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The 10 photography mistakes that are holding you back · Wildlife and Adventure Photography

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, you own a nice camera, you have good quality lenses, and you've taken thousands of photographs, but still you'll feel like you're not getting any better at photography.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, why is that?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what we're going to look at in this podcast.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, I'm Graeme Elliott from Graeme Elliott Photography.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Please remember to like, subscribe, uh, hype, anything else you can do to um get more people listening because that helps me as well to keep producing these.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I'm going to do in this episode is give you or look at 10 common photography mistakes that really stop you progressing.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Some are technical, but several of them have nothing at all to do with your camera.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a chance that you may well recognize yourself in one or more of them.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive straight in.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And number one is basically trying to learn everything at once.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So this is really this is particularly relevant if you're a beginner, and it's very easy to become overwhelmed because there's lots and lots of things to learn when you first approach photography.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's aperture, shutter speed, ISO, autofocus modes, metering, white balance, lenses, composition editing, and many more.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, though, it's very easy to end up knowing a little bit about each one, but not feeling confident at all about any of them.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that the important thing to remember here is you don't need to master the entire camera before you can take better photographs.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: The important thing to do is start with one thing and just practice with it until you're comfortable.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it might be aperture, let's say that you just work in aperture priority mode, you try taking photographs, changing the aperture, and seeing what happens.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do this step by step, gradually you'll improve not only your knowledge of those steps, but you'll improve your confidence as well.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that is the solution to mistake number one.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Mistake number two is that you're concentrating on settings instead of the photograph.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is uh it's not quite a pet peeve of mine, but it is something I get asked a lot.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: People want to know settings.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I do occasionally share them, but um it's more to show a point than to say these are the settings to use because the actual settings you need depend on the gear that you're using, the situation you're in.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of variables.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's much more important to understand what the settings do.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: If if I give you a set of if I if I give you the settings that I use to take a particular photograph, that does not guarantee you're gonna get the same result that I did uh at all.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking what settings should you use, ask what are you trying to achieve.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And settings are tools, they're simply tools.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to freeze movement, the primary tool you're gonna change or work with is shutter speed.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: The same if you want to show movement, if you want movement in the image, shutter speed is going to be the go-to.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to isolate your subject, then you're looking at aperture primarily.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to keep more of the scene sharp, again aperture because that determines the depth of field.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're working in low light, you might have to look at trade-offs between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the the bottom line is that there are a number of settings that you can vary.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there are a number of variables for any given photography situation.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So the only thing that makes sense in that scenario is to start with your intention, and then that will begin to dictate which settings you need, and also which are the more important ones.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then, mistake number three, you're relying on your camera to make creative decisions.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is a mistake that a lot of beginners make.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Cameras are smart, but they're smart at certain things, and creating photographs that are interesting is not one of them.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, modern cameras they can dissect detect subjects, eyes, they can trap movement, they can choose exposures, they can automatically select white balance, recognize scenes, loads and loads of things like that.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're all very useful, but that isn't why we take photographs.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Your camera doesn't know why you want to take the photograph.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: The kind of the first question to ask yourself, and I will expand on this later, and I expand on it pretty much everywhere I talk about photography, but is why what is it about this situation that is prompting you to take this photograph?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you're if you can't answer that question, if you're just taking a photograph for the sake of it, well, you know, what's the point really?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So think about what you want the photograph to say.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now you're looking at things like composition, subject placement, you're looking at the background.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: How do you want to use that?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking at timing of whatever's going on, you're looking at perspective, you're looking at focal lengths.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things that go together to create an interesting photograph.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the automation in the camera is there to reduce your workload, but it's not there to replace your photographic judgment.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, uh automatic transmission in a car is useful if you drive a lot in heavy traffic because it's one less thing you've got to do.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I used to drive manuals and my left foot would ache after declutching a lot or keeping the clutch in, whatever.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Switch to automatic is much easier.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I still need to know where I want to go.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still detect determining where the car's going.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the automation in the camera is very similar to that.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way to think of it.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: It you determine where it goes, you determine what the outcome is, and the camera will just reduce some of the workload for you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So remember that's what the camera is there for, and that automation.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Mistake number four is taking too many photographs without knowing why.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is really important, and I it I cringe when I hear people talk about they went off somewhere and they've come back with 10,000 photographs because honestly, I think, you know, what on earth have you been doing?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, photography isn't it's not a quantity thing, it's not if you shoot 10,000, it doesn't mean that they're automatically good, they could all be equally bad.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Where you improve is when you're photographing with intention.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you learn.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is where before you press the shutter button, ask what am I photographing?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I photographing this?