Are You Making One of These Beginner Photography Mistakes?

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Learning photography can be tough. Really tough.

And while I like a challenge, I often got discouraged when I was first learning photography because of all the mistakes I was making.

Some of those mistakes were stupid things that I could have avoided. Others, though, were the result of a simple lack of appropriate education on my part.

It would be tough to enumerate every possible mistake you might make as a beginner photographer, but Parker Walbeck listed 10 of the most common beginner photography mistakes in the video above.

What’s interesting about Parker is that he’s a videographer first and a photographer second. So his perspective on beginner photography tips is a unique one – and a very valuable one, too.

While videography and photography obviously have their differences, there are also a lot of similarities, and his insights into how things can go off the rails with your images will be extremely helpful in learning and growing as a photographer.

Below, I’ve highlighted just a couple of the beginner photography mistakes that Parker has identified. To get the full list, be sure to check out his video above!

Beginner Photography Mistake #1: Focusing Too Much on Gear

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This is an easy enough mistake, but one that TONS of beginners make…

When you’re just learning the basics of photography, you don’t need to drop nearly $4,000 on a Canon EOS R5 body. That’s way too much camera when you’re a beginner, and honestly, far too much money to invest in gear at this point.

Instead, use the gear you have – even if you just have a cell phone. Your focus right now should be on learning the fundamentals of photography, which you can do with your phone just fine.

Heck, if professionals use their phones for some of their photo and video work, you can certainly “make do” with your phone as your primary learning tool.

Beginner Photography Mistake #2: Bad Composition

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One of the areas of photography that’s governed by the most rules is composition. There’s a reason for that…

Composition rules help you create images with greater interest, that feel more balanced, and are more dynamic. In other words, by following rules like the golden spiral, the rule of thirds, and using a frame within a frame, you can elevate the viewing experience of the image and create something gorgeous, like the image above.

Focusing on creating an engaging composition is something you can easily do with minimal gear, too – again, just use your phone! You don’t need a fancy camera and a ton of lenses to work on implementing things like the rule of thirds.

Instead, commit yourself to practicing using these and other rules of composition in every photo you shoot. This is all about practice and making the use of these rules second nature. Doing so will help you develop your creative eye, and once you do that, composing beautiful shots will simply come naturally!

Beginner Photography Mistake #3: Overediting

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A final common mistake that I’d like to highlight is the propensity for beginners to overedit their photos.

I was certainly guilty of this back in the day. My photos from about 10 years ago are wildly oversaturated. I also used the structure and clarity tools way too much. The result was images that really smacked you in the face with color, but they also looked totally unnatural.

Adding in obscene amounts of color, tint, saturation, brightness, sharpening, and so forth isn’t going to make up for a lack of image quality. In fact, it will only highlight everything that’s wrong with the photo to begin with.

Photo bylechatnoirvia iStock

So, don’t rely on Photoshop and other tools as a means of trying to fix poor images. Instead, as recommended earlier, save your money, don’t buy new gear yet, and use the tools you already have to work on learning the fundamentals of how to create a beautiful, interesting image. Once you have those fundamentals down and you can take high-quality photos, then post-processing becomes less about trying to fix what’s wrong and more about enhancing the beauty that’s already there.

Don’t forget to check out Parker’s video for more tips!