Wrong!
So, there's a million and one things you can do wrong with a camera I know I'm guilty of it.
We asked our Pros B&H and they came up with the list of the ways we're using our cameras
wrong.
Holding Your Camera the Wrong Way.
Most cameras are right hand leaving your left hand free to balance weight and control the
lens.
Supporting your camera and lens underneath improves balance, weight management and stability.
This can have a huge benefit especially when shooting at slower shutter speeds.
Not Cleaning Your Lens
Dust, dirt, oil smudges--these are all Infamous old enemies of the photographer.
Keeping your lenses clean is essential for making images sharp, legible and free from
distractions.
Lens wipes and cleaning cloths can save you hours of valuable time in post.
Not Having Enough Batteries or Memory Cards on You
So, you find yourself in a situation where your only battery runs dry or you fill up
your only memory card.
Not having spare cards and batteries can mean the end of your day of shooting.
Or worse, If you're on a job a very angry client and a lot of embarrassment.
Have spares to ensure a smooth continuous shooting day, worry-free.
Not Adjusting Your Focus Point
Most photographers find the center point the sweet spot for focusing on an image.
But not all images have the subject in the middle of the frame.
You can focus and recompose but doing so may not guarantee a sharp image.
Moving the focus point where your subject is, solves this issue.
Shooting in Full Auto or The Wrong Mode
Shooting in full auto mode is great for shooting straight away but as you develop as a photographer
manual control of aperture, shutter speed and ISO can help fully realize your vision.
If you're making the move from Full Auto, try using aperture or shutter priority modes.
Aperture priority mode does exactly what it sounds like.
Lets you choose your aperture while the camera adjusts the shutter speed to make a proper
exposure.
Aperture priority is especially useful when you like to control the depth of field in
your photos so whether you want to shallow depth of field for a portrait or deep depth
of field for landscapes.
Aperture priority allows you to set the desired aperture and depth based on your aesthetic.
You can still set ISO sensitivity, which will affect what shutter speed the camera sets
indirectly.
If your shooting action or sports setting your camera in shutter priority will let you
control the exposure of your photograph to freeze or blur moving subject.
Just like an aperture priority mode you'll have the ability to change the ISO and this
will affect what aperture the camera thinks is right for an exposure.
Learning how to use the manual camera mode gives you complete control over the image
making process.
You, the photographer make all of the decisions.
Depth of field, exposure time, light sensitivity.
Whether simple or complex mastery of manual photography is paramount executing your vision.
Don't Use Auto White Balance
In some situations, auto white balance can
be a great help.
Especially in mixed lighting scenarios.
But there are times when the feature gets it wrong.
Landscapes where white snow turns blue or even grey.
Using color temperature presets is a good starting place but setting custom white balance
offers even finer control.
Of course, if you shoot in raw It's possible that you can adjust your white balance in
post but, why not get it right in camera?
Not Shooting in Raw
So, speaking of shooting in raw this gives you the finest control over your images in
post.
If your white balance is off, or if you had some exposure issues the uncompressed information
in a raw file allows for adjustments that just can't be done with JPEG files.
Not Exposing Properly
Achieving a good exposure means not losing any of the detail in the darkest and brightest
parts of an image.
Now, while some objects like the sun will always appear bright, you shouldn't blow out
your sky or, a subject’s skin.
Likewise, you don't want to underexpose your subject and lose important information in
the shadow details.
Use your camera's light meter to get a good idea of where your exposure lies.
Sometimes for scenes where there's a big difference between the highlights in the shadow details
you can underexpose the shot, to save the highlights and in post, boost the shadows
to help balance the image.
Blown highlights can lose all of their detail.
Where something that’s underexposed is more likely to be recoverable in post.
Exposure compensation is a helpful tool that will allow you to purposefully underexpose
or over exposure image-based on the scenario.
For instance, if your camera isn't getting an accurate reading of what the exposure in
the scene is really about-like if you're shooting in snow.
You can use compensation to help make a better photograph.
So, those are some of the things from our list but what are some of the wrong things
that you've seen out there?
Let us know in the comments below.
If you haven't already hit subscribe!
I'm photographer David Flores See you next time.
Wrong
WRONG! YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!
Wrong!
Hey!
Don’t do that!
That’s Wrong!