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16 MISTAKES PHOTOGRAPHER MAKE

It's rare to get a beautiful double rainbow to compliment a huge seasonal Arizona waterfall. But on this occasion I ended up with a mess of a photo that might be good for social media, but little else. I was still in my car when I took this, far enough from the ledge to feel safe but lightning was still striking within a mile. So rather than risk getting my boots stuck in the muddy slip and slide that surrounded me, I shot from the window. 

This picture has a distracting ledge in the foreground, a more distracting shadow on that foreground, a bright area on the upper left corner, an out of focus area on the right side (it is a hand held panorama), water spots, and too much de-hazing making for an uneven sky and a halo at the left horizon. 

Next month starts a series of articles is on “Composition”. Before getting to the main elements of composition, it will be most productive to go over the correctible mistakes that most of us make when we are starting out, unprepared or rushing. The first two are so common and important we covered them in previous articles. Note that all of these images, most regretfully, came out of my camera.

Out of focus photo

Subject Out of Sharp Focus

We have covered how to focus in detail. An out of focus image is the number one reason I want to kick myself. Images need the subject to be in sharp focus. When I first started in photography my idea of sharp focus was different from what it is now. That means that some images that seemed great some time ago are no longer acceptable. Practice, practice, practice with your focusing! Discover the best possible focus for each camera and lens combination and aim to achieve this for a very high percentage of shots. Refer to the article on focus in the April 2022 issue of PhotoBoomers. 

Lack of focus may be due to your viewfinder diopter not being tuned in right, not using all the focus tools available on your live view screen, forgetting your glasses, too long an exposure time (blurred by camera movement) or not using a tripod for longer exposures. Shooting at the lowest f/stop will also result in less than the sharpest possible result, possibly attractive for portraits or florals, but not so much for most photography. In dim light do what you can to shoot at least one stop above the lowest f/stop so you are closer to the “sweet spot” for your lens.

For effect you may want a small select area to be in focus (narrow depth of field). Just be sure there is something the viewer’s eye can latch onto. If you have your very best wall hanger image just slightly out of focus, see what you can do to save it with software such as On1 or Topaz Sharpen.

Tilted image

The Tilted Image 

This issue was also covered last month. This is the most common issue for newbies and an easy one to correct. It happens especially when shooting hand held but also when one rushes things on a tripod. Tilted images show up especially when you have a flat horizon such as a lake or ocean, or straight horizontal lines such store front shot straight on. If you shoot horizontal lines with a side perspective they will not be level. 

It gets a bit challenging when a far lakeshore is shot with perspective. Our eye wants to correct it to make it look perfectly horizontal. Use your judgment when correcting for the angles.

Many digital cameras have a built in level that can be turned on or off. I recommend you use this level. It will usually turn green when the camera is level. Many smartphones allow you to correct (level) an image directly in the phone’s software. Otherwise, images can be leveled in post processing software on your computer. This can be a problem, however, as it will always result in a cropped image which may mean you must lose part of what you want to keep. In some instances you can use “content aware fill” to replace the corners you lose. If there is much detail in those areas this won’t work so well. 

These comments aren’t meant to stifle your creativity with intentionally tilted images, but in my experience these are most effective on Instagram rather than as display prints.

Vertical and horizontal elements are our keys to level images. Despite what many say, California is not falling into the ocean.

No Clear Subject

Notice that this doesn’t say “no subject”. It’s really easy to look at a scene that is very attractive and just shoot a picture of it. Our eye automatically picks out what is attractive until we select the chosen composition and put it on paper or on a computer screen. There may be multiple non-connected subjects in the scene, resulting in a non-coherent image. 

There is nothing wrong with capturing a complete scene as part of a travelogue, but having a subject will make more sense when you share your image. It will also hold viewers’ attention longer.

To correct for this, take your time looking at a scene. If you have a zoom lens, use it to look at wider angle compositions as well as more confined (telephoto) compositions. Some photographers use a card with a cutout. Looking through the cutout you can pick out compositions. Move the card closer to or farther from your eye to vary the angle of view.

