10 Common Mistakes Made by New Photographers

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THIS CONTENT, ALL THESE CONTENTS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS

A Post By: James Maher

Whenever I teach, I get a lot of requests to review images. Over time, I’ve started to notice that a majority of the mistakes I see come from the same small group of errors that are repeated constantly, particularly by less experienced photographers.

Please keep in mind that all of these common mistakes can also be advantages when done well and with purpose. This article is not about those times, but is an observation about how often I see them done the wrong way. As a photographer, you need to build the right foundation of skills before you can successfully veer away from them.

The Most Common Technical Mistakes

Chinatown at Night, NYC. Subtle but strong and natural colors.

1. Colors are too strong or unrealistic

Unrealistic and strong colors are often a fantastic creative choice. However there is a noticeable difference between when it is done purposely due to experience, and when it is done through lack of knowing any better or poor color management.

The first thing you need is a good monitor that is color calibrated. Without this, you are working on your images blind. I see photographers share images that look good to them on their screen, but they look off to everyone else. This is because their screen is the problem. How can you retouch an image if you can’t see the true colors or tones?

There is also a common tendency of newer photographers to try to make their photographs look like paintings. Once again, this can be done well, but the way I usually see it done is where people raise the saturation slider way too far. It may make the colors stand out more on a monitor and be more noticeable as a thumbnail in Facebook, but it just makes the image look fake. In a print, the colors will end up even more extreme than they do on a monitor. When you print images with natural and subtle colors those colors will look incredible and much stronger than you think. This look can sometimes be hard to notice on the monitor.

Instead of raising the saturation slider, find images where the natural colors in the scene are already strong. Find a subject that is a bright color surrounded by muted tones. Shoot at the golden hour to let the colors naturally gain strength. Instead of raising the saturation slider if you want the image to feel like a painting, overlay a specific color onto the image. Or try creating a moody image with subtle and natural color, print it out, put it on your wall, and shine some light on it and you will see how powerful that subtle color can be. That can feel like a painting too.

Smokestack and Graffiti, NYC.

2. Shots are not sharp enough

Intensional blur can be gorgeous, but to be a good photographer you need to have control of your sharpness. If you are doing a portrait, the focus point should be on the eyes. The eyes need to be the sharpest part of your image, not the nose or the ear. Also, pay attention to back focus in certain situations. This is where the camera’s focus will miss what you are aiming at and instead focus on the background behind it.

To achieve sharpness and reduce handheld camera shake, your shutter speed needs to be at least one over your focal length. So if you are on a full frame camera with a 50mm lens, the shutter speed would need to be at least 1/50th of a second (and probably a little faster to be safe). On an APS-C sensor a 50mm would be the equivalent of around an 80mm lens and on a micro-4/3rds camera it would be the equivalent of a 100mm lens, needing 1/100th of a second shutter speed. If you are freezing motion you need an even faster shutter speed. For people moving at average speeds, I prefer 1/320th of a second.

Think about raising your ISO sometimes to get sharper shots, particularly in darker lighting situations, but also sometimes during the day. A higher ISO will allow you to use a faster shutter speed and a smaller aperture, such as f/16, to ensure that your entire image will be in focus.

3. The composition is off

Shop, Chinatown, NYC. Notice the right edge.

If you are Garry Winogrand then you can skew your images purposely for that energetic effect. However, I notice many photographers struggle to get their images straight. Look through the viewfinder and find a frame of reference to straighten your image. Maybe it’s a lamp post or a sidewalk or a tree. Pay attention to when the camera might be slightly lower on the left or right side. Often it will be the same side consistently for you and it’s just a tendency that has to be unlearned. Some people don’t even notice that their images are very slightly skewed when editing. Noticing andfixing the slight skew (crooked) can make a huge difference.

The other thing I notice is that a lot of photographers don’t pay attention to their edges. Put things in the edges of your frames when possible to keep a viewer’s eyes from moving off the print. This could be a tree branch, a fire escape, a building, anything. Cut off a part of an element and place it in the corner to help keep the eyes in the frame. Look at the right edge of the image above. It makes a big difference.

Sometimes compositions can be too simple. Simple can be good but not always. Take a step back and see if you can include more in the frame. Create more complex composition with more elements. That can make for very fun and engrossing images.

Also, a surprising number of people overly rely on either vertical or horizontal shooting. It’s good to have a preference, but when I see it in beginners it seems more like they are just uncomfortable shooting the opposite way. It’s not like they are shooting two verticals for every one horizontal, some are shooting six or more verticals for every horizontal, or vice versa. It’s not on purpose as they default automatically into that way of shooting no matter the situation.

