8 Common Newbie Photography Mistake and How to Fix Them

8 Common Newbie Photography Mistake and How to Fix Them

If you are new in the photography business, it’s natural that you might make some mistakes. Your pictures may be over or underexposed, dull or out of focus. Don’t get disheartened. This happens with almost everyone. Try to learn from your mistakes and make sure you don’t repeat them in your other assignments. If you have taken professional training in photography or spent years learning integrities of photography, you might be aware of the common mistakes that newbie photographer tends to make. In case you are an amateur photographer, you too can avoid these newbie photography mistakes.

You just need to be aware of these mistakes and the methods to fix them.

Common newbie photography mistakes and methods to fix them

The missed focus

This mostly happens if you prefer clicking images by keeping your camera on an autofocus mode. In AF mode, the chances of missing details of desired subjects are quite high. Fixing such images is impossible. However, you can always avoid making this mistake by following some basic tips. Firstly, change the AF mode of the camera to single point AF. Experts from the well-known Dhaval Patel Photography advises newbie photographers to fix the focus on the desired subject eyes while clicking portraits or people. If you are looking to get a clear and crisp image, just zoom in to the point of focus and check the details on your camera’s LCD screen. Secondly, once the shot is taken, check the focus of the picture. In case the image is not as per your expectation, just take another shot.

The shaky frame

Being a beginner, you might not be able to make out the reason behind your unsharp and blurry images. Well, the answer to this lies in the speed of your shutter. Too slow shutter speed reduces the image sharpness. To overcome this, you just need to use shutter speed in accordance with the focal length of your camera’s lens. In case you are working with a zoom lens, you need to check the focal length at the time of zoom in and zoom out.

Staying in automatic mode

Thanks to technology, new generation cameras have automatic for almost all kinds of camera settings (Focus, ISO, exposure, white balance, etc.). With the help of these automatic settings clicking pictures have become mucheasier. However, depending too much on these automatic settings, act as a barrier in your growth as a skilled photographer. We understand it won’t be easy for you to turn off the automatic mode completely, you can always try turning off automatic mode for one feature at a time. For example, you may start with manual focusing, and once you polish your skills in manual focusing, you can move to change the settings for other feature.

The buried or blown exposure

Shooting in RAW, allows the photographer to make exposure related adjustments in post-processing. However, the changes can be made only to some extent. In case of too dark exposure, the shadows would be discoloured and grainy. Whereas in case of too bright exposure, you might end up losing all the highlights and recovering the details is almost impossible. In case you are going to shoot a scene with dark shadows and bright light, its advisable to underexpose slightly. This would let you preserve the details of the highlights that, too, without eradicating the shadows. You can always brighten up the shadows in the post-processing.

The tree growing from heads

This is the most common mistake made by the newbie photographers. Such a mistake is more than sufficient to ruin any good portrait. It’s essential to focus on the desired subject, but checking the background is also very important. Hence while concentrating and paying attention to all the details related to your desired subject, just make sure that there should not be any distracting things like a telephone pole or a tree cutting through or growing out of your subject. An easy way to avoid this mistake is to scan the entire frame in your camera’s viewfinder before clicking the image. This would help you identify any distracting elements beforehand. Once identified, you can always make changes accordingly.

The overzealous processor

Another common mistake made by a newbie photographer is that they end up doing excessive post-processing. Some common mistakes at the post-processing that would make the image look totally unrealistic are applying excessive HDR. Similarly, adding too much sharpening, contrast, and saturation to the image would steal away the beauty of the image. Always remember, every photograph has its essence, hence avoid using the same filters to all the photographs of your shoot.

The file backup Fail

Advanced technology has its drawbacks. In photography, one of the scariest nightmares for any photographer is the failure of the file where all the photographs are stored. A professional photographer may end up losing a very important client. Hence, always make a second copy of your shoot. You can store this file either on some other hard drive or even on cloud storage services.

Forgetting the basics of photography

Sometimes, newbie photographers they focus so much on technicalities like getting the right focus, lights, etc. that they forget the very basic pro- photography checks. This includes charging batteries before going for an outdoor shoot, or keeping extra batteries, checking their camera kit for accessories, checking the camera for memory card. One of the most essential and basic checks is to take off the lens cap.
If you have just entered the world of professional photographers, be ready to face new challenges and difficulties. Just be patient and try to find solutions to these issues.

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