Photography is the art of noticing what others pass by – the extraordinary within the ordinary. (my favourite quote this week)
Hello Hello 👋
Today, let’s talk about something we’ve all been through – those rookie mistakes when starting out with a camera. Modern cameras make taking photos seem super easy (just point and shoot, right?), but getting those truly amazing shots? That’s where the challenge begins.
When you’re chasing that perfect 1% of truly great photos, you’ll probably stumble into some common pitfalls. Don’t worry – making mistakes is part of the journey!
🚀 Let’s look at 7 common ones I see all the time:
⛵ Over-Shooting Everything
We’ve all done it – getting a new camera and shooting literally EVERYTHING. At first, this helps you get comfortable with your gear. But after a while, it becomes counterproductive.
Why? Two reasons:
- You’re not taking time to find good subjects or think about composition
- You end up with hundreds of mediocre photos, making it hard to find your winners
Quick fix: Slow down between shots. Look around your location carefully and focus on the scenes that really catch your eye. Quality over quantity!
⛵ Trying to Capture the Entire Scene
This is super common and totally understandable. You see a beautiful landscape and want to capture EVERYTHING in one frame.
What works better is finding the main subject within that big scene.
In a landscape with rolling hills, clouds, and a barn, make the barn your centrepiece and arrange other elements around it. This gives your photos a focal point that draws viewers in.
Capture moments today that time will envy tomorrow.
⛵ Living in Aperture Mode
Av Mode is fine when you’re getting started – no shame in that! But staying there too long limits your creativity by letting the camera make all the decisions.
Try this instead:
- Start with Program Priority (A/Av) or Shutter Priority (S/Tv) modes
- When you’re ready, experiment with Manual mode to learn the relationship between aperture and shutter speed
Remember: Aperture mode isn’t “bad” – it’s just about using the right mode for what you’re trying to capture.
⛵ Never Lowering Your Camera
When you’re excited about photography, it’s tempting to keep that viewfinder glued to your eye. But constantly looking through your camera actually makes you miss better shots.
By regularly lowering your camera and surveying the scene with your own eyes, you’ll:
- Spot better compositions
- Notice where the light is falling
- Find interesting subjects you might have missed
Give yourself permission to look before you shoot!
⛵ Relying on Area Focus Mode
Most cameras default to an area focus mode that uses multiple points to decide what should be in focus. While this technology is amazing, it doesn’t always know what YOU want as your subject.
Better approach: Learn to use single-point focus. Place that focus point directly on your intended subject using your camera’s controls. This ensures YOUR subject is tack-sharp, not what the camera thinks should be in focus.
This small change will dramatically improve your hit rate for sharp, well-focused images.
Mistakes are just unplanned creativity.
⛵ Buying Too Much Gear Too Soon
We’ve all felt the urge to buy more lenses, flashes, or tripods before we’ve mastered what we already have. New gear is exciting, but it rarely improves your photography as much as practice does.
In fact, limiting yourself to minimal gear (like one camera and a single prime lens) can supercharge your creativity. You’ll move around more to find compositions and develop a better understanding of perspective.
Master what you have before adding more to your collection!
⛵ Avoiding Editing
Some photographers proudly claim they “get everything right in camera” and never edit. While that’s a worthy goal, not editing your photos means you’re not realizing their full potential.
If you shoot RAW (which you should!), you’ll need to edit. If you shoot JPEG, your camera is making editing decisions for you.
Start with simple editing software – you don’t need expensive programs right away. Even basic adjustments to contrast, exposure, and colour can transform your images.
Digital photography gives us the freedom to experiment without the cost of film. So try new techniques, push beyond your comfort zone, and watch how quickly your photography improves.
What’s the biggest photography mistake you’ve made that turned into a valuable lesson? Reply and let me know!
P.S. If you found this helpful, forward it to a photography friend who might appreciate these tips!
🟢 Until the next one, Keep chasing horizons, one frame at a time and let’s be mindful of our environment.
Cheers!!
🚀 Planning Trip, Check 🔻
⛳ Other fun stuff
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🚀 Here are the tools I found interesting in last few weeks and still exploring
🎋 TextBehindImage is online tool uses advanced image processing to detect foreground and background elements, enabling seamless text placement.
🎋 Let’s Enhance uses AI to automatically enhance and upscale images, allowing users to improve resolution, colors, lighting, and remove JPEG artifacts without manual editing.
🎋 Motionleap by Lightricks is a photo editing and animation app that brings still images to life by adding motion effects such as animated geometric patterns, skies and water movement.
📆 Product update/offer
In this section, I share any cool new product, feature released in past few weeks or newsletter subscriber only offers
✔ Skylum launched new tool called Aperty. It is photo editing tool for professional portrait photographers looking to decrease post-processing times without sacrificing quality.
🎁 [Giveway] Luminar Neo – For every purchase of Luminar Neo, you can get into the prize draw to win extra gifts like a camera (Fujifilm X-m5 or a DJI Osmo 3, and many gifts from Skylum)
🎁 [Offer for you] Epidemic Sound introduced Sync to video – Cool feature if you want to quickly make video with great sound collection.
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📌 Best Place to See Cherry Blossom and Enjoy Spring in Japan
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📌 Recommended cameras in 2025 for landscape photography
🍾 Photo of the week
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