10 most common mistakes amateur photographers make… and how to avoid them

The joy of digital photography is that it’s a lot cheaper to learn from your mistakes. With no film costs to worry about, you can instantly gauge the success of your technique and settings, and easily delete howlers.
The important thing is to learn from your mistakes, though, not just repeat them; and, of course, you can only work on common mistakes if you know they are mistakes in the first place…

1. Only using the kit lens

While it’s only natural to buy an SLR or CSC with a supplied ‘kit’ lens, it’s only there to get you started. Retailers usually ship quite basic, generalist lenses with starter SLRs, with relatively narrow constant apertures – something like an 18-55mm f/3.5.
These lenses are fine, but built down to a price, so be prepared to invest in more expensive specialist lenses depending on your favourite genres. A prime, wide-aperture lens for portraits (eg 50mm f/1.8), a wide-angle lens for landscapes, and a general-purpose zoom with a wide aperture, such as a 70-200mm f/2.8, for example. Few lenses can ‘do it all.’

2. Not using Manual enough

Once you’ve got to grips with Program, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority (Tv) shooting modes, it’s important to experiment with Manual. Having to set aperture and shutter speed independently of each other is good practice, and lots of under-or-overexposed shots will teach you a lot about what combinations work, when don’t, want to use Manual, and when to avoid it.

3. Using Manual too much

M doesn’t stand for Macho, however, and don’t use it for the sake of it. Nobody will forgive a poorly exposed image just because you were brave and used Manual. Manual is best used in fairly consistent and predictable light, or in conditions were the semi-automatic modes (P, A, S/Tv) would struggle, such as at a live indoor performance with constantly changing artificial lights.

4. Not using the Exposure Compensation button enough

The Exposure Compensation (+/-) button is incredibly useful when you are out on a shoot, but it’s surprising how many photographers forget it’s there. It’s a fast way to make your picture lighter or darker, and thereby compensate for tricky lighting conditions.
The classic example is increasing the compensation to stop your camera rendering white snow as a dull grey, but you can also ‘compensate’ to lift the exposure on faces outdoors, for instance, or add negative values to create silhouettes.

5. Not taking control of Autofocus points

Autofocus (AF) causes a lot of confusion. A rookie error is to assume it just ‘works’ and that all you need to do is half press the shutter button for perfect focus to be achieved. While the default, ‘auto everything’ AF option can work fine, there are times it gets confused.
It’s often wiser to turn off all the highlighted AF points you see through the viewfinder and just select a single one, moving it to the area you absolutely need to be in focus – the eyes in a portrait for example.
It can take a while to get used to, but the results are well worth it and this is often an effective cure for consistently ‘soft’ portraits. Try changing to single AF with your camera and moving the points around.

6. Not using AI Servo/Continuous AF

Related to the above, it’s important to remember that there are also different AF ‘modes’ on most higher-end cameras. When you are trying to photograph a moving object, it’s important to move to Continuous/AI Servo AF mode so your camera is tracking said object. With a walking or running person, again, try to keep the AF point over their eyes or face.

7. Using too narrow apertures

While it’s true that in theory, the narrower the lens aperture the greater the depth of field (front to back sharpness in an image) don’t fall into the trap of closing the aperture right down, as far as it will go, every time.
Rather than nice sharp results you could actually get softer softs, thanks to a frustrating optical phenomenon called diffraction. Better to be more cautious with narrow apertures, using a tripod and cable release and accurate focussing (manual if necessary) for sharp results.

8. Using too wide apertures

At the other extreme, don’t automatically bust your lens aperture open to f/1.4 every time if your lens supports it. Sure, you will have light flooding on to your sensor and facilitate blurred backgrounds, but sharpness may quickly fall away from the immediate area of focus.
The tell tale sign is excessively soft ears on a portrait. Wedding photographers, though, often like the dreamy look you get ‘wide open,’ so it’s all about your intention.

9. Not using a tripod enough

Tripods can be a pain to lug around but they still have their uses. Many top photographers, including National Geographic shooter Ken Kaminseky, reckon that using a tripod more is one of the single best things you can do for your photography. As well as the obvious benefits of greater stability when shooting landscapes, portraits or nature shots, tripods slow you down and get you thinking about composition more.

10. On-camera flash

Your camera’s built-in flash is handy for adding a pop of light to lift shadows on very sunny days (fill in flash) but otherwise quite limited. Using a separate flashgun is better, but don’t just point it at your subject and blast away, as you still get that amateurish snapshot look – very bright foreground, dark background.
Angle your flashgun towards a white or pale wall or ceiling for nicer results. Also, remember that there is no point using a plastic flashgun diffuser outdoors. If you are serious about flash/strobist effects, get to grips with off-camera flash.