9 photography tips I wish I knew earlier
I've been a photographer for almost 7 years.
And I've made plenty of mistakes with my photos along the way.
Today, I want to share some lessons so you can avoid making the same ones.
I'll go over 9 lessons. After them, you'll be a better photographer.
I believe this can be helpful for both beginners - and those more advanced. :)
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But before we go into that, would you mind clicking this link and answering a poll?
I'd love to hear how long you wish these issues to be.
It'll take 30-60 seconds. And helps me provide you with the best experience.
Thank you.
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1) Understanding when to not take a photo
This tip I heard the 1st time from... either Thomas Heaton or Brendan Van Son. And it changed everything for me.
I used to run around and see photo opportunities everywhere.
Obviously, not all of them had the potential to be great photos.
But I took photos of them anyway.
But I never realized something before I learned this tip...
It's as important to know when to not take a photo - as it is when to take a photo.
Let's say you're hiking on top of a mountain to photograph a sunset. That's your destination.
On the way up, you see some animals. You start taking photos of them. Cool.
Soon, you see an unexpected view. It's not as good as the view on top. But it's nice. You set up your tripod and take another photo. Cool.
But then... you realize it's getting late. And you miss the thing you were there to photograph in the 1st place.
That's why, it's important to know what photos to not take.
This is a skill you get better at
But you can't ever be 100% whether you should capture something or not.
Sometimes, it's better to capture something "nice" compared to trying to chase an "amazing" photo. As that might not come on that shoot.
But understand, if you take photos of everything you're tempted to shoot, you might miss the best shot.
Consider carefully. Don't shoot everything.
2) Less is more
When I started photography, I tried to get everything into 1 photo.
When it comes to landscape photography especially, you often think of wide-angle photos.
And don't get me wrong, I love wide-angles.
But... you shouldn't try to fit everything into a photograph.
Instead of asking what can I add - ask - what can I remove?
This made a huge difference to my photography.
Now that you see my photos, they're mostly quite simple.
In The Survivor, there's 1 human. That's it.
In Love is in the Air there's 1 human with the Auroras. That's it.
In Lost in the middle of nowhere there's 1 human, the path, and the night sky. That's it.
Let's compare it to these photos I took with a Sony a6500 in Rhodes in 2017.
Less is often more.
Analyze the photos from photographers you look up to. I bet nearly all of them have quite simple photos.
Remove. Don't necessarily add stuff.
3) Always underexpose
I always am looking to underexpose my photographs a bit.
Why?
Because I shoot in RAW. And this means, I can easily adjust the exposure in editing.
But, if I'd overexpose something, I might not be able to recover the lost details.
That's something I did in the beginning - overexposing a lot.
I didn't know what a was histogram. I didn't think about underexposing. I just snapped photos that looked good.
And... at times it worked.
And... at times it didn't - and I was left with overexposed shots.
When you shoot in RAW, rather underexpose a bit.
You can always correct it later.
RAW photo
Final photo
(Interested in learning editing from me? Join my Lightroom preset waitlist here.)
4) Leading lines
This is my favourite tool to make photos.
Using leading lines.
What is a leading line?
A leading line is a line that guides a viewer's attention to a subject(s).
Here are a few examples. I have highlighted the leading lines.
(Want to learn how exactly I made the latter shot? I've written a Letter on it. Read (or watch it) here.)
Leading lines lead the viewer's eye into what you want them to see.
You have had leading lines in your photos - whether you're conscious of it or not.
But have they benefitted you? That's the question.
If your leading lines, for example, lead outside of the photograph, it might be bad.
Or to something you don't want to highlight.
But, if your leading lines lead to a beautiful view, or something else you want to highlight, that's great!
You can find leading lines everywhere in nature - and human construction.
Such as:
Roads
Paths
Coastlines
There are also invisible leading lines.
There are, as an example, when a person watches in X direction.
Viewers of the photo will follow where the person is watching.
That's how it has the same effect as a visible leading line.
(See again the example photos above. I'm marked invisible leading lines for you. :) )
Use leading lines, my friends. They'll make your photos better. :)
5) Less clarity and saturation
This is what many people mistake in the beginning - me included.
I used to bring up the clarity in my editing software (Adobe Lightroom) like crazy. And I used to have a ton of saturation.
Nowadays, I remove a lot of clarity. And I make sure my photos are not too saturated.
A rule of thumb for this is:
Does the photograph look realistic?