Most importantly, I find that people will see something interesting, stop immediately when they notice it, click a few shots, and move on. It’s almost like a robotic move. Stop yourself when you see something interesting and take a few seconds to actively think about the best way to capture it. Horizontal or vertical? What is the best focal length and where can I move to get the best viewpoint? Are there other elements that I can include in the frame? How is the lighting?

SoHo, New York, NYC.

4. Not close enough

Robert Capa once said it all, “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Don’t hover from far away like a sniper. Get in there close, and get in there with a wider angle lens. This can work for portraits, landscapes, or any type of photography. Sometimes it is best to get closer and capture what is most important, large in the frame.

5. Contrast, exposure, black and white levels are off

The overall tones in your image are vital and you need to get good at working with the contrast, exposure, black levels, and highlights. Always try to get the exposure as close to perfect as you can in the camera. I know you can fix it later and often you can do it well, but it’s just not the same as getting it right in the camera. Also think about whether your images might be too dark or too light.

Getting the contrast correct is tough. Be very careful about overdoing contrast as this is a very common mistake. You also don’t want to add the same amount of contrast to every image because the amount of contrast needed depends on the lighting that was in the scene. I notice both tendencies from photographers who use too little contrast or too much contrast. Sometimes this is the monitor’s fault but other time it is the photographer’s.

Having blacks and whites in your image are good things. Often you want some detail in the shadows or highlights but you want areas of white to draw the eyes in and areas of black to ground the image.

6. Heavy-handed HDR

HDR in black and white, Central Park, NYC.

I’m not against HDR. I swear I’m not. I just see it overdone so much that it makes me want to cry. HDR can be done subtly, and it can look amazing when done right.

However, what I often see is HDR done to such extreme that the colors look far from real. It doesn’t even look fake, it just looks bad. There are absolutely no shadows or blacks, and no highlights or whites. I’ve seen entire images that are all middle tones!

You can take some detail out of the shadows and bring in the whites somewhat to get a better dynamic range. Try to find that fine line between realism and looking as good as possible. Retouching is about finding that fine line where an image works and not going over or under it.

The Most Common Conceptual Mistakes

Shoe Store, SoHo, NYC. Notice the consistency in the next three photographs.

7. No subject

Photographing beauty, light, and color is so important, but sometimes your images need some substance to them as well. Great photography is the merging of both form and content. If you can mix a beautiful image with an interesting subject matter, you have hit photographic gold. Think about subjects, ideas, or emotions that are portrayed within an image. Figure out what that substance is that appeals to you and develop it. Think about what your voice is and develop it.

Prince and Broadway, SoHo, NYC.

8. Photographs are not consistent enough

You can photograph many different subjects and you should try different styles, but organize these subjects and styles into cohesive groups. Try to give these groups a consistent look with an overall feel and related content. Consistency is developed with experience, so the more you photograph, the more you will start to think about it. Pay attention to the flow of one image into the other.

9. Too many travel photos and not enough close to home

Trash, SoHo, NYC.

So many people say to me that they only photograph when they travel. I don’t care where you live, or how busy you are, it’s so important to photograph where you live.

If you don’t want to lug your camera around then use a phone camera. Phone cameras are pretty good. Schedule some time every week, even if it’s only 20 minutes or during a lunch break, to photograph somewhere, anywhere. Photograph in the parking lot, on the corner, at the market. I promise you that there will be interesting subject matter there if you look. But you have to go out and take the time to look.

10. Too many photos

It’s fine to take a lot of photos. It’s fine to show a photograph a day if you shoot a lot, but edit your work down to the best. Nobody has the time to wade through a million photographs to find the gems. They will miss the gems if they have to look through too many mediocre images.

We all take mediocre images but the best photographers do the best job at hiding those images.  Do your viewers a favor and pick out the gems for them and only show those. You want people to want more rather than wanting less, because if they want less then they’re probably not coming back.

Do you have any other mistakes you think should be added to this list? What are you guilty of,  and willing to admit it?

Source:http://digital-photography-school.com/10-common-mistakes-made-by-new-photographers/

What‘s all this talk about light?

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THIS CONTENT, ALL THESE CONTENTS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS

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A Post By: Daniela Beddall

What‘s all this talk about light?

When I started my photography journey I remember every article (or so it felt like), blog or book I read talking about light. “Find the light!”, “SEE the light!”, “It’s all about the LIGHT!”, “Follow THE LIGHT!”… AHHHH WHAT’S ALL THIS TALK ABOUT LIGHT!!!

