hey how's it going folks it's me parker i know it has been a while i apologize i've been busy working on a new website and some new mini courses for our full-time filmmaker program but today we are officially launching our newest mini course photo pro we are of course a filmmaking channel and online course but photography overlaps and relates to video work in a lot of areas and we're finding that increasingly clients are asking for both video and steals from videographers an example of this for me was my cotopaxi project in hawaii a couple years back i was being paid to deliver one video and about 50 photos another example is any of my real estate shoots my client always asks for some aerial stills and i also have to shoot photos for thumbnails for youtube videos or photos to design our website or for posting to instagram and so on so learning how to shoot and edit professional photos is something we will be incorporating more into this channel and into our online course by launching an all new 30 video mini course called photo pro and to head that course and to share with me today some beginner photography mistakes to avoid here is our talented team member nate taylor what's up guys my name is nate taylor and i've been doing both video and photo professionally for about five years i've shop for a variety of clients having made a lot of mistakes along the way so in this video we'll be covering the top 10 photography mistakes beginners make and if you find this video valuable we've provided a link in the description where you can join our complete photography crash course we'll discuss more at the end of this video about what's included in that course but for now let's dive into the first mistake mistake number one is focusing too much on the gear yes we do use nice equipment and yes it does make a difference but the biggest reason we put this as number one is because people get so hung up on the gear and don't get out and create with the gear they have don't let gear be your excuse for not creating good content when i first started i had the canon 77d with a cheap 50 millimeter i got off amazon parker started with a used t3i and we both were able to land clients and work professionally with that low end gear because we focused on learning and how to best utilize the gear we already had instead of obsessing what we could do if we had better gear and as we made money from those clients we were able to slowly upgrade our gear over time so instead of spending several hours every day researching what camera to get next checking rumor blogs and arguing on facebook groups about which brand is best get out there and create with what you already have instead of spending 100 of your money on new gear spend some of that to take classes or find a mentor and invest just as much time and money into developing your skills so that is the biggest mistake we see is too much time spent talking about and looking at gear and not enough time out in the field practicing with what you already have moving on now to the second big mistake we see beginner photographers make and that is using the wrong camera settings this mistake is probably the most obvious because it's one of the fundamental parts of photography so first let's talk about mistakes that happen with shooting modes more often than not we see photographers shooting in automatic now let me clarify shooting an auto is not the mistake it's when the photographer hasn't tried any other mode because they're too afraid to try in order to become a professional photographer you need to learn the effects that shutter speed aperture and iso have on your image manual mode is going to give you much more creative control over your exposure but most rookies when switching to manual mode have a hard time dialing in the exposure and end up over exposing and blowing out highlights to an unrecoverable level or underexposing to the point of introducing unnecessary noise now not even the pros expose perfectly every time but learning how to use your histogram or other exposure tools to get your image as close as possible comes with a lot of practice when in doubt it's better to slightly under expose your shot as it's much easier to lift the shadows in post than it is to recover blown out highlights another common mistake is shooting in the wrong white balance but this can easily be solved by not making the next common mistake and that is shooting in jpeg instead of raw the reason why it's so bad to shoot in jpeg is because they are compressed files which means there is information lost so say you accidentally underexposed too much or shot with the wrong color balance and then when trying to correct that in post you have all these artifacts and weird colors show up in your image that's because a jpeg image bakes in your settings whereas raw files retain more exposure and color information so you can push and pull the exposure or colors much further without the image falling apart so as long as you shoot in raw you can shoot an auto white balance and just make fine tune adjustments in post but even if you shoot in raw you can't make adjustments to things like shutter speed aperture and focus so you have to make sure you nail those settings in camera and we'll talk about those later the only downside to shooting raw is that it does take up a lot more space on your memory card but you're going to want that extra information in your photos for flexibility and post so get a larger sd card and shoot in raw and now on to mistake number three bad composition this is a big mistake we see all the time and it's quite an easy fix if you know about it and watch out for it next time you're on a shoot knowing how to properly compose an image will instantly up your photo game as beginners we tend not to fill the frame with the subject instead we include too much background foreground other people and objects this can be distracting and doesn't immediately