It is not clear in this image whether the subject is the green lake, the colorful bushes or the forest. Different element point us in all directions but there is not a clear place for our eyes to land.

Wrong Perspective

While not necessarily a mess up for a photo, failing to find the best perspective for a shot means the shot will lose visual appeal. If you find yourself always shooting from eye level, consider alternatives. Get close to the level of your foreground. You would do this if you were photographing toddlers…you wouldn’t point down at their heads. Instead, get down to their level. Similarly, if there are flowers or some other item of interest in the foreground, get down close to that level.  You may also need to get higher, such as on a car roof to remove an unwanted barbed wire fence or trashy roadside area. Get creative!

Changing perspective can eliminate distractions or add important elements in your images. Give it a try!

Getting low can help give an image depth, but be careful about getting too low and blocking your viewer's eye from getting further into the picture. Perhaps, moving to the left would have covered the brown base of the cholla on the right and allowed an entry into the background.

Cropping the image is better, but it is still difficult to get into the interesting background. Backing off and using a longer lens from slightly higher could have been the best solution.

Centered Subjects

This can be effective at times and especially effective when with symmetrical subjects, but our eye usually prefers things off center. This is especially true when we are including a person in our image. Even our faces aren’t symmetrical and this is part of what makes you more attractive. More on this topic when we discuss composition next month.

Reflections are often successfully placed in the middle of an image, but bisecting and image vertically is not as appealing.

A little lack of symmetry may improve your scene. But if your preference is to divide your picture into quarters, by all means go for it!

Clutter

You may have a clear subject but there is still clutter. This is when I wish I could paint. I just would not paint the clutter into the scene. This sounds a lot easier than removing it from the scene. But I can’t paint, so I have to get more creative looking for scenes that avoid clutter. This may mean moving to a different angle, pinning a small branch back with a clothes pin, smoothing footprints in the sand, or moving trash or a discolored rock. It’s easier to do this before we take the shot. While we can do some of this in post processing, getting it right in camera is the preferred choice. As a matter of photograph ethics, we don’t trim branches or change a scene in any way that can’t be restored to the way we found it.

When at a scene of poppies, we focus so much on the beauty of the poppy field that we miss the clutter which may include twigs, long grasses, dead leaves and wood and scraps of paper. Try to eliminate these areas by cleaning up the areas that are possible and by moving in tighter to crop out the distracting elements.

Too Much Contrast and Lost Details

Most professional landscape photographers take the majority of their images in the two hours after the first light and the two hours before the last light. By far most casual photographs are taken at other hours during the middle of the day. If the sun is shining and there are shaded areas and bright areas this means you will have a very contrasty scene. Our cameras do not do well (without help) capturing detail in both the bright areas and dark areas in these scenes. While shooting in HDR (high dynamic range) can help, the images do not have as much tonal appeal. Yet bright daytime scenes sell quite well when done right. What is it that makes these daytime scenes more appealing? First, there will be a minimal amount of blacks and whites in the scene. It may be that there is blue sky or clouds are over the darker areas of the scene, providing more even tones and reflecting light into the darkest areas.

There is nothing wrong with intentionally shooting high contrast. This is a style that can look great when done right where patterns are simple. But avoid busy scenes, such as when trees are lit with harsh light.

The obvious solution to this is to shoot in light that isn’t harsh. If you are shooting a small scene (say roses) you can provide your own shade with a diffuser or just a piece of foam core.

This image has blown out areas (white areas with no detail) and completely black areas (with no details). It is impossible to recover details that aren't there.

The histogram for this image shows that both the highlights and the blacks are "clipped." The only solution would have been to create an HDR (high dynamic range) image.

