Photographic learning is endless. It is one of those things in life that never ends, from the first moment you decide to enter this world, you agree to submit for the rest of your life to a continuous and perpetual learning process that will make you feel bigger and bigger.
With this premise, I would like in this article to share with you a series of 8 mistakes that you could inadvertently make, mistakes that could hinder your learning process and limit your growth as a photographer.
- A? Don’t invest in a good lens.
- Tripod and flash (in that order): the camera is only half the story.
- Without a good lens.
- It limits your learning opportunities and perhaps wastes enormous creative potential.
- Keep in mind that many photos are simply impossible to achieve without a certain type of lens.
- Personally.
- Acquiring the King of Lenses was for me a photographic “rebirth”?.
In the same way, and only once you have the right lens, you should consider buying a tripod and a flash, here the same thing happens, the stability of a good tripod and the light of a flash in conditions will open new doors for you.For you: you can experience long exposure photography, you can capture the star-filled sky or make stunning portraits thanks to the fill flash.
Two? Don’t learn manual mode: let the camera be in automatic mode and let it decide which settings to use is very convenient, and there is no worse enemy to learn than “comfort”.Moving into manual mode is going to be complex at first, like everyone else, but over time you’ll better understand how your camera works and master it in its manual mode to get photographic delights you never thought you could ever achieve.You’re still intimidated by manual mode, check out my free book “Your First Steps in SLR Photography”.
3? Don’t learn composition: forget about the camera for a while, forget about the lens and accessories.Close your eyes. Now imagine the photo you want, imagine you could do it without any limitations, what would it be like, where would you put the subject?How would you frame it?Do you have several themes?How would you put them in touch with each other, in order, in line, in a mess?And the colors, what colors would you combine to make the photo perfect?As you can see, composition is the closest thing to painting.The photographer organizes things, subjects, objects, shapes, silhouettes and colors in a given order.Your task is not to configure the manual settings of the camera and photograph alone.Everything before shooting is also your responsibility. You’re a little creator, remember that.
4? A lot of theory, little practice: don’t just accumulate the acquired knowledge, put them into practice.If you don’t, you’ll end up forgetting everything as soon as possible.Practice is what consolidates everything we’ve learned.To take advantage of the concepts you’ve learned, you don’t need to get amazing results, or for people to run out of speech, dazed, and breathless when they see your work.No need. Just practice. If you put the theory into practice, you learn, I don’t care if the photo is horrible, the most important thing is to train, there will be time to straighten, fine-tune and improve.
5? You don’t have a very clear workflow: after a good photo shoot, what do you do with your photos when you get home ?, where do you have the images of the last session right now ?, if you have had any doubts in answering either of these two questions, you should be careful at this point.It’s not complicated at all, don’t be intimidated by the word “workflows”.A workflow is nothing more than the phases through which a photo passes from the moment you take it with the camera until the photo is printed or recorded in its final folder, with its editing or post-processing, its labels and its backup if necessary.The trick is to have a clear and clear workflow and always follow it.One day, I’ll have you write a full article on the topic of workflows.One day?
6? Take the camera where it is not welcome: It has happened to all of us that at the beginning of our life as photographers we are very excited and take the camera everywhere, this in principle is very good, especially because, you know where a beautiful photo can arise.The fact is, sometimes it’s counterproductive.
Imagine the following situation: you are at a birthday party, there is a lot of fuss, drinks, people socializing and you are in a corner of the room, absorbed in your new SLR camera that weighs almost 1 kilogram. Suddenly the voice of “A picture, guys?” . Bingo. This is your moment of glory. For a moment time stops around you, in a split second you think “Yes, this is my fucking moment!” You jump from your secluded corner, in slow motion, flaunting your expensive camera and offer to take the photo. They all look at you wistfully, as if they are thinking “How high is it, where do you see it, all quiet!” Then they are all standing on a sofa, one on top of the other in a slightly crazy and spontaneous pose, looking at the camera saying “paaa-soaa-soaa” and wait. The counter starts: you try to configure the camera, it is not configured, 1 minute has passed, you take some test photos, hmmm, I need to increase the ISO, now let’s see, another take, it’s been 3 minutes, puff, why now is it so blurry? Wait and see, what if I open the flash? As you rush to operate the camera, two guests fall asleep on the same couch. Follow yours. Anyway, with the flash the light is too strong. How to film, in RAW or JPG? ZzzZZZzzzZZZ?
Unless you are hired as a photographer to cover the occasion, my advice is that you go on birthdays with your compact digital camera, it is one of those situations in which it is more important to be practical and fast than to invest time and effort in creating a work of art that no assistant will have a good memory of.
7? Never leave the virtual world: occasionally bring your photos to life.From time to time, choose a rigorous selection of your jobs, send them to print and enjoy them in “real”.There are countless physical and online stores with very competitive prices to bring your photographic work to life.
Even if you prefer to save your photos in digital format (I am a strong defender of the digital format), printing your best photos on paper allows you to view, directly or indirectly, the results of your efforts.Some photos printed and framed on a shelf, or hung on the wall, with your signature, will be a good boost of self-esteem for your side as a photographer, I insist, should not be beautiful photographs worthy of the national geographic cover.pictures of you, which you love. The pictures you want. It’s a sentimental thing, I don’t know how to tell you.
8? Quitting too soon: If you are a reader of this blog, never think “I don’t know, I think it’s not for me.” The biggest mistake is giving up too early, which is very common among beginning photographers. The only requirement to learn photography is that you like it, that you are passionate about it. If you have that, the rest just rolled. Photography is not difficult at all. Frying an egg, driving a manual car or changing a baby’s diapers is more difficult, believe me, try it, jump into the camera without fear, with love and enthusiasm, do not worry, no matter what button you press, you will Never ruin it . Play without fear. Enjoy.
I hope you enjoyed this reading.