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Photographers, these are some things you should never do

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In this article, I discuss some of the different things that I’ve personally decided are bad ideas as an artist. Let’s dive in.

1.Steal Other Photographers Work

To some of you, this might seem obvious, however, when you’re starting out you might hear the advice “fake it till’ you make it,” or see another photographer who uses photos that aren’t their own to make money.

This is a bad idea on multiple levels and isn’t just a problem with amateurs. Award winning photographer Souvid Datta just recently got caught doctoring and appropriating photos. We’ll get to the doctoring part in a minute, but it goes to show that not even the most successful and well-established reputations can get away with this. Here’s the punchline; people will figure you out. How many times can you show a client an amazing portfolio, only to deliver mediocre work before the reviews start coming in and the conversation starts happening behind your back. Once your reputation is damaged and you are seen as a fraud, its extremely difficult to recover, and there is a high likelihood it will be game over for you.

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Costly landscape photography mistakes and how to avoid them

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Regardless of how seasoned we may be as photographers, there will always be mistakes that sneak their way into our workflow.  For landscape photographers in particular, early mornings, late nights, and challenging conditions can lead to fatigue or distractions that cause us to lose focus (no pun intended) on important details that can make or break our photos.

I recently took a trip to California and spent time photographing in Joshua Tree National Park, Alabama Hills, and Death Valley National Park.  It was a trip that was filled with sleep deprivation and shooting conditions that I had not encountered before, and, as a result, I made plenty of mistakes along the way.  Some of these errors were minor and just meant that I would need to spend a little extra effort in post-processing compensating for them.  Others, however, were critical mistakes that made me unable to print a photo due to poor quality, or unable to use them in general.

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This is not your typical 7 mistakes video, it’s worth your 28 minutes

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We all make mistakes and learn from them. And we’ve often been pointed out the ones we make as photographers. But in their latest podcast, Tony & Chelsea Northrup point out to 7 mistakes you may not have thought about, and you have probably made at least one of them. Maybe you still do.

Listening to this episode was the best spent half an hour today. It’s not a typical “how to avoid these mistakes in photography” video. It goes well beyond gear, post-processing and settings. It’s deep, intelligent and focuses on things we often oversee, but we’ve most certainly done at some point. And it’s definitely well worth 28 minutes of your time.

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These are 28 common mistakes in Street Photography you should avoid

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1.Always using the Manual Mode

One common misconception and Street Photography mistake is the believe that professional photographers always use the manual mode and therefore it is also useful for Street Photography, right?

Firstly, professional photographers don’t use the manual mode every time. They use it when it benefits them, but they also choose an automatic mode when conditions are changing rapidly and would mean to adjust the camera settings too often. The automatic modes that come with the camera are already well developed and tested in the field. A lot of professional wedding photographers use them, as well as photojournalists.

The street isn’t a place where you can define your settings once and can go with them all day. Choosing the automatic modes allows you to focus more on taking the picture and wasting less time to fiddle with your camera.

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These are 3 mistakes every new photographer makes, and some tips for avoiding them

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What was your most common mistake when you were a beginner in photography? We all make mistakes, but fortunately – we learn from them, so we become better and better. Rachel and Daniel from Mango Studio point out three most common mistakes almost every new photographer makes, but also offer ways to overcome them. Did you make these, too?

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The biggest mistakes made by new and aspiring models

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While geared more toward those on the other side of the camera, I thought this video I ran across over the weekend was worth sharing. It was posted to YouTube a while ago now, but in it, modelling scout Trudi Tapscott talks about some of the biggest mistakes that new and aspiring models make when starting their career.

It’s an interesting insight for photographers, too, especially newer ones who might not be used to working with models or as part of a team. It lets us know some of the things that models expect when walking into a shoot.

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