draw the viewer to the focal point of the photo it makes the viewer's eye search for a subject which causes the image to lose impact and depth this is especially prominent with portraiture here we have a portrait but the camera is too far away from the subject so there is no depth and the subject is too small within the frame now unless you want the landscape to be an equal subject for the viewer to focus on you should always get closer and feel the frame with the person but even when beginners feel the frame they are so focused on making their subjects look really good they forget to check the background they don't always catch that there is a tree growing out of their subject's head which can be easily solved by just changing the camera angle slightly another common mistake is photographers not using the rule of thirds they are so focused on getting their subject in focus that they just leave the camera focus point in the center of their frame and take the photo with their subject smack dab in the middle this leaves way too much headroom and can possibly cut off part of their subject's body at a weird spot now typically you want the face on the top of the horizontal third line and on one of the vertical lines leaving more room in front of their face if they're squared up to the camera then it's fine to center them between the two vertical lines and the last composition mistake i want to talk about is lack of depth most rookies take photos out in the open with no foreground for example if you're taking a picture of a landscape find another way to take that landscape from a different perspective for example find something to place in the foreground could be a blush or rocks or even putting your camera right next to the ground anything that will add some depth to the photo try to find leading lines in fences walls lines of trees whatever you can find around you that gives the image depth this mistake goes hand in hand with lens choice which we'll talk about a little bit later but the point is be creative with your camera angles your camera direction and your surroundings to create more depth in your images moving on to mistake number four is bad lighting one of the biggest things that separates a professional photographer from a beginner is their ability to use and shape light when beginners first start out they have no idea how to work with light or where to place their subject to have nice flattering light come across their face lighting is one of the hardest skills to master but one of the most essential to creating beautiful professional images too often i see photographers going out at noonday and making their subjects squint in the bright daylight with the sun directly overhead which causes raccoon eyes this is a very unflattering look so to avoid this you could choose a better time of day ideally when the sun is lower in the sky during golden hour but let's say you're shooting during a wedding and you can't choose the time of day you have to shoot at noonday what do you do in that scenario now most photographers will bring a reflector or an on-camera flash to fill in light but one huge mistake i see all the time with flash is there's no modifier on the flash to soften that light though a flash will provide a better direction of light it still produces an unflattering quality of light we're not going to get into too much detail here about soft versus hard light but basically the bigger the light source in relationship to your subject the softer and more flattering the light will be so cloud coverage is a great time to shoot portraits as it creates a giant diffuser in the sky making your light source much bigger than that tiny point of light in the sky that we call the sun similarly putting a softbox over your flash increases the size of the light thus softening it out for a more flattering look in the course we talk in depth about how to shoot a natural light using off-camera flash even in harsh lighting conditions and how to dial in the flash brightness so your subject isn't too bright or too dark in comparison to their surrounding environment but if you don't have access to flash or reflectors then try to shoot during times of the day where you have cloud coverage or the sun is lower in the sky and then use the sun as backlight rather than frontal light for a more even flattering light on the face another common mistake that happens a lot in studio lighting situations is not using a rim or hair light and the subject blends in with the background now obviously there is some creative choice here and if you're going for a certain mood that can be fine but fundamentally you want a rim or hair light to separate your subject from the background again we dive more in depth into all these lighting scenarios in the course but the point is take the time to learn how to use light and now to mistake number five mistake number five is soft focus focus is an element of composition as we mentioned earlier but we felt it's a big enough issue that it deserves its own tip because everything can be great about your photo but if it's out of focus it will be unusable to help you now focus i'm going to share with you three tips to counter the mistakes i see when focus is missed the first being servo and one shot most cameras by default have their focus settings set to one shot so that's the setting most beginners use this is where the camera locks focus once the shutter button is half pressed so what happens is when they push that shutter down if they move the camera or the subject moves ever so slightly the focus gets thrown off so to avoid this i would change that setting to servo this will tell the camera to adjust focus all the way until that still is actually taken so if you or the subject moves after that half press of that shutter it will still be in focus the second mistake is shaky frame when that shutter is too low say maybe 1 50th of a second and your