8 bad habits of an aspiring photographer

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Every aspiring photographer makes mistakes, but some of them turn into bad habits. How to get rid of bad professional habits, increase the quality of your photos and make them more interesting?

Bad habits are common not only among beginners, but also among professional photographers. Unlike the pros, beginners often do not even suspect that they have bad habits that prevent them from taking really high-quality photos. Here are 8 common mistakes that the vast majority of aspiring photographers are familiar with.

1. Shoot in bright daylight

Some photographers have this habit from pre-digital times, when bright light was necessary to take a good photo. Also, this habit can appear among camera owners without a viewfinder. The brighter the shooting light, the clearer and brighter the photo will appear on the LCD screen in daylight.

But bright lighting whitens parts of the photo and hides details, creates harsh shadows, and diminishes the vividness of colors. If you are photographing a person, the bright light can make them squint or even close their eyes.

Try shooting on cloudy days, early in the morning, or late at night, when the lighting isn't as bright.

2. Shoot in JPEG

Yes, JPEG photos take up much less computer space than RAW photos, but removable media are so cheap nowadays that you can buy several to store your RAW work.

The RAW format contains information about the brightness of the light received by the camera's sensor, which means that, after taking a photo, you can change the brightness, and new details will appear in the photo that were not previously visible.

This is not possible in JPEG format, since the moment you press the button, the camera determines the exposure and color balance of the photo for you.

Why let the camera decide how to process your photos when you can easily take better photos with modern, easy-to-learn software?

3. Center the subject

This is probably the worst newbie habit that is difficult to break. Yes, sometimes it is necessary to place objects in the center of the photo, but this need arises much less often than you think. Just follow the rule of thirds and you will be fine.

With experience, you will learn how to take great photos without standard composition rules, but for this you need to experiment. And it's much more difficult than taking good Rule of Thirds shots.

4. Take pictures at eye level

This is another bad habit that turns your photos into mediocre snapshots. Most of the time we look at the world this way - at eye level, standing or sitting.

Photos from these two vantage points tend to show us what we already know.

Sitting on your haunches or kneeling down will add freshness to your photo. You can also take pictures from other unusual points, such as from a balcony, from the top of a staircase, from a second floor window, etc.

5. Ignore background

Utilities are the bane of street photographers. They concentrate so much on the subject that they do not notice anything around them, and as a result, the background spoils the whole picture.

Even the best picture can be spoiled by the photographer's banal shadow on the ground, caught in the frame. So, if possible, choose a simple area with a minimum of objects and structures, especially if you are photographing people. Then there will be no lampposts "growing" out of the head, and other troubles. Another solution is to use a focus distance so that the model can be seen clearly and the background remains blurred.

6. Take the same shots of popular objects

Even at exhibitions of professional photographers, you can find many similar photos. They are high quality, beautiful and ideally built in terms of composition, but they do not carry anything new.

At the same time, each object can be photographed in a different way, even the most hackneyed subject can be presented in a completely new way. So look for non-standard solutions, for example, if everyone is filming a beautiful church during the day, try filming it at night, from a different angle, in unusual weather conditions, etc.

7. Handle the camera only

Despite the miracles of stabilization found in almost every modern camera, there are limits to this feature. You will not be able to stop camera shake that is too fast or too strong, stabilization will not work at fast shutter speeds or long exposures, and sometimes it can even harm you.

Therefore, it is worth getting a tripod and using it whenever possible. This way the photos are much sharper and you have more opportunities for different types of shooting.

8. Take only one shot

Previously, in order to print a photo, you had to pay money or buy materials to do it yourself. Now, in the age of digital media, you can take as many photos as you like.

One of the reasons the work of National Geographic photographers seems to be something outrageously cool and inaccessible lies in the fact that professionals take as many photos of the same object as they can.

You can do the same, and the only cost associated with this style of work is the time it takes you to select a decent option. However, spending enough time revising your work will gain experience and become more critical of your pictures.

Many people may disagree that these are the worst habits of photographers, but if you try to get rid of them, you will see how much your work has changed.