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about this scenario that's attracted me to it?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: What is it I'm trying to communicate to other people who are looking at this photograph?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because they'll look at it in days, weeks, months, years to come.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it needs to make sense to them, it needs to tell them something about what you're witnessing, maybe what you're feeling in that situation.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I sincerely doubt that somebody who's been away for uh two or three weeks and come back with thousands of photographs has realistically achieved that.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly they won't have achieved it in, I would say, 90% of what they've shot, they're just blasting away for the sake of it.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, a practical exercise for you is that next time you're out, deliberately limit yourself to 10 photographs of one subject, no more.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this this is a discipline that if you grew up on film, you you would have had straight away because I always used to buy rolls of 36, but even so, I was still limited to 36 before I had to change the role, and you know that could get really expensive if you went crazy.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that wasn't the scenario we have today where you can blast away and take hundreds, and it it doesn't matter.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So limit yourself and start being much more deliberate about what you're shooting.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, mistake number five is not paying enough attention to the background.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is an absolute classic.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you have uh beautiful portraits of people with trees or telegraph poles coming out of their heads, you're gonna have distracting objects, bright areas, clutter, and another thing to be conscious of is colour because we are like any animal, so we're essentially primates.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Animals are pre-programmed, we're hardwired to see certain colours, and these are warning colours.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So reds, oranges, yellows, those are warning colours in nature, and we will still see them because we haven't evolved that far from having to survive in the savannah or wherever.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, any colours like that that are in the shot, you might miss them when you're setting the frame up because you're really focusing on the subject, but you've got to look at the whole frame, and this is where being a natural the um the visual storyteller idea comes in.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, I will I'll talk about this a bit more, but this is really important.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, a great subject doesn't automatically make a great photograph, you have to look at everything in the frame.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, before you press the shutter, look at everything around your subject and not just the subject itself.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Mistake number six is always photographing from the same position.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, lots and lots of people do this, generally from normal standing position or wherever they first saw the photograph.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it, there's no thought gone into it.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, bearing in mind what I've just said about what's in frame, you might be able to tidy the frame up and make the image much more coherent and more powerful if you step to the left or the right or get closer or step further back, or if you go higher or lower.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can even maybe change position relative to the subject, which might give you a much better angle, it might give you a much more interesting angle because by changing angle and changing perspectives, you change the relationships between objects, you change the background, you change the size of the subject, can which can have a massive uh make a massive difference to how it feels.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've taken really tight shots of elephants that are quite close, where I'm sort of shooting up very slightly, and when you shoot up at something, it appears dominant.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Equally, I I've taken photographs of elephants from a distance in trees.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I remember shooting one across a valley in South Africa, and because the elephant was so small in the frame, it actually felt quite vulnerable.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, how be conscious of those relationships because they change the emotional impact, the emotional story of the image that you are producing.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, definitely the thing to do here is before you take the photograph, just move your feet.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mistake number seven is chasing the perfect photograph, which is something I I spoke about in a previous podcast.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people get obsessed with it, with technical perfections, perfect sharpness, exposure, perfect light, perfect composition.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But think about the photographs that have inspired you.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about them that inspired you?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the chances are these photographs are powerful because they capture emotion, or there's an atmosphere, or there's a story, or there's particular timing, or you've got some sense of the person's personality, and it could just be imperfection.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So technically imperfect photographs can still be great photographs, you don't need technical perfection that will come, but it is secondary to having engaging, powerful photographs.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, mistake number eight is comparing your photography to everyone else's.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is um a really easy one to do, and there's so much uh so much work floating around on Instagram and places like that, and there's some extraordinarily good photographers out there as well.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But again, think about what you're doing, you're comparing what you did on Tuesday with images somebody's posted, and they probably curated maybe a hundred images and they've selected their top five, and that's what's ending up on Instagram or on their website.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So these are their best images from it could be 10 years of photography.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: They may also have a huge amount of experience.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're comparing yourself with, let's say, professional photographers, chances are they've been doing photography more or less full-time for years.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the number of hours and the number of photographs they've taken are gonna be multiples, like 10, 100 times what you can do in a week, say.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because when you do things uh to be paid, when you do things commercially, you also tend to be much more focused on what's good and what's bad, and you're you're you do technically evaluate everything, and I'm gonna talk about that in a moment.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they've been progressively improving their work, consciously improving their work over possibly decades, and you started last week, so don't get caught up.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what you're comparing, it often isn't light with like, they might have nicer gear, they might have access to really cool locations.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: All that does is give you unrealistic expectations if you try to compete with them, because the the chances are you're not going to get anywhere close, and it's just gonna be you get into one of those negative spirals about how good you are, you get into all the negative self-talk, and that is not a good place to be.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So don't do it.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: The only valid comparison that you can make ever is comparing your photography to what you shot six months ago, and that is it.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the questions to ask when you do that, or uh sorry, are am I making better decisions?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is my composition improving?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Am I getting more consistent?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: How do I feel about my camera?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do I understand it more?