If you’re just starting out in the photography world, it’s a good idea to stay up to date with the latest trends and skills. The fact of the matter is that practice makes perfect. Making mistakes is the perfect way to help yourself learn and grow the photography skill. By seeing different perspectives and fixing mistakes yourself, you’ll be able to visually understand why you’re doing it the way you are. As a beginner, you will make the following mistakes, however, it’s a good idea to know these mistakes before you make them so you know what to improve on in the future.
Diffusion Filters
Otherwise known as the filter that makes images look like they date back to the 1960’s, Diffusion filters are no fun. For one, your image won’t even look original. Instead, they will look broken. This filter is the devil of all filters, and I advise you to stay away from it as far as you can. This filter was meant to portray a “dreamy” effect, but too much of this filter will destroy your perspective of good photography.
Impaling Background Subjects
One of the biggest mistakes that we’ve all made at one point or another, is not notice our surroundings. It’s so easy to forget to see our background objects as we tend to focus on the primary subject of our photo, however, background objects can make or break your picture. For example, taking photos of people in front of brick walls, will only come off as bricks falling on top of the object’s head. Be careful when shooting in the woods as well. Twigs and branches can turn your human object into a part human, part animal character.
Saturation
I have a love hate relationship with this filter. For one, it takes a lot of time and patience to understand how this filter works. The point is to saturate or make your image become brighter or more to life. However, too much or too little can kill the image. When working with saturation, you’ll also have to work alongside with contrast and balance. Therefore, I’ll tell you now; practice will make perfect. To avoid the most common rookie mistake, try making copies and editing these images to see the difference and ensure that you are practicing.
Framing & Balance
This photo trick will give your experience level away. If your images are typically centered dead in the middle, you’re totally a rookie. If you’re just starting out, I’ll give you a break. However, never completely center your photos. They should be balanced in the sense of light and contrast, however your object should never be centered. This creates too much illusion, especially in landscape photography which will throw the viewer off. Instead, play around with different shooting angles to help your subject come to life.