Sound familiar?

I soon became obsessed about light. I would stare at people as they were talking to me; daydreaming, watching how the light was falling on their faces. When I was out walking I would always be looking at the direction of light and the way it behaved at certain parts of the day. It seemed however, that the harder I looked for The Light, the less I was able to see it. I honestly thought I would never be able to see the light!

Then something happened. I can’t tell you exactly when, but after months of obsessing about light, I finally saw ‘it’; its beautiful, soft, illuminating quality and its ability to change the mood and style of a scene.

Light plays a huge part in my photography style and the soft, romantic images I create. There are so many different types that I could easily write a whole book about light alone. For now however, I’m going to focus on three types of lighting conditions and how I use them to their advantage.

Open shade

Open shade is that spot between the sun and shade. The shade can be created by a building, a tree, a wall, etc. When using open shade it’s important to ensure that you still have available light reflecting into the shaded area. Choosing areas that have white, or light pastel, walls or floors will also help create additional soft, illuminating light by reflecting light off their surfaces. The reflected light will bounce all over your model giving them a lovely soft, gentle and even glow.

The above image was taken in open shade. Can you see the line in the bottom left of the frame that divides the light and shade area? I’ve placed my model just with in it, so that the light is still reflecting onto her. The limestone wall also acts as a reflective surface and bounces light back onto my model.

Another thing to consider when using open shade is the direction your model is facing. If facing in the wrong direction, open shade can leave your image looking dull and flat. Make sure to look at where the light is coming from and have your model facing it. Use reflective surfaces, or a reflector, to direct the light back towards your subject. By doing this, the light is still illuminating their face and you’re still getting those beautiful catch lights in their eyes. Open shade offers the flexibility to shoot any time of day. It’s a great tool to use when shooting in midday light, when the sun is high in the sky and is creating harsh shadows on your model.

Overcast days

Overcast days are my favourite sort of days to shoot. It’s like shooting in open shade, but instead the open shade is everywhere! While it’s still important to look for where the light is coming from, overcast days don’t limit you to shaded areas. The clouds act as a giant diffuser or soft box, giving you gentle, even light.

When shooting on an overcast day, I always look at where the sun is. Even if I can’t see it behind the clouds, I make sure I know where it would be if the clouds weren’t there. There are plenty of mobile phone apps available that will tell you where the sun is situated at that specific moment in time. They will also usually tell you where the sun sets and rises, which is a great tool to help you plan your shoot in advance.

The image below was taken on a wet, grey, overcast day. I still wanted to make sure that my models face was illuminated by light. For this frame I made sure that the sun was behind me. Although I couldn’t see it through the clouds, I could still see its brightness lighting up the area in the sky. Although my model was facing directly towards the sun, he wasn’t squinting and there were no harsh shadows being cast. The clouds where acting as my soft box giving me beautiful even light.

When starting out, many photographers are put off shooting on cloudy, overcast days. On the surface, the light appears dull; but look a bit deeper and you’ll see its wonderful illuminating quality. Some of my favourite images have been captured on days like this.

Backlighting

Backlighting, if done properly, can create some beautiful atmospheric and dramatic images. It takes a lot of practice to nail a backlit shot, but I think it’s worth the effort.

There’s different ways of positioning the sun in your frame. You can have it directly behind your model, just outside the image or in the shot completely. Each one will create a different effect and will influencehow much sun flare and haze is captured in your image.

When backlighting, your metering plays a huge part in how successful the image will be. Shooting in manual mode will help ensure that perfect shot. When shooting towards the sun, I always meter for the models face, usually just under the eye closest to me. I know that this might blow out some of the highlights in the background or areas around my model, but I like the added glow that this creates.

Camera’s aren’t always too keen to shoot directly towards the sun. This is where having a lens hood comes in useful. However, sometimes even this isn’t enough and you’ll hear the whirring of your lens struggling to focus on your chosen spot. When this happens, try creating a small spot of shade for the camera by holding your left hand above the lens to bloke out the light. This usually does the trick but if not, the other option is to focus manually.

Some food for thought…

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got when starting out was to always look for the light first and the background second. It’s easy to be drawn into standing you models in front of something that looks pretty or interesting, but if the lighting in that location is poor, you’ll end up with a dull lifeless image, or a model that’s squinting and has harsh shadows on her face.

I’d love to know how you get on finding the light! Please share your comments and images below.

