How to avoid common problems and mistakes in photography?

How to be a photographer? Where to start? Many people ask this question every day. Here, I will give you some general tips to help you avoid common mistakes from the beginning and eliminate some common photography misunderstandings.

Nikon d 810/70.0-200.0mm f/4.0sio100, F4 1/80s, 95.0mm

Myth 1: A good camera can take good photos.

This view is incorrect. Good photos are not taken by cameras, but by photographers. Many people think that professional photographers will take high-quality photos with expensive equipment before taking their own photos. However, the camera is just a tool and the owner decides how to use it.

If you provide the best and most expensive brushes and pigments to a person who doesn't know how to draw, the result will be exactly the same as when you use the simplest and cheapest brushes. Good brushes and pigments can only play their full functions in skilled hands. So is photography.

I often meet novice photographers and have the most expensive and professional cameras. But their photos are even worse because they can't understand the complicated photographic equipment designed for experienced professionals.

It is best to choose a camera not according to the professional level or the highest-priced category, but according to its adaptability to the training level and task. For example, many expensive professional cameras, such as Nikon D8 10, have no automatic mode and scene programs (portrait, landscape, macro, etc. ), which makes the work of novice photographers extremely difficult. It takes a long time to explore unknown settings. At the same time, many entry-level cameras (such as Nikon D5300 or Nikon D3300) can automatically take excellent photos: photographers can only choose the most interesting scenes, regardless of technical issues.

How to choose a camera? Choose not the "best professional camera", but the model suitable for your skills and tasks. To make the right choice, it is enough to know how serious you want to take pictures, whether you want to learn photography or just want to take pictures as a souvenir.

Myth 2: It's easy to take pictures.

Like many creative pursuits, photography seems very simple unless you do it yourself. For example, I like playing musical instruments, dancing and singing ... looking at a professional dancer, I may think, "How simple and natural he is!" It seems that this is not difficult! I can do the same! " However, when you try to dance by yourself at least twice, the fact is not so simple: at least you need special training.

The same is true of photography: although it seems simple, it is difficult to shoot well. After all, it requires a lot of knowledge and skills. In addition, technology (such as how to set up a camera) and creativity (how to compose a picture and how to choose the right lighting) also came into being, and sometimes the problems we talk about seem to be indirectly related to photography.

Shooting beautiful scenery requires great efforts, not only to be able to shoot, but also to actually reach the shooting location.

On the other hand, taking pictures is really easy when you have the necessary experience. The camera will not affect the shooting effect, but it needs training, learning and experience.

Myth 3: Learning to take pictures only requires learning skills, not practice.

Shooting skills and parameters are only part of the necessary skills. By the way, this part is the easiest. How to adjust the exposure? How to control the focus? What is white balance? These technical problems can be easily and simply solved, and after formal training, these problems can be solved, but photography is first and foremost creative. But the creative part is much more complicated and clear. How to compose a composition? What do you want to show in the photo? What subjects are worth shooting? These and many other creative problems have been puzzling photographers and have been successfully solved to varying degrees. Of course, photography is worth training from basic to technical.

Nikon d5200/18.0-105.0mm f/3.5-5.6iso1100, F4.5, 1/60 s, 38.0mm equivalent.