Paradise Lost. Ward, Colorado, 2013
Now that you have digested the previous short discussion of practical and technical beginner mistakes, lets move on the some common artistic errors.
Ten Common Artistic Mistakes by Beginning Photographers
1. There is no easily identifiable subject. Ask yourself, “What is this image really about?” Or, “Who or what is the principle protagonist in this photograph?” Is this obvious to the viewer?
2. Poor use of perspective. This could be because you always shoot from eye level or it could be that you aren’t taking the time to explore other angles. Look at all possibilities from ground level to a bird’s eye view and everything in-between. Walk around. Explore. Even moving a few inches left or right can make a huge difference.
3. Poor technical skills. Some evidence: unintentional out-of-focus images, wrong focus point, inappropriate blur, wrong color balance or exposure, poor use of depth-of-field, and so on. Learn how to use your tools until it becomes second nature. Read the camera manual. Take a class or attend a workshop. Practice, practice, practice!
4. Not thinking enough about the light. It’s all about the light! In fact, it is literally “writing with light”. With good light you can take a picture of a toilet (maybe even its contents!) and have it be spectacular. If you are a studio photographer, learn to control the light. If you are an outdoor photographer, shoot when the light is awesome–sunrise, sunset, during the storms as they come and go.
5. Worrying too much about gear. Think more about who you are, what you are passionate about, and what you want to say with your images. Shoot with what you have. The equipment can indeed be important in some photography situations, but it really is secondary.
6. Excessive use of special effects, HDR, camera tilt, etc. If the viewer is more interested in the effect you used rather than in the message you are trying to convey, something is wrong. Whatever effects you use should compliment the subject matter. If it is not a well-composed compelling image in the first place, it will likely be difficult to make a silk purse out of it with fancy special effects or filters.
7. Poor “border patrol” and poor control of extraneous elements. Always run your eyes around the edges of your image. Are there any distracting, high-contrast objects around the border that will pull the viewer’s eye away from the main subject? How about within the image–have you eliminated the unnecessary junk? Ask yourself what precisely compelled you to aim the camera where you did and zero in very closely on that–trim out the fat. In some cases, you may even want to clone out offending distractions (assuming you are doing art and not photojournalism).
8. Not effectively guiding the viewer’s eye through the image. This can be very challenging. Most of this should be done at the moment of capture, but important work can also be done in post-processing, especially by adjusting local contrast. Basically, though…are you using leading lines to pull the viewer into the photograph? Do you consciously use line, curves, texture, and high/low contrast areas to move the viewer’s eye appropriately throughout the image–ideally, finally coming to rest upon the main subject? Worse–do you have lines or high/low contrast areas that actually pull the viewer out of your image? Definitely avoid that practice!
9. Composition errors. Do you always center your subjects? That can work on rare occasions, but it can also be very boring and static. Are your images balanced? That is, is there too much “weight” on one side or the other? Do you always shoot in landscape orientation? Do you always crop to the same dimensions? How you orient the camera and how you crop should be dictated by the subject, not your anal habits.
10. Insufficient contrast. Occasionally, the issue is too much contrast, but more often it is the lack of it that is the problem–especially in black and white photographs. Lack of contrast will make a picture look “flat”–it will lack dimension, snap, and good tonal range. Another hint: even if it looks good on your computer (back lighting), it still may not have enough contrast to print well (reflected lighting), so you may have to experiment and bump up the contrast even more.
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