subject moves while taking that still your picture will show this ghosting effect where your subject moved this can also be caused by camera shaking as the still was taken so to prevent shaky hands from coming into play you want your shutter speed to be at least above 1 250th of a second to freeze that motion and not get any camera shake or subject movement for faster moving subjects like sports you want to be even higher around 1 1000 of a second and the third mistake is more of something that beginner photographers are missing out on i'm talking about the use of back button focus back button focusing isn't about getting sharper shots though it can prevent focusing errors it's about seamlessly swapping focus modes between servo and one shot with back button auto focusing holding that button down turns on the servo autofocus and when you don't need continuous focus tapping the button once switches to one shot and locks the focus in on still subjects this means sports photographers can shoot the game and the sidelines without taking their eye off the viewfinder to adjust focus modes so although this is more of a tip than a mistake this technique will be huge in helping you be more efficient and get more shots in focus moving on now to mistake number six which is lack of movement or action too often i see beginners go out to take pictures of their dog but all they capture is the dog sleeping and are proud of those pictures now i'm not saying taking pictures of their dog is wrong but if they want to go out during golden hour to play fetch and capture that dog running back with the ball that image will be far better than just a sleeping dog in a blind environment capturing movement emotion and actions are what makes a good photograph and this applies to all genres of photography sports weddings and lifestyle all have moments where you need to be ready to capture weddings you'll have a groom cry for the first time he sees his bride and the first kiss as the newly married couple is announced both of which are huge moments and you should not miss i see beginner photographers worrying so much about the pose and once they get the pose it looks totally staged don't stage all of your shots instead direct your subjects to do something of interest like holding hands and walking or dancing with each other these actions will cause emotion to happen which will lead to authentic candid moments that everybody loves with sports you have moments like an emotional team win after a hard game or a player just threw down the biggest dunk of their life those moments are what make a great photograph too often i see beginner sports photographers just taking pictures to take pictures and not looking for those impactful moments the ability to see moments as they happen and capture them beautifully is what will separate a professional from an amateur photographer now if your subject isn't alive or can't be directed such as a river traffic or a mountainscape you can use long exposure photography to create movement in the water like this image here now it does take some time and practice to notice these moments and be quick enough to capture them but this mistake is one that will make a huge difference in your photography so don't overlook this one moving on to mistake number seven is using the wrong lens what makes this mistake obvious is when a wide wide-angle lens is used on a close-up of the human face i've talked about this plenty before so we won't go into too much detail here but for close-ups of the face you want to be between about 70 and 100 millimeter our favorite portrait lens is the 85 millimeter 1.4 or a 50 millimeter but with a 50 millimeter i even see a lot of professional photographers getting too close to the subject making them look distorted and clownish if you're gonna do a close-up of the face you gotta have a tighter lens than a 50 millimeter 50 mils are great for mediums or full bodies but i don't recommend them for close-ups and if you're capturing full body shots or group shots or wanting to focus more on the surrounding environment or background then that's when you'd use a wider angle lens such as a 35 or a 24 and for landscapes architecture and real estate i'm usually super wide between about 20 and 16 millimeter as far as scenarios like sports photography a common mistake is trying to shoot action sports with a wide or standard lens if you shoot these types of events you need to invest in a telephoto lens like the rf 70 to 200 2.8 which is what we use this allows you to zoom in when they are on the other side of the field and zoom back out to 70 when they are closer to you obviously certain sports will call for different lenses so make sure you have the lens that will allow you to fill your frame with your subject biggest takeaway some lenses are better for certain types of photography than others now you may not be able to afford a bunch of high-end lenses right when you get started and that's okay you can cover most of your bases with something like a 24 to 70 millimeter lens for your first one and as you specialize in other types of photography you can start investing in more lenses but don't get lazy and use the same focal length for every type of shoot learn which focal lengths are best for which scenarios and if possible bring multiple lens options with you at all times now on to mistake number eight which is bad posing now we have all seen those pictures where the couple looks like they're in pain and don't want to be having their picture taken don't be that photographer that makes the clients feel that way when you're looking for inspiration and you see a portrait that captures candid expressions and authentic moods you're tempted to recreate that look instead of recreating a pose try to direct them to do things that will naturally and organically create that emotion you are looking for some subjects are naturally good at posing but most are not say