Photography has become very popular in the last few years and of course, there are many reasons for that. Equipment has become cheaper now so everyone can afford to have a camera in their hand. Advancement of technology also makes it easy to click photos. In the era of film photography, one needs to buy a roll which can take only 36 pictures and they were clueless about how the picture will come until they get it developed and print.
Nowadays you can see the picture live on the screen, click multiple pictures and select the best, enhance it on your phone and share with the world instantly. When something becomes that easy and used by masses, it started losing its value. It’s sad but true that photography is dying as an art.
Today we’ll talk about some common misconceptions and mistakes people are making these days. If you are also making one or more of these mistakes, please don’t feel bad. We all make mistakes and my intention is not to hurt your feelings.
1. Buying a DSLR is enough to become a good photographer
Many people believe that if they have a DSLR camera, it means they are a good photographer which is obviously not true. Buying a sports car doesn’t make you a racing driver, in the same way buying a DSLR doesn’t make you a good photographer. Photography is an art and you need to learn this art in order to become an expert.
2. Expensive camera and bigger lenses make us a better photographer
This is the second misconception people are having about photography. When they see a good photo, they usually ask the photographer “which camera do you have?” instead of “how much time and efforts you devoted for taking such a beautiful picture?” It’s the same as we ask a famous painter about which colors and brushes he used to make the masterpiece that just auctioned for 10 million.
Buying an expensive body and bigger lens doesn’t make you a better photographer. You need to invest time to learn and practice and use the full potential of your equipment.
3. Higher megapixel means better image quality
This is also a misconception for many people. They believe that higher megapixel camera takes a better quality picture and it’s not their fault. These days all mobile companies talk only about megapixels in their advertisements. Megapixel is just the size of the picture, if a camera clicks 6000 x 4000 pixel image, it means it’s 6000 x 4000 = 24000000 pixels or we can say 24 megapixel camera. Picture quality depends on sensor size, lens, light and many other different factors.
4. We don't bother to read the manual that comes along with the camera
Life is very fast these days and when we buy something, we usually don’t have time to read boring manuals. That’s why most of the people don’t use even 10% features of their camera. If someone is using DSLR in full auto mode, it’s like he is driving a car in first gear and he’ll never know about the top speed of the car.
5. We don't learn about the basics of photography
Let’s do an experiment, just go and see personal photography pages of people and you’ll find photos with bad lighting, poor composition, blown highlights, and clipped shadows. Why? Because of the point number one, “I bought a DSLR and now I become a photographer.”
If you want to be an expert photographer, you need to learn to see light and how to use it properly. You must learn the rules of composition and frame your subject according to that, you have to incorporate a story in every photo you take.
These days everyone has a camera or a smartphone in their hands, everyone is taking hundreds of pictures every day. If you want to stand out in this crowd, you need to make your photos extraordinary, and you can do it only when you know what you are doing. So take some photography classes, learn from the internet, when you see a picture with wow factor, try to find out what the photographer did differently that made it wow.
6. We don't think before clicking because we believe that "Clicking is Free"
No matter we are clicking with a DSLR or mobile, nowadays we don’t think before clicking because it’s free. “Yes, we don’t need to buy a film roll so we can click as many photos as we want and if it’s not good, we can just delete it.” Tell me honestly, you also think the same?
Well, clicking is not free actually, if you are shooting with DSLR, every camera has a shutter count and after that number shutter starts giving trouble. So with every bad photo, you are reducing the life of shutter and camera.
Let’s say you went for a photo walk and you took 250 photos in which only 20 photos are good. First, you wasted 230 shutter counts, second you need to buy storage media to keep these photos that have some cost and if you decided to delete 230 bad photos to save space, you have to waste your precious time which can be used for something better.
7. Too much use of post-processing software
Previously photographers spend hours in a darkroom to enhance photos, but now this work can be done easily on computer software. When something becomes that easy, it starts getting misused. Now post-processing software is being used as a fix for the bad photos.
“Take a photo, if you made some mistake, just correct it in software.” It’s common thinking and we need to get out of this. The software is only for enhancement of picture, please don’t overuse it. Always remember, boosting the color don’t always make a picture better, making black and white is not the solution to a picture with bad colors and not every picture looks great in HDR.
8. No backup of your precious piece of art
Don’t make this costly mistake, always index your pictures properly and have a backup either online or some external hard drives so you won’t lose your precious work and find it easily when required.
9. Try to do every kind of photography
Most people think that they can do any kind of photography but every genre of photography required a different kind of equipment and skill set like for wildlife you need a super telephoto lens, for landscape you need a wide lens, for portraits you may need an artificial light source like flash or studio light. I am not saying that you should stick with just one kind, do different type of photography but become an expert in one genre of photography that when people talk about it, your name come for sure.
10. Too much learning, not enough practice
Many people spend lots of time on the internet learning new tricks and seeing other’s picture. If you are doing the same, stop it. Just learn one thing and do it yourself. Keep doing it until you get the results. Once you get it, learn the next.
About the Author
Ramakant Sharda is an author, iOS App publisher, passionate photographer and a MIOPS Ambassador based in the beautiful “Pink City” of India, known as Jaipur. His work has been published in various magazines, newspapers, and blogs. He has published three Coffee Table Books, he writes about photography and also teaches photography in his workshops. Check out his website http://ClickManic.com to see the masterpieces created by him or download his free app for iPhone and iPad “30 Days to an Ace Photographer“.
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