Three Common Mistakes Beginner Photographers Always Make

There are plenty of mistakes beginner photographers make along the road to becoming a seasoned pro. While it's important not to be discouraged by small, correctable mistakes, it's equally as important to acknowledge them. In this short video tutorial, Mango Street Lab lay out three common mistakes that beginner photographers make in a clean and understandable way. 

Blown-Out Highlights

Perhaps you're purposefully blowing out the highlights in your images for the esthetic appeal. That's one thing. If you're unintentionally blowing out the highlights in your images, there are several things you can do about it. 

Adjusting your exposure settings for the brightest part of your image will prevent lost detail in the highlights. It will, however, require some work in postproduction to bring the detail back out of the shadows. This may take a little work to find the right balance, but once you've lost details in your highlights, they're gone, so becoming familiar with your camera's settings and learning how to a properly expose your images is worth the time. Shooting in raw file format is necessary in my opinion for the best results.

Posing

While it's perfectly fine to get ideas for poses from various sources online, it's best not to be 100 percent reliant on them. Learn how to get a playful yet professional banter going with your clients that will carry throughout your session and you'll be pleasantly surprised with the number of opportunity for great shots with natural expressions and real emotion present themselves. 

Disregarding the Light Source 

When given the opportunity to choose a location and time of the day, you should be choosing based on the quality of available light in most cases. Avoiding harsh overhead light (mid-day sun) is good practice. 

Let's Be Honest

What mistakes did you make most often when you first began shooting? What are a few things you see photographers do that you might be able to throw some advice towards? Share in the comments below. 

Dusty Wooddell's picture

Dusty Wooddell is a professional photographer based in the Southwestern United States. Self-proclaimed thinker, opportunity seeker, picky eater, observer of things.

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17 Comments

#4 Don't buy too much gear at first. Only need 1 lens (pref. cheap 35/50mm prime) + decent camera. After a while, 1 light with 1 modifier.

#1 Take your time. Don't let the client rush you.

^ That, so much of that.

After a 25 year pause. The most irritating mistakes I made in the beginning, was seeing what was behind the subject. A shiny red car stealing the focus. A pole right behind the head. Taking a shot of a beautiful baby and at the same time leaving half the mothers head outside the frame.

All beginner
Three mistakes
Photographers make

...my head hurts now

Someone doesn't know how good design works.

Start with balance maybe some negative and positive space?

Leaving glaring halos around dark to light areas because of too much clarity or HDR processing. I have a hard time looking at some of my older work with these...

Does poor post work count?? Because I really mucked up some fairly decent images from my first portrait shoot with poor post work (over smoothing skin and the like)

A new one could be thinking you need to use a film camera to "slow down," as if somehow digital cameras are forcing anyone to speed up.

When I first started shooting in wonderful destinations I would focus too much on the scene and lose the importance of the couple.

I can see that happening.

As a beginner, I've been rushing too much, trying to capture the most amount of information possible. As a side effect of that, I tend to forget to re-adjust my shutter speed as I zoom in and end up with irritating blur that doesn't show up on the small screen.

Biggest mistake? Spending more time on forums than in the field with your camera.

Read less. Shoot more.

My biggest mistakes are not learning what my gear can do in spite of my fumbling fingers.

When you finally start using a tool like Lightroom avoid the urge to over process your work. Cranking up the vibrance because you really want to "pop" the colors isn't always the way to go. Putting the noise reduction all the way to 100 because you want all the noise out of your image might not be best ;) Nor is putting the sharpness on 100 for that eye that is out of focus a good way to go :) Does it sound like I made these mistakes in the beginning? LOL! *sigh*