Are You Making These Five Common Photography Mistakes?

Over years of teaching, I’ve gotten a chance to review photographs by all types of photographers. While there are lots of mistakes that can be made, there are a few consistent ones that stand out the most to me.

A few of these are the most common mistakes that I see, and a few are what I consider the most important mistakes that are made, and I think working through these can help to make you a much better photographer. Of course, any mistake can be an advantage, but this is about the times where mistakes are not used advantageously. You need to first learn the foundation of skills before you can purposely go away from them.

Overdoing Your Post-Production

This is by far the most common mistake that I see, and while a few photographers can pull off the excessive post-production look, it’s pretty rare.

I think many photographers, particularly when they are starting, try to make their photographs look too much like paintings. It’s great to have a painterly quality to your photographs, of course, but this needs to begin in camera with lighting and colors. If the photograph does not have this foundation, then no amount of post-production is going to add in a painterly quality without messing up the photograph.

To add this quality, shoot during the right lighting, such as the golden hour, the blue hour, or evening. Search for colors that are lit well, and get close and fill the frame with them. And painterly colors do not always have to be strong. Seek out subtle and muted color palettes, which can have the same effect.

It’s also important to have a monitor that is color calibrated. Without this, you are working on your photographs a little blind, and when you share them, they may not look how you see them on your monitor.

For good color reference, take a look at the work of Saul Leiter. It’s clear that the basis for the incredible painterly quality in his photographs was done in the camera. Good printing helps, but only so much.

Be careful with how much you raise the saturation slider, how much contrast you add, overcropping, and just generally going too far. I still go too far sometimes, but I take the opportunity to come back to my work later on with fresh eyes, and sometimes, this helps me realize that I went a little too far.

There is a quality in photographs that needs to feel real, and editing is a careful balance between making the digital negative look as good as possible and retaining that feeling of it being a real moment.

Photographs Are not Consistently Sharp

While not every photograph has to be sharp to be great, it’s important to have a foundation in how to capture sharp photographs consistently. Technically, this is probably the most important skill to have early on.

The first issue is focusing. Back-focusing is very common, so it’s important to make sure that the camera is actually focusing on your subject and not the background. I used to mess this up so often when I was starting, but you will quickly be able to tell when the camera starts to do this once you pay attention.

Similarly, it’s important to focus on the most important element in the image. If you are taking a portrait of a person, that is typically the eyes. Particularly, if you are using a very shallow depth of field, it will be noticeable in a print if you focus on the nose or ears instead.

For still photographs where nothing is moving, your camera’s shutter speed needs to be at least one over your focal length, so if you are using a 50mm lens, 1/50 of a second (or a little faster) will be ideal. This rule offsets your handheld camera shake, which most often causes problems with photographers who use long zooms. If you are shooting with a 300mm lens, then you need a pretty fast shutter speed (1/300 s), and this can be a problem if the light isn’t very strong. And for moving subjects, such as people, I like to use at least 1/200 s or 1/250 s to freeze their motion whenever possible.

Finally, consider raising your ISO. With newer cameras being incredible at high ISOs, the mantra of always using the lowest ISO possible is no longer as true. A higher ISO will allow you to use a faster shutter speed and more depth of field, which will ultimately lead to sharper photographs. This will offset any added noise by the higher ISOs, which is typically minimal and still pleasing in newer cameras.

Not Embracing Imperfection

Contrary to the last point, your photographs do not need to be perfect to be good. They can have blur, they can be skewed, they can have objects getting in the way, or they can have blown-out highlights.

Often, these mistakes will ruin a photograph, of course, but similarly, they can make it feel more real. As long as the moment is interesting and the photograph looks pleasing, it’s very important to not obsess too much over imperfections.

Only Photographing When You Travel, Avoiding Your Home Area

I find that photographers typically split into two camps: those who prefer to shoot closer to home and those who prefer to shoot when they travel. This is completely fine, of course, but if you notice you have this tendency, I would suggest trying to change it up sometimes.

No matter where you live, no matter how ordinary, quiet, or boring you may think it is, I promise you there are interesting photographs around. Many photographers have done incredible projects in areas like this, and often, the photographs can be much more interesting than photographs captured in what would typically be considered the most photogenic areas.

This will train your eyes and keep your photography skills sharp. One of the most common complaints I hear from travel photographers is that they get rusty when they return from a trip. You don’t need to spend an immense amount of time photographing at home, I know we’re all busy, but it can be a great way to destress and wander. It’s also great for exercise and mental health. Instead of the gym, go walking for 20 or 30 minutes a few times a week with a camera, and you will be richly rewarded.

Try a simple project, walking around your neighborhood or somewhere close, and aim to create a body of work that shows what the area feels like. What are its quirks, what are its issues, what are the beautiful things about it? Tell a story.

Not Close Enough

And finally, it’s often important to get close to your subjects. Use your feet to zoom, experiment with wide-angle or normal lenses versus telephoto views, and move into a scene instead of being an observer from afar.

You will notice much more nuanced deals, the camera will pick them up more, and you will find that more of your photographs will have this intimate quality to them. Your viewers will feel like they are a part of the scene.