, and you love taking photos of bugs. That’s very cool. But if you want to become a better photographer do something you don’t love as much every so often. Pull out a wide-angle lens and force yourself to take a few landscape shots. You’ll learn more about light, more about photography, and maybe more about yourself. And eventually you’ll probably discover another genre of photography that you can love. And a similar point:
- Not stretching out of your box: The most accelerated learning comes when you’re out of your comfort zone. When you’re under pressure, when you have to get it right, when you’re intimidated, when you think that everything you’re doing is going to be garbage. If you keep on getting yourself into those situations, you’ll find it’s harder and harder to get into those situations because you’re going to be improving so much more quickly. So offering to shoot your neighbor’s sweet sixteen for free is not so hard – how much are they going to expect from you if you didn’t charge them? Tell them you’ll do it for fifty bucks – you’ll see how quickly you’re going to have to up your game. Go for it, it’s the best way to learn.
- Not deleting files: This sounds like a little one, and it is – but you’ll thank me in a few years when you have 75,000 pictures on your hard disk and you’re trying to find one specific one. Odds are, if you’re a beginner, you’re going to have lots of repeats, the same shot from different angles, practice shots, lousy shots, and so on. Storage IS cheap, and that’s why you’ll be tempted to leave all those photos on your computer, or maybe even backed up in the cloud. But it’s not worth it. Every time you upload a shoot take three to five minutes to delete the shots that you’ll definitely never come back to. Like I said, you’ll thank me later on!
Happy shooting!
