Seven Beginner Photography Mistakes You Should Avoid

In his latest video, landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen shares seven photography mistakes beginners make.

He includes technical mistakes, camera settings, equipment choices, and general tips for making the most of your photo shoots.

Have you ever been out taking photos during blue hour or at night? If you did not use the live histogram and relied solely on the way the images appeared on the LCD of your camera, you were likely in for a surprise when you later viewed those photos on your computer. The camera displays lie. If it's getting darker, your eyes adjust to the ambient brightness of your environment. What's shown on the back of your camera will look a lot brighter than it is. This is why understanding the histogram and learning to expose to the right is so important.

Another tip Iversen shares is about the value of returning to a location. I have a complete article on how familiarity breeds great photos. Returning to a photo spot several times helps create this familiarity. You'll experience it in a different light, maybe even in different seasons. Your photography will also evolve, and you might find an entirely new approach to photographing a view later in your career.

Iversen is also a proponent of telephoto lenses. Their use opens up many options and can help you get more creative with your photography. Like many, I started my landscape photography mainly with a wide angle lens. I took nearly all my photos with it. But I soon realized that it also held my photography back. While the wide angle lens is still my most used lens today, the long-lens images make my portfolio complete. And as Iversen shows, you don't have to limit yourself to shooting close-ups using a telephoto lens. You can still include a foreground and create depth in those images.

As usual for Iversen's videos, he uses many high-quality examples to emphasize his points. So make sure to check it out to learn about all seven tips and the bonus tip he shares at the end.