If it wouldn't look like that in reality, perhaps there's something to change.
This said, photography is art.
You can do whatever you please with it.
But, often many beginners make huge mistakes when it comes to clarity and saturation.
So, I wanted to include it here.
Let's take an example. Here is a photo from last winter.
But let's increase the clarity and saturation by a lot. This is how it looks then:
See the difference? I find the 2nd version to be much worse.
The colour is too powerful. And... it just doesn't look nice.
The 1st version to me is more dreamy, soft - and nicer to look at.
I know at the beginning especially it's exciting to play around with the sliders. But be aware you can go too far.
6) Clean up a photo
A photograph can have a ton of unnecessary stuff.
Stuff, that doesn't contribute to the story you want to tell.
That is often why I clean up my photos.
I might remove rocks, branches, footprints... or something else.
I either try to do it on-field. But if not possible, or I miss them, I remove them when editing.
Especially, pay attention to the edges of your photos. They take a lot of attention.
They either are:
1) Clean - or
2) Distracting
I used to not pay attention what was on the edges of my photos - but it's important.
I always aim to not have anything distracting there.
See these photos as examples - the corners are clean.
This is how people will stay focused on what's important in the photograph.
7) Lenses are more important than camera bodies
I used to think a camera body was the thing I should invest most for.
And... I did. Even though I had heard the warning before.
Later, I saw it was a mistake.
In the beginning, I had the Sony a6500 which I LOVED. But I only had 1 lens - Sony 16-70mm f/4.
It was a lens that was nice to have.
But it could've been helpful to have a telephoto lens. And even a wider lens.
(Sony a6500 is a crop-sensor camera. Meaning, 16mm on it, is equal to 24mm of a camera with a full-frame sensor.)
Sure, a camera body is important when it comes to photography.
But how important? That depends on what photography you do.
If you do landscapes, you don't need the latest new camera with the best autofocus and so on.
But if you shoot sports or wildlife, then that can be more important for you.
Or - if you take photos at night, a full-frame camera is very beneficial.
A lens, however, can change the entire look of your photo. That's something the camera body itself won't massively change.
Don't underestimate the impact a new lens can have over a new camera body.
8) Using too low ISO
Most of us have heard the advice to have ISO as low as possible.
And that's true. You should.
But... it's fine to bring it up too.
It's (most likely) not going to ruin your photo.
Most cameras are absolutely cool to at least ISO 3200. Many are cool until ISO 12800.
Many photographers avoid raising the ISO too much. And then they end up getting a bigger problem compared to what they were trying to avoid in the 1st place.
For example, I took this shot at ISO 12800.
I mean... the noise didn't ruin it, right?
But Hugo... shouldn't there be more of it?
Yes, there should be. But I removed it with Lightroom DeNoise.
There are many ways to remove the noise from your images.
And it's quite easy.
On Lightroom, noise removal is a few clicks away.
This is an even bigger reason to be brave in using the ISO. :)
9) Check your focus on the field
I can't tell you how many times in the beginning I missed the focus - and never realized it before I was home.
It was SO frustrating.
After making that same mistake many times, I finally learned from it.
Nowadays, I always check have I something in focus on-field.
If it's not in focus, I can often try again.
But if I'm back home, often I can't fix it.
(If it's a wildlife photograph and I can't retry, I try to fix the focus with TopazAI Sharpen.)
As a rule of thumb, always double-check the photo is in focus.
Not just before you take the photo. But also after the camera has finished exposing the photo.
Double-check it. Always.
Last words
My friends, I hope you found this insightful.
This was fun to write, as always.
In case you enjoyed this, feel free to share it with your friend.
If you were forwarded, you can subscribe here:
I look forward to sending you more stuff soon.
Meanwhile, feel free to reply to this email saying what would you like to learn.
I happily take suggestions. :)
Your teacher,
Hugo
P.S. If you didn't answer the poll already, you can still do so from here.
P.S.S Whenever you're ready, there are 4 other ways I can help you:
#1: Ready to crush it on social media in 2024? Click here to apply to my 1-1 Social Media Coaching Program.
#2: Have you seen my YouTube channel? I've put stuff out there too. I bet you'd find it valuable. Check out my latest videos and come give me a like and subscribe. :)
#3 Have you already joined my Lightroom Presets waitlist? If not, join here.
#4: I have a lot of free resources out there. Read the past Letters here.
