Avoid These Newbie Photographer Fails
By: Date: June 16, 2019 Categories: Photography

Mounting Lens Hood Backwards

For convenient storage, you can usually keep your lens hood mounted the opposite way on your camera. The mistake comes when you begin shooting and you’ve forgotten to take your Lens Hood off to have it fixed on properly. The lens hood for your camera has been designed especially for your camera, to avoid unwanted light affecting your image (e.g. you might get lens flare in a situation where you don’t want it).

Forgetting To Change White Balance

White Balance ensures that anything with white in your frame appears white in your photo. Forgetting to change the White Balance can cause unwanted discoloring of your photos (e.g. whites can appear blue, orange, or even a green).

The OIS Switch Not Turned Off On A Tripod

This one is a very easy mistake to make. Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) works by calculating the movements you make while hand-holding your camera, and then it attempts to counteract those movements to give a smoother appearance while looking at your LCD or Electronic Viewfinder, as you steady yourself to take a shot. Apparently, the OIS feature on some cameras and/or lenses can introduce movement when stationary on a tripod, so it’s best practice to try and get into the habit of turning off the OIS feature, before you attach your camera to said tripod.

The MF-AF Switch

Switching to MF (Manual Focus) enables you to fine-tune your focus manually with the focus ring; AF (Auto Focus) lets the camera do the focusing for you. The mistake might come, for example, when you’re in MF mode to take a close-up or Macro photo of a plant, and then you go to take a “Selfie” and forget to switch the camera to AF mode, so all you’ve got to do is press the shutter button and let the camera focus on you and your mates. The result, without the AF switch on is typically a blurred image.

Forgetting To Insert A Memory Card

This can happen if you’ve been transferring images from your SD Memory Card, to your computer, and then for whatever reason, you find yourself caught short for time and having to rush to get the images loaded, either for processing immediately, or for storage for later. When the image transferring process is done, you proceed to shut down the computer but, in a rush, you forget to remove the memory card and return it to your camera (to be formatted, ready for its next use). You rush off to do whatever it is you’ve got to do, and consequently forget that you’ve not returned said memory card to your camera. The next time you go to use your camera, you’re confronted by a warning message on the LCD, telling you that there’s no memory card, so images won’t be recorded. This is fine, if you’re still at or close to home. But, not so good if you’ve travelled far with your camera to shoot an event only to discover you’re minus a memory card as you forgot to re-insert it after transferring that last batch of images.

Wrong Choice Of Lens

Imagine setting off to take photos of wild animals out in nature (a safari, or some other awesome trip); you arrive at your destination and discover a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shoot a rare animal with her new born; you go to grab your camera and discover you’ve left your ultra-wide angle lens on the camera. By the time you’ve managed to open your camera bag, grab your telephoto lens, take off the wide angle lens, pop on the telephoto, switch on your camera and begin to compose your shot and… oh, darn… you’ve lost that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don’t make this kind of mistake.