Reasons Your Photos Suck

If you’re trying to improve your photography, then it helps to know where you’re going wrong. This article is all about pointing out where you’re going wrong and what you should be doing to fix it. It’s not easy taking consistently good photos, but once you’ve gotten the hang of it, it becomes incredibly rewarding.

1 – Bad Lighting

All too often photos are taken on compact cameras and digital SLR’s where the lighting isn’t adequate. The lighting is the most key part of taking a good photo, I know it sounds simple, but a photo is a collection of light, so has to be good. Pop up flashes can cast a very harsh light over your subject; flattening the image. Off camera flashes that can be rotated to point to a wall, or a ceiling have the ability create much more natural light. They also cast shadows over the subject, where shadows would usually be which gives them a lot more depth and make the whole photo look more natural.

2 –Too Much Photoshop

I’m all for a bit of post processing, but when it’s over done and on every photo, it looks pretty terrible. Try to get the exposure right in the camera and restrict post production to cropping, contrast and enhancing techniques. Purposely overexposing a photo, adding fake lens flare, going black and white for no reason, and too much contract will detract from what could be a very good photo.

3 – You’re trying to impress Others

Shoot what you like, not what you think others will like, or you’ll never be happy. You know what looks good and that means that you have a realistic target that you can picture in your head. That’s much more obtainable than what you think the masses will enjoy and at the end of the day, you’ll be happy with the results. If you see other photos that you love, take inspiration from it, stop trying to replicate it.