The sky is a key element in landscape photography, as it can create mood and depth in your images. However, many beginners tend to overprocess the sky, making it look unnatural and fake.
Have a passion for photography and are thinking of turning it into a full-time profession? That’s an admirable and ambitious goal, and while it sounds exciting, the reality is that running a photography business is very different from pursuing photography as a hobby.
Light can be one of the most challenging topics when it comes to learning photography. It takes a lot of trial and error to understand light, as there are very few resources available that teach light beyond setups.
While landscape photography is a lot about composition and on-location practices, one can never dismiss the importance of post-processing (or editing) the images. One question I am always asked is: "Why is editing necessary?"
Becoming a successful landscape photographer is a complicated, challenging journey that is impossible to distill into a few words. But in this 9-minute video, Michael Shainblum at least tries to point out five mistakes he knows keeps you from growing as a photographer.
Professional photographers Daniel and Rachel of Mango Street have published a helpful video that covers the 8 most common mistakes that they see beginner photographers make. In other words: these are the 8 reasons why your photos suck, and how to fix them.
Let’s face it — in-office corporate headshots will not be your most exciting project as a photographer. In fact, in many ways, they’re a photographer’s worst nightmare.
Landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen has put together a helpful video where he covers 5 "crucial" mistakes to avoid in landscape photography. Crucial might be an overstatement, but the video points out five of the most common mistakes you'll see from novice landscape shooters in particular.
Landscape photographer Mark Denney recently stumbled across an old folder full of "favorite" images from a few years back. At first, he was just enjoying seeing the progressed he'd made over the years, but then he noticed something: "As I reviewed these images, I noticed the same three compositional mistakes repeated over and over."
Making mistakes when starting something new is a common part of the learning process, and the sooner you can identify and fix them, the faster you’ll progress within your new endeavor. When I first started in landscape photography I certainly made my fair share of errors, but I didn’t realize it at the time, so I ended up repeating them over and over again.
I can’t help but notice all those articles proclaiming mistakes we should try to avoid in order to become a better photographer. Admittedly, I have issues with such an approach. First of all: I hate the word “should”. Basically we “should” nothing. Secondly, there is not much learning in avoiding mistakes — we learn best from our mistakes and the more bittersweet they are the more carved into our memory they become.
Looking back at my early photography, I shake my head in embarrassment. I know I should be proud of the fact that I’ve come a long way since then, but it’s hard not to notice just how poorly processed those images are. I’m sure I’m not alone.
If you're just getting started in studio portrait light, here's a 12-minute video that may be helpful to you. Photographer Antti Karppinen shares 7 of the most common lighting mistakes done in studio portraits, and he teaches how you can avoid each one.
If you're just starting out in portrait photography, here's a helpful 4-minute video by photographer Sheldon Evans that looks at 3 big composition mistakes that beginners often make in the genre.
In this article, I am going to highlight 5 key things that I see portrait photographers doing that I consider to be "in need of improvement." And although there are no hard-and-fast rules to photography, try to think of it as being similar to an instrument being slightly out of tune or a meal that's perhaps a little too salty. These are glaringly obvious errors to the well-informed but may not be so obvious to those who are just starting out.
Here's a 6-minute video in which photographer and retoucher Nino Batista looks at some of the most common retouching mistakes that amateur photographers tend to make. Eliminate these from your post-processing workflow to take your photos to the next level.
When it comes to motorcycles, I’m the grown-ass man equivalent of the 8-year old girl with the pony sweater that every single person knew in grade school. I’m obsessed: they’re what got me into photography; motorcycle photography brings the funnest edits; and bikes are a huge part of my life.
Is Instagram on the rise, or the decline? The folks over at DigitalRev would say it's the latter, and they believe they know why: Instagram is trying to be too many things to too many people.
Patience is not one of my many virtues and I've always preferred practice to theory. Instead of taking the time to learn the essentials before starting, I usually jump in head-first... come what may! This behavior has caused me disappointment, loss of time and money.
Photography beginners listen up, because we're about to drop some knowledge. This quick video by Mango Street Lab covers three of the most common mistakes photography beginners make, and then turns around and shows you what to do instead.
Making mistakes is a powerful learning tool, but that statement only holds true if you realize what you're doing is a mistake. To that end, here are 5 of the most common Photoshop mistakes photographers make.
Selective color, bad HDR, over-sharpening, we've all seen (and if we're honest, probably made) these Photoshop mistakes... but are you sure you're still not committing some Photoshop faux pas? In this video, Nate Dodson of TutVid covers 10 common novice mistakes you should avoid.
Myths and misconceptions persist because they’re either compelling or no one bothers to correct them. For photographers, many myths of digital photography arose when trying to draw imperfect analogies to film photography.
In a video that will no doubt earn him quite a bit of Internet ire, photographer and photo educator Tony Northrup recently took each of the major camera manufacturers to task. From Canon and Nikon to Pentax and Olympus... nobody is safe... except Fuji for some reason.
There are a plethora of common Lightroom mistakes made by beginners and advanced users both. In this video series, Croatia-based photographer ibreakphotos tackles the most common and egregious... mistakes you probably see every day scrolling through Flickr or 500px.
In this post, I'll be sharing 5 business mistakes that photographers make all the time.
Outdoor and travel photographer John Greengo has spent years behind the counter of a camera store, helping people with their camera purchases. In this 8-minute talk, Greengo shares 10 of the biggest and most common mistakes he sees people making when shopping for a new camera.
Why do some professional photographers fail to make it in business?
If you can’t cut it technically or artistically as a photographer, then clearly your photography business will have a very limited lifespan. But there are other ways in which you can take your eyes off the ball when turning pro. Here are some classic examples of failure that are easy to avoid when you know how...
Most people see me as a “professional”… as someone who is smart, who has their act together or as someone who knows what they’re doing all the time.
This makes me laugh.
We've all been there, when you make that one mistake. The mistake your obnoxious friend warned you about a hundred times. The mistake they'll never let you live down. Or worse the mistake you bragged to everybody about, saying, "Oh, I'll never do that. I know better." But now here you are, in a big puddle of embarrassment.
Like any trade, photography has a few of these classic mistakes that are almost guaranteed to happen to you at some point.
Why My Photographs Are Bad is a photography book for beginners first published in 1902 by a man named Charles Maus Taylor. The book contains many of the same basic tips that can be found in introductory books these days, but also many that are very specific to the way photography was done at the time. Here's a selection of common mistakes that newbie photographers were making over 100 years ago.
Beginners: Ever wonder why your photos don’t look ‘professional?’ Amateurs: ever wonder why you lack consistency? Pros: Ever wonder why you lose your edge or drive? Wonder no longer. This article deals with some of the most common oversights by photographers of all kinds, and how to avoid them.
Every year I meet with lots of students, assistants, young photographers, and photography educators and discuss the business of photography. Over the years I have complied a list of the biggest mistakes that most young photographers make when trying to become full-time money-making commercial photographers. I want to share those with you in the hope that people stop making the same mistakes.
Mike Johnston of TOP explains why Sony shouldn’t call its pellicle mirror “translucent”: …