you have a couple that is very stiff and doesn't know how to have their picture taken and i want them to look madly in love softly smiling at one another most beginners make it super awkward by hiding behind the camera and just saying uh look at each other yeah that makes sense in your head but to them they're just gonna stare at each other blankly you need to lead and guide them to what you want by establishing a common vocabulary between you and the couple i like to tell them to hold each other like it's cold outside and then stare into each other's eyes longingly and whisper sweet nothings to each other this will do three things put them in an environment where they are comfortable which is being with each other cause emotion to be shared and smiles to happen and finally they will have confidence because they understood what you wanted of course there will be times where you need to give specific instructions but still guiding a subject versus positioning someone is sometimes the way to get what you want in a portrait now one pose i see all the time and what i want you to be aware of is this pose here it's common for the woman to clench her hand on the man's chest making it look very unnatural it's also a sign of her feeling awkward and unnatural in that pose so what i would do is tell him to bring her in nice and close as you can see they feel and look much more natural because they're comfortable holding each other that is your role as the photographer to analyze and detect when a couple feels weird because again they don't do this all the time there are dozens of other posing mistakes out there we can't cover them all in this video but inside the course i have a whole video dedicated to how i pose and direct my couples so if that's something that you struggle with make sure to check that out but moving on now to mistake number nine which is over editing we know this mistake well because we've all seen it at one point or another when just starting out we like to have a little too much fun in the editing room and we take images way too far we like to call this the overzealous processor now i do have to say it's very rare that a shot is perfect straight out of camera and almost every image benefits from a little editing here and there but how do you know when you've gone too far it's true that art is subjective and personal tastes and opinions differ but there are a few obvious giveaways that you might be over processing your shots the images that have way too much saturation or the portraits that have plastic-looking skin or too overexposed trying to make it look bright and airy pretty much any effect that's taken too far becomes a bad thing images start to look unnatural and cartoon like when you push any of the editing controls too far such as contrast saturation sharpening and clarity it's a dead giveaway to an amateur photographer now i understand it can be tempting to try and stand out from the crowd by pushing the processing further than usual but the truth is the image is eye-catching for all the wrong reasons the key is learning to hold back when to utilize certain effects and how to keep the processing look natural so it enhances and doesn't distract and finally the last mistake we see beginners make and i plan on making a full video just on this topic is spending a larger amount of time creating than you do consuming if you want to escape beginner status you have to put in thousands of reps of practice i'm not talking about a few dozen shoots over several months i'm talking hundreds of shoots over several years the only way to improve is to constantly be shooting and learning from your mistakes i still make common mistakes to this day but having shot tens of thousands of photos over the past 10 years i make less mistakes and improve in new areas every year it's easy for beginners to get discouraged comparing themselves to pros who've been shooting for decades and it is important to learn from the pros but it's damaging to compare your work to theirs this will destroy your confidence and keep you from wanting to continue trying to improve so instead compare yourself to who you were yesterday and as long as you're pushing yourself to improve each day you'll gain confidence as you see yourself slowly progressing so here's the tip if you find yourself spending hours on instagram consuming other people's work stop a few minutes to get some inspiration great then spend the rest of your day creating and improving spend a much larger amount of your time creating than you do consuming and you'll greatly increase your chances of being successful i promise and when you do choose to consume to help you do it more effectively and productively we created photo pro over 30 video tutorials teaching you how to shoot and edit natural light and flash photography portraits real estate products landscapes sports and much more in the course you'll be able to see behind the scenes look on a variety of shooting scenarios and we'll also be teaching you our full editing workflow in post how to incorporate flash photography into your arsenal of skills in both studio and outdoor scenarios how to properly shoot hdr photos for real estate how to apply our included preset packs for dark and moody edits high key edits or hdr real estate edits also included is our best export settings to use how to professionally deliver your photos to clients and so on so if you want to up your photography game make sure to click on the link below to join photo pro or it's also included in the full course full-time filmmaker link to that below as well to learn about the ultimate online film school but that's it for our 10 beginner mistakes that we commonly see hopefully that was helpful in allowing you to know what you can work on to improve your photography thanks for watching make sure to subscribe for more content just like this and if you have any further questions please let us know