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do I feel more confident with it?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: These are the only questions to ask, and the only valid measure, as I've said, is to measure against yourself and not somebody else's highlight reel.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, mistake number nine, you're not reviewing your photographs critically.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So this is sort of leads on from that point.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're reviewing photographs, I'm not talking about looking at one saying, Oh, I like that.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's not quite uh where we're going.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: What I'd like you to do is to um just look at look at the work you did last week or over the most recent work you did, and just objectively, this isn't to make yourself wrong, it isn't to beat yourself up, it isn't to any of that stuff, but just ask what worked, what didn't, why did that work, why didn't this other one work?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And with the things that didn't work, what would you change?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's the problem technical or creative?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for asking this is that first of all, it helps you to get really clear and very specific about where your weak areas are, and once you've identified those, then you know where to put the effort in.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you need to put the work in.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's depth of field is off, for example, then okay, um, what are you going to do to get better at getting a good depth of field?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Pick a way of doing that.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the important thing, get really specific and learn from every photograph that you take.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how you improve.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not to make yourself wrong, but to treat every photograph as a learning experience.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And some might be that you've done it really well, you've actually achieved something you were going for, so great, uh, well done.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And others didn't quite get there.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you look, okay, what's the gap?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And is it a knowledge gap?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is it just something that technique, you know, is it technique?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is it down to practice?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or it could be something missing in the camera.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: You do need to get another lens or something else, but be very objective about it.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, mistake number 10 you're not deliberately practicing.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is the difference between going out and just taking photographs and going out with a specific objective in mind.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the second one is the valuable one.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I mean by that is rather than just going out and saying to yourself, oh, I'll see what I can get today, you know, see what happens, roll the dice, go out with a clear objective.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, today I'm gonna work specifically on composition.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna improve my composition because the last couple of last few pictures I looked at, I'm really not happy with that, and I've decided that I need to practice rule of thirds, for example.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna work on composition, or it might be that today I'm gonna photograph movement and I'm gonna experiment with different shutter speeds so that I really understand how to get certain results with the gear that I have and in certain lighting conditions, or it might be that today I'm gonna make 10 photographs where the background is important, that is as important as the subject.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you can challenge yourself to produce work that stretches you or forces you to practice a technique and just helps you to get better.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the key is when you're consistent, so that the object with this, in my opinion, again, always aim for consistency.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter initially, you're going to be consistently bad, that's fine.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: But what I mean by consistency is that you can reproduce the result you've just got and you can do it deliberately, you can do it as many times as you want to because you understand how you got there.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it might be rubbish to start with, but the thing is as you work on it, you'll get keep the consistency and you'll consistently get better, you know, you'll you'll get better.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So your consistency is at a higher level each time.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's it for the mistakes.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm just going to review them quickly.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh just to remind you, number one was trying to learn everything all at once.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is concentrating on settings instead of what your intention is with the photograph.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Number three is relying on the camera to make creative decisions, it won't.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is taking too many photographs without knowing why.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Number five is ignoring the background.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Number six is always photographing from the same position.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Number seven is chasing the perfect photograph.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight is comparing yourself with other photographers, number nine is not reviewing your photographs critically, and number ten is not deliberately practicing.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, which one of those is holding you back the most at the moment?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it may be that there are a few of them, there might be none, but maybe there's a few.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, which is the one that is the biggest problem for you right now?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And just pick one, and that's the thing to start working with.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you would like uh a challenge, I have online, if you go to the website www.ge.photography, and look at the education tab on the website.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: There is the 14-day challenge, and all you do is you drop your email in there, and then you will get an email straight away.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then for the 13 days after that, you'll get one email a day, and each of those emails gives you one particular photography challenge.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So some of them are going to be pretty easy, you'll you'll be quite comfortable with them, others are going to challenge you a little bit.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole point of this is to have somebody tell somebody else telling you the thing to do for that day because otherwise we tend to just do the things we're comfortable with, and by working with the things that we're a little bit uncomfortable with, that's where we stretch ourselves and um improve what we're doing.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that is it for um today.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you found that useful.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Next time, I'm gonna I'm gonna be looking at how you can improve your photography without actually buying anything, so that should be a cheap one.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, please, if if there is something that stood out for you, please make the time to just uh spend a bit of time working on it.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, as I say, there is I do have online courses if you uh are interested in taking one of those.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a struct that gives you a structured approach to uh hopefully remedying some of the areas where you're a bit weak at the moment, uh, or go with somebody else's course.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I think taking a course is a really good idea.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's it from me.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy your photography.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'll speak to you next time.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.