Source:http://digital-photography-school.com/lets-talk-light-3-types-of-lighting-conditions-use/

Unique Flower Photography Using Multiple Exposures

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THIS CONTENT, ALL THESE CONTENTS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS
A Post By: Bruce Wunderlich
Most of the new cameras from both Nikon and Canon now have the capability to create multiple exposures. The technique is rather simple to set up, but the results can be both unlimited and unpredictable. So try using this feature to create some unique floral images.

Set-up

1. Select Multiple Exposure from your camera’s menu. The default option on this setting is, of course, OFF. Select the ON option. Some cameras will give you the option here for ON (series) which will keep the option on until you turn it off or ON (single photo) which will capture only one multiple exposure image.
2. Scroll down to select the number of shots you desire, select either two or three. (Some cameras will allow you to select up to 10).
3. The third setting is Auto Gain. When set to ON, your camera will automatically adjust exposure gain for the addition of each image. In the OFF position you must manually adjust for the exposure of each layered image. (All the sample images here were created with the Auto Gain ON.)
4. Confirm that you have Multiple Exposure set to ON and hit OK.
5. You’re now ready to shoot, so set up your exposure and focus like you would do with any floral image.

Taking multiple exposure images does take some practice to perfect, and you will have a lot of throwaways. As you take each exposure, your camera will show you a preview of the image just exposed, and you have 30 seconds to shoot the next image or the camera will finish the process without any additional exposures. After the last exposure of the series, you will see the final image.

Type of Multiple Exposure Images to Try

The resulting photos you can accomplish with this technique are limited only by your own creativity. The following paragraphs describe how to shoot three types of images:

• The Twist
• The Fill
• The Shoot Through

The Twist

In this method, set the number of shots to three. The key to this method is to keep the center of the flower in the same location on all three images. Using your spot focus point as a reference point to help keep the images aligned, take the first image. Keep the center of the flower in the same location of the view finder and turn the camera to the left or right and take a second exposure. Then, again keeping the center of the flower in the same location, turn the camera again and take the third image. The degree of your turn can vary depending on the size of the subject flower. Remember to refocus before each of the three exposures.

The Fill

In this method you will fill the frame with flowers by shooting however many multiple exposures you choose and placing flowers in different locations within the frame with each exposure.

The Shoot Through

Set your number of exposures to two. Your first exposure should be a normal exposure of the floral subject. Without changing the focus setting, move your camera closer to the flower to fill the frame with an out-of-focus image, which will give you a soft shoot-through effect.

Other Tips

• Some Nikon models will automatically turn off Multiple Exposure after each image, so you will need to go back into the menu and turn it back on after each image is completed.
• Simple backgrounds work best.
• Most successful images are shot handheld. Using a tripod to create these images makes it difficult to move freely.
• LiveView will be disabled on your camera during multiple exposures.
• Remember, after your first exposure is taken, if no operations are performed within the next 30 seconds, the camera will automatically end the Multiple Exposure mode.

Creating Multiples in Photoshop

If your camera doesn’t have the Multiple Exposure options, you can still create these same effects in Photoshop.

1. Take all your images as describe above as single frames. Open the first image in Photoshop.
2. Open the second image and copy and paste it onto the first image as a second layer. Change the layer blending modes to multiply. You can experiment with different blending modes to get some wild effects. You can also change the opacity of each layer to get the effect to your liking.
3. Repeat Step 2 for every image in the series.

Shooting multiples is a lot of experimenting, but when you get a good image, you will know it! This method can also be used for many other kinds of images. For example, try shooting a silhouette and filling it with another image. . . the possibilities are endless!

Source:http://digital-photography-school.com/unique-flower-photography-using-multiple-exposures/

Kit lens: why your 18-55mm standard lens is better than you think for landscapes

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THIS CONTENT, ALL THESE CONTENTS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS

You don’t need expensive lenses to capture great images. In this tutorial we’ll show you how you can take stunning landscape photography with the simple 18-55mm kit lens that came with your DSLR.

When most of us bought our first DSLR we opted to pay a bit extra for the ‘standard zoom’ kit lens bundle. A kit lens is a great starter lens for beginners, as it’s light, inexpensive, and has a versatile zoom range of 18-55mm, which is great for portraits, landscapes and as a general ‘walkabout’ lens.

Although you’ll start to find yourself limited by your kit lens as your photography skills improve, it can still produce some cracking shots when used the right way, and that’s exactly what we’re going to demonstrate in this tutorial. In the first of what will be a new series we’ll show you how you can use your kit lens to get fantastic results in a range of photographic genres, starting with landscapes.

