7 Bad Habits of Digital Photographers

This is a special guest-post from a new friend of mine, Antoine Khater. Check the bottom of this post for his bio, and don't forget to visit his photography blog!

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I have been taking pictures seriously for about 5 years and been around major photography forums for about the same time. Here are, compiled in one post, the 7 bad habits of digital photographers…

1. NOT DOUBLE CHECKING YOUR GEAR BAG


Photo by John Harvey [CC by-nc-sa]

It never happened to you? It sure did to me! I can't remember how many times I went shooting just to notice later on that I forgot the CF cards at home. Just a few months ago my wife and I took a photography trip to Croatia and I totally forgot to pack the battery charger with me! So if you are as clumsy as I am, maybe you should trust your wife in packing things up for you.

2. NOT DOUBLE CHECKING ISO SETTINGS

This is surely one of the most common post subjects you will find if you linger long enough in Digital Photography forums. We are all somehow used to reaching for our ISO settings button just when we need to go “higher” and we too often take it for granted that the camera is set to the “correct” one every time we take it from the bag. And that is why so many people are asking for the ISO setting to be displayed in the viewfinder, until then and to avoid surprises, good or bad, make sure to double check that ISO setting every time you turn your camera on.

3. I'LL GET THIS STRAIGHT LATER

Let me first say that I have nothing against Photoshop or any other kind of photo retouching I even pointed out some times ago an easy way to correct tilted pictures in the digital dark room. However I believe that if you can get it right on the field it is better. So if you have the bad habit of tilting your pictures, here are 6 tips that will hep you get them straight next time.

4. I SHOOT RAW, I DON'T CARE ABOUT EXPOSURE


Photo by Rich G. [CC by-nc-sa]

RAW is wonderful tool and gives us, photographers, a great deal of flexibility during post processing. The ability to tweak the exposure in RAW should be used ONLY within limits — blown highlights and and underexposed shadows can't be recovered. So make sure to always get the exposure right.

5. DELETING PICTURES TOO FAST

Well I'm writing this specially for myself! I delete pictures faster than I take them sometimes… Here is a recent article from LightChasers explaining why we should never be doing this.

6. BETTER BODY INSTEAD OF BETTER LENS

I guess it is just a human nature but every time a new camera is released we have all tendency to become green with envy and deep down we should know that we would be much better investing in a better lens than in a better camera.

7. BLAMING THE MATERIAL

And, of course, on the TOP of the list “Blaming the material”! When we do not manage of getting a decent picture we go like “AH if only I had that lens!” but if someone looks at a nice pictures of ours and says “Wow you should have a nice camera!!!” We go crazy… Anyway, remember folks, it is always the photographer never the Camera.

Again, I'd like to thank Antoine for this wonderful guest-post he's written for us, and remember to check out his website: All Day I Dream About Photography.
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