It Will Happen If It Hasn’t Already
There is one beautiful thing life gives everyone, the ability to make mistakes, for if we were perfect, life becomes boring. Life is best with excitement. The goal of a photographer is to share something with visual interest. Unfortunately, in everyday life’s struggles a negative occasion for us to make a mistake or two will happen. Photographers are not immune from this. I know, I’ve done it more than once and I’ve seen many photographers do the same. Some mistakes are more common than others, so as a reminder, here are the top ten mistakes photographers make, or have made:
A behind the scenes photo at one of my Atlanta photography adventures.
The number ten mistake photographers make at one point in their life is losing their lens cap. Remember the famous “cap keeper?” I’ve done it and I’m sure you’ve experienced it. The easiest solution, take the lens cap off before your photo session and place it in your back pocket or immediately put it in your camera bag.
The number nine mistake photographers make at one point in their life is leaving their battery in the charger block or forgetting to bring the camera battery or charger. I’ve done the latter and the easiest solution is keep a spare camera battery in your camera case. The best solution, check your camera before you take off to a photo session because if you’re missing your camera battery you’ll recognize it immediately.
The number eight mistake photographers make at one point in their life is calling themselves a professional photographer because they own an iPhone. Your equipment doesn’t determine if you’re a professional and this mistake applies more to amateurs, not professionals as many professionals have used or use their smartphone for some great photography.
The number seven mistake photographers make at one point in their life is to have their camera in the automatic white balance mode while shooting with studio flash. There is no known camera today that can read the Kelvin color temperature of light as it fires from flash. If you shoot in AWB mode with studio flash, your digital camera will white balance to the modeling lamps which are usually tungsten, thus you wind up with a blue-tinted image.
The number six mistake photographers make at one point in their life is, to say, “Cheese.” That is so yesterday. Say something funny and original, people will smile more naturally in this manner than something cliché that they are expecting — give them the unexpected, it works better. Try something like, “Pretend I’m a dentist, show me your teeth.” It works.
The number five mistake photographers make at one point in their life is to say, “I can fix it in Photoshop.” Get it right in the camera to eliminate any mistakes. Post-production isn’t a crutch any photographer should rely on during a photography session.
The number four mistake photographers make at one point in their life is when they forget to bring their camera to the shoot. Seriously, it happens! A great solution if you carry a lot of photographic gear, especially if you are traveling, create a checklist and use it before you depart to your photography session.
The number three mistake photographers make at one point in their life is when they fail to sync the camera shutter speed with their flash. However, this can act as a neutral density filter when shooting outdoors, especially at the beach, that’s a trick for a future photography tip article. Cameras are improving with higher sync speeds, and many mirrorless cameras don’t have this problem, there’s no mirrors!
The number two mistake photographers make at one point in their life is when they forget to charge their camera battery. Carry a spare to alleviate this problem and make sure it’s charged too. See also mistake number nine above.
The number one mistake photographers make one point in their life is when they forget to take the lens cap off. Yep, we’ve all done it, including myself. There is only one solution.
There you have it, the top ten mistakes photographer’s make or have made at one point in their life, or photographic career, because we’re human and if we didn’t make mistakes, life becomes boring. Photographers are in fact interesting humans and sometimes the “Ugh, seriously,” will happen if it hasn’t already happened.