Too Little Contrast

There are scenes that are have really flat light. These scenes can look very good when presented at high key images (almost all lighter tones), but do not work well when presented in the mid-tones. Similarly, low key images can be mostly dark tones, but get very flat looking if presented with mostly mid-tones. The solution to these problems comes with utilizing the histogram and sliders in post processing. This is a topic for a future article.

The histogram for the flat image shows that there are very few pixels in the light (right side) or dark (left side) regions. Software can be used to spread the histogram out which results in increased contrast.

The resulting image picks up saturation and contrast. A shortcut to achieve a similar effect is to use the "auto contrast" button in Photoshop.

Light Concentrated in Wrong Area

Our eye naturally goes to the more lit areas of a photograph. It doesn’t work well to have a dark subject surrounded by lighter areas, but it works very well to have a brighter subject surrounded by lighter areas. 

While you should always be on the lookout for scenes with this perfect lighting, it just does not happen that often. Take advantage of it when it does happen, otherwise, control your shots with patience (wait for the light) and a small amount of post processing to brighten or darken selected areas. 

When the main interest is dark and in the center of the image, our eye struggles to stay focused on that area.

Brighter centers are much more appealing and hold our attention much longer.

Edge Distractions

You will hear photo instructors talk about “border patrol”. This means taking a look around your image for distracting elements on the edges. When there are distractions on the edges they interfere with our eye going towards the subject. 

Edge distractions are difficult to control during composition, especially when cropping an image may actually move distractions to the edge. Edge distractions are difficult to see when composing images, which means they might require correction in post processing. 

There are multiple distractions around the edges of this photo as well as other distracting elements. One possibility to reduce these distractions is to find another vantage point. Would you throw this image out? What editing choices would you make?

Multiple techniques were employed to finish the image, including cropping, content aware replacements, healing brushes and selective darkening of some areas. The image was also leveled and skewed to compensate for perspective distortions.

Over Editing

This is really a personal preference thing. Of course, I like my editing style or I wouldn’t do it, but others might not like my style. The main thing I want to see are reasonable pleasing tones and colors. What is not pleasing to me is over saturation. That means there is too much color. I admit, bright colors sell, but I do not believe they are flattering in the below example.

A second over editing fault is seen in making images too sharp or grainy. This happens when adding too much texture in post processing, increasing both contrast and grain. This can be an effective style, especially with black and white photography, but it does not always work out so for color.

The ability to selectively darken or lighten skies and other parts of an image can create distracting halos. This is a sure sign that a photographer does not go the extra mile to perfect results. Be aware of this fault and how to correct it. You may learn through YouTube videos or contact me to show you how to fix this issue.

 

Other Reasons to Kick Yourself

It’s a good thing bruises heal or I would be a permanent black and blue. These reasons have to do with settings. They are easy to prevent if you have a checklist.

  1. No card in card slot. I rarely take mine out, preferring to transfer image directly from camera to computer rather than using a card reader. By not taking the card out, you won’t forget to put it back in. 
  2. New card not formatted. Your camera will usually let you know about this, but take a test shot before going out on a shoot.
  3. Not shooting in RAW. Occasionally I shoot casual photos in jpeg to conserve space on my card and computer. Inevitably, I will forget to change back to RAW at the end of the shoot. Did I mention checklists?
  4. Other wrong settings. If you bump up your ISO, get in the habit of always moving it back to the lowest setting at the end of a shoot. 
  5. I just have to mention this last one because it happens to everyone. That is, if you choose to delete single images directly in your camera, you will eventually be distracted and mistakenly hit the buttons that say “delete all” and confirm with “yes”. This happens because we think we can do multiple tasks at the same time. I can’t, maybe you can. And this only happens when we have just had our best shoot. I have two images on my website that were deleted in the manner I described here. Fortunately, a photographer friend had recovery software that allowed me to recapture the images from my card. Many people do not know that deleted images stay on your memory card until future images write over them. So if you do what I did and you want to try to recover images, do not take more photos on that card. You can search online for recovery software…usually costs about $70-100.

RS

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