DON’T MISS: 10 common landscape photography mistakes every photographer makes

How to shoot stunning landscapes with your kit lens

01 Skies for landscapes
Check the weather forecast before you head out; blue skies aren’t necessarily the best skies for landscapes, and on the day of our shoot there were heavy storm clouds interspersed with bursts of bright sunshine, which added interest to the sky and atmosphere to the scene, and created contrast in our images. Mount your camera on a tripod.

02 Manual mode
Set your camera to Manual mode so that you have full control over the exposure. As there’s moving water in our scene we’re going to use relatively long exposures to blur it a little, so we’re setting our aperture to f/32 to give us slower shutter speeds. Keep the ISO at 100 for maximum image quality – this also helps to deliver slower shutter speeds.

03 Picture Style
Set the Picture Style to Landscape to saturate the greens. If you’re shooting JPEGs this style will be applied to the images; if you’re shooting Raw, keep in mind that the setting will only be applied to the Raw image if you open it in Canon Digital Photo Professional, and not in Photoshop CS/CC or Elements.

04 Focusing
Switch to Live View mode to compose and focus the shot. Switch the lens to Manual, zoom in on the LCD screen and navigate to the main subject in your scene – in our case the church spire. Twist the focus ring until the subject is at optimum sharpness, then zoom back out.

05 High-contrast scenes
As we’re shooting in the middle of the day there’s strong contrast between the brightest and darkest parts of the scene, so we’re going to take three shots at varying shutter speeds to expose for the highlights, midtones and shadows. To ensure sharp shots when your camera’s on a tripod, use a remote shutter release so that you don’t touch the camera at the start of the exposure.

06 Bracketing exposures
Adjust the shutter speed so the exposure marker is in the middle of the exposure level indicator, and take your first shot. Now rotate the main dial clockwise until the marker moves to +1 stop, and take another shot to expose for the shadows. Finally, rotate the dial anti-clockwise until the marker is at -1 stop, and take a third shot to expose for the highlights.

Final Tip
Under the Quality setting on your DSLR you have the option to shoot Raw files, JPEGs or both. If you don’t want to spend time processing images, and want them ‘ready to go’ straight from the camera, it’s best to shoot JPEGs, as a Raw file out of the camera can appear a bit ‘flat’.

However, Raw files contain much more brightness and colour information than a JPEG, enabling you to pull out more shadow and highlight detail at the editing stage. If you have space on your memory card, shooting both Raws and JPEGs gives you the option to process the Raw file if shadows or highlights are clipped in the JPEG image.

How to edit landscapes shot with your kit lens

01 Combine the exposures
Download our start images and follow along! Open our three start images in Elements’ Expert mode. The first thing we need to do is combine the images in a single document. Take the Move tool, click on landscape_start_1.jpg and move the cursor up to the landscape_start.jpg tab so that the start.jpg image is displayed. Drag down onto the image, hold down Shift to align the images, and release the mouse button to add the image as new layer. Add landscape_start_2.jpg above the start_1 layer in the same way.

02 Reveal the sky
Add a layer mask to the top two layers, and hide the top layer for now (click the eye icon). Take the Brush tool, and set the foreground colour to black and Opacity to 100%. Click the ‘Layer 1’ mask, and paint over the sky to hide it and reveal the sky from the layer below. Hit X to switch to a white brush if you go wrong.

03 Reveal the highlights
Next target the top layer, and click the eye box to show it again. Click the layer mask, and press Ctrl+I to invert the mask to black and hide the layer. Use a white brush at 50% Opacity to paint back some of the highlights in the image, but only partially reveal overexposed areas such as the highlights in the water.

04 Levels adjustment
Now we’re going to make a few simple tweaks to our image using adjustment layers. First add a Levels adjustment layer to fine-tune the exposure and contrast. Set the Shadows slider to 5, Midtones to 1.23 and Highlights to 232.

05 Contrast and colours
Next add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set Contrast to 36. To boost the colours add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and set the Master Saturation to +10. When you’re happy with the image click the top layer, and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to create a merged layer containing all the visible layer content and effects.

06 Retouch and sharpen
To remove the distracting yellow sign on the wall, take the Clone Stamp tool, Alt-click to sample the wall adjacent to the sign, and clone these pixels over the sign. Our image looks a little soft as we shot it at such a narrow aperture setting, so we’ll sharpen it. Go to Enhance > Unsharp Mask. Set Amount to 95% and Radius to 2.5 pixels, and leave Threshold at 0.

Source:http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/12/12/kit-lens-why-your-18-55mm-standard-lens-is-better-than-you-think-for-landscapes/2/