Many common errors plague new photographers in their journey of creativity and improvement. Whether you’re a new photographer, an experienced photographer, or just taking pictures with your phone, I’m here to help you recognize and avoid common photography mistakes to significantly improve your photos.
1. Ignoring Composition
Composition is one of the most important and easiest rules to follow to make an image look amazing.
- Use the rule of thirds. Image your frame divided into nine equal squares or rectangles with two lines vertically and two lines horizontally. You want to place your subject along these lines and their intersections for a balanced composition.
- Pay attention to the background. Don’t take photos on a cluttered background that may be distracting. Use a shallow depth of field to take the focus away from the background and on to your subject.
2. Poor Lighting
Lighting is another one of the most important rules, but can be trickier to follow. There are many different kinds of lighting, but you need to do your best to balance the lighting and shadows to your advantage.
- Avoid harsh sunlight. The best time to take photos outdoors is early morning, the afternoon, or on a cloudy day. These times have softer sunlight which removes harsh shadows and disperse the light so it isn’t as concentrated.
- Place your subjects back at an angle to the sun so that they aren’t looking into the sun.
3. Blurry Image Outcome
Images can come out blurry for a variety of reasons like slow shutter speed, slow autofocus or shaky hands.
- Use a fast shutter speed. If you’re shooting handheld, use a shutter speed of at least 1/60s or higher. Any slower and your hands shaking can be captured in your image and make it blurry.
- Use autofocus sparingly. Autofocus is good when you’re trying to capture moving scenes. Manual focus can be used when the object is stationary and you’re looking to sharpen the image precisely.
Recognizing these mistakes and correcting them helps any photographer, new or experienced. It’s all part of the bigger learning process to improve as a photographer. Pay attention to these mistakes and you can consistently create stunning images.