15 Mistakes People Make When Taking Photos (and How To Correct Them) 

Derrick Dyer

frozen

B and H

+Blazs86 You are very welcome!

Thank you. Very much appreciated.

You are quite welcome. Glad you liked the presentation. :)

Thanks - glad you like it. :)

In order to best reply to your inquiry, can you please resubmit this question to askbh@bhphotovideo.com, and mention 1) what specific model camera you are working with, 2) which lenses you have, 3) How large of a group 4) environment the shot will be taken in (i.e. outdoors, indoors in a convention center, indoors in a small room etc) Thank you in advance. - Yossi

+si spencer That was a 1/2 sec exposure (on a tripod), f/9 at ISO 500. And...glad you like the tutorials. I love doing them. :)

The idea is that people have the hood on backwards thinking it will do something. But the chances are pretty good (these days, particularly if there's the option to put in on backwards at all) that your hood is a bayonet mount, and that you can remove it to adjust your polarizer. On a tripod, there's no excuse; hand-held, it's a few extra seconds. Polarizers and fast-reaction action shots don't tend to go together often.

Problem is that the polarizer is too wide, and the hood won't go over.

I honestly thought he was taking a cheap shot when he made fun of that guy in the photo. I almost always carry my camera this way, especially if I'm shooting street - the hood makes people all the more defensive. Whenever I'm shooting in bright place, I turn the hood the proper way around. I don't use it backwards because I don't know how to put it on, or because I don't know how it works - I do it because it's more convenient at that time.

Burak Şeker I added that photo to the presentation for some fun, and it may be that the lens hood was not needed at that time. But the point is still valid with many people not knowing when or how to use the hoods.

Jeff Cable Cool, thanks for the reply :) Alright, I do understand that a presentation needs some entertainment, and can see your point. I guess I took it the wrong way and got kind of offended - it seemed like you were arguing that everyone who shoots this way is inexperienced. Yeah, this is a very minor thing and I'm making a big deal out of it :) I don't want to act like a jerk, I apologize if my comment looked that way

Don't think you can I'm afraid. You'd need a radio trigger instead of the pop up. I got one for about 60 bucks that's works ok. Hahnel. Also doubles as a remote shutter.

Alright Thanks a lot! :)

What are you shooting btw just out of curiosity. Off cam flash and high shutter sounds interesting!

It's really amazing, I do it for outdoor photo sessions and portraits, So I can drop down the background like half a stop then with an off-camera flash inside a softbox will lit up my subject very well creating extremely dramatic look and lighting, and a fast shutter speed is required when u shoot in bright sunlight with wide open aperture creating very interesting blurred background making the shot even better.

Hmm in just thinking whether you can do high speed sync with that radio trigger. I know some of the expensive ones do but I will check mine. Perhaps you could use a cable trigger too. The other option is nd filters I guess.

+Chris Tyrrell We just went out, took photos and then had them developed to find out how good or bad they were. Now we can take thousands, experiment, with no worries about a few of them coming out bad and for some, there have photoshop, to rescue stuff, that in the days of film, was lost for good

+‫איליי זובקוב‬‎ - A lens’s aperture is the opening in the diaphragm that allows light to pass through. Adjusting the aperture will control both exposure and depth of field. You might checkout ‘The Basics of Aperture:FocusEd’ video on B&H’s youtube channel. It’s a quick little intro to the basics of aperture. *Christina* bit.ly/1Z4SLDJ

+DE DE - If you visit the Event Space’s page on our site, you can find a list of upcoming events. You can register for the events on that page as well. *Christina* AskRU-vid@bhphoto.com bhpho.to/Zc6vnG

Franciscus van der Maat I think if you enjoy doing it, you have a passion for it. He's not talking about people who "live" photography and it's their main hobby/career when he says "passion." He's talking about people that enjoy it. He's saying that if you're not getting that urge to take more and more pictures then you're probably not that into it and maybe it's not for you (don't force yourself to like something). Last time I was shooting, I was getting bit by bugs, I was sweating, and there wasn't even great light. But I kept taking more and more pictures and the only reason I stopped was because my girlfriend called me into the house saying that a show was coming on that I wanted to see. I'd been outside for about 10-15 minutes when it felt like maybe 3. That's what he's talking about when he says "passion." When you're having so much fun capturing little tiny moments, moments that quite literally will never happen ever again, fly by without you knowing. That's when you know it's something you enjoy doing.

Oozywolf I sort of get what you are saying, but for me there is a clear difference between something I just like doing and something that I have a passion for. Having a passion for something means that it can consume you at time; you can be totally engrossed in it; you often think about it even when you are not doing it. For me photography is not something like that. For me photography is more functional: I like to learn the skill to make good photo and video. I enjoy learning how to do that, and just being creative in general. But it is not a passion for me. Now to be honest I don't think he actually meant to say that people without the passion should do something else. I don't think he actually wanted to exclude some people from photography, I think he just chose a very unfortunate way to say that he has a passion for photography.

Franciscus van der Maat Yeah I can see that. As you said, I definitely don't think he was trying to exclude anyone from photography. He said a bit of an over-exaggerated to show passion and to make it a bit more interesting and dramatic. I absolutely think you'd be included in what he meant, but it probably just came out wrong haha. But yeah, learning photography is a ton of fun (even as a small hobby). I got interested in photography when I thought about just how powerful photos can be. As I said in the other comment, you're capturing a moment that will never happen again no matter what. There will always be something different. That to me is fascinating. With digital cameras, we can basically have our photos brought up over and over forever without wear (slight loss of quality when constantly transferring to new save devices, but that might even be fixed after a handful of decades). It's unlike just about every other hobby.

Oozywolf Totally agree with that :)

+Franciscus van der Maat +Oozywolf - You are both right. I was not trying to exclude anyone, just saying that the more you love doing something, the better it is for the end result and for you as the photographer. I love that you both are passionate about the conversation. :)

Dave Frette That all depends upon what aperture you are shooting at and the distance from you to the subject. It is certainly not advisable with a very fast lens and especially when close up, but I am sure Jeff Cable wouldn't do it in those conditions.

Only partially true at best. There are a number of things to think about in composition that could be called geometrical, but there are a lot that aren't.

Tzadeck and those things are?

If your camera is making a mistake about how much to exposure the photo in shutter or aperture priority, you can use exposure compensation to tell your camera how you want it to act. My camera goes to three stops in either direction, which seems pretty standard. Also, what you're saying is a bit strange. If your camera is picking slow shutter speeds in aperture priority, it's because your aperture is not open wide enough to let in light quickly enough with the ISO you're using. You need to either open your aperture more (i.e., use a smaller f number), or raise your ISO. It's got nothing to do with the fact that you're shooting in aperture priority rather than manual.

Thanks for answering, i'll try some stuff out the next time I'm up at the horse races :)

Then sadly, for you, there's another mistake. Mistake #16: Lack of Patience.

Play the video at double speed. I will sound like the Chipmunks, but you will learn the same thing in 36 1/2 minutes. :)

Jeff Cable :D!

I love that. It really is a small world my friend. :)

That is so true. The more videos I watch, esp in reference to aperture, ISO and shutter speed the more I understand.