Wednesday, May 25, 2011

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.

37 comments:

  1. hahaha if only every person on Blogspot read this...

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  2. Very interesting article, flash lighting are usually ugly

    And some people just love to add grain, lens flare in photoshop and they don't find it bad because they spend so much time working on this.

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  3. Some good advice again, I do try to sort out the lighting, but when taking photos when your out and about, it is rather hard!

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  4. Thanks, very good advice for an amateur photographer

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  5. Good tips, maybe my photos will stop being so lame.

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  6. I have problems with taking blurry photos all the time.

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  7. well now i know why my pictures always look like crap. haha

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  8. Thanks for the tips man, I hate taking bad photos.

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  9. Although reason number 1 happens most to me, I love reason number 3. Try hards trying to impress others, and you can just tell by looking at the photo.

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  10. This is good advice... all too often poor lighting destroys a good picture of mine.

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  11. I can stand bad lighting to an extent, but those who photoshop their photos to all hell, can't stand it

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  12. LMAO soo true. I hate when people look SOO good on facebook, but in real life they look like crap.. :S

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  13. too much photoshop, two thumbs up
    the amount of people trying to impress and spending hours editing photos in photoshop to take out minor imperfections or ad some boarder on the edge just makes me sick.
    take a decent photo to begin with, i dont need a black edge or some after-effects fisheye for it to look 'good'

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  14. I love those first two pics... where did you find them?

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  15. great tips. It's so easy to get carried away with processing, especially when you're learning.

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  16. definitely referring some people i know to this post!

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  17. Awesome article, some amazing tips ;D

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  18. Well i can just say that camera doesn't like me :D

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  19. Hipsters are going to hate you. :D

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  20. thanks for the tips!
    haha hipsters will rage at you

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  21. I am #3. Any tips on picking out a new camera??

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  22. photoshop is one of the best programs eevar

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  23. good post!
    lol @ flash lightning is bad xD

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  24. What if I do all three in the same picture?

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  25. So many people think they are amazing photographers because they have a CoolPix or something. I wish they got their cameras taken away from them.

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  26. I can't agree more with you about the photoshop. People whom can't use correctly shouldn't use it at all.

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  27. It's easy to add and add and add effects on photoshop, the hardest is to know when to stop!

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  28. this should be aimed at hipsters..

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  29. Ugh I'm terrible at taking pictures. Thanks.

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  30. Lightning is espacially in moviemaking very important. I'm doing a short movie with a few friends and it took one full day to just setup the lights for 5 scenes.

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