7 Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Photography (And How to Fix Them)

Are your photos not turning out the way you imagined, even though you've invested in good gear and spend plenty of time behind the camera?

In this episode, we're breaking down seven common mistakes that hold photographers back—from beginners to seasoned enthusiasts. These aren't technical camera settings or obscure photography tricks. They're the everyday habits, assumptions, and blind spots that quietly limit your creative growth.

We'll explore why better equipment won't necessarily make you a better photographer, how understanding light can transform your images, the importance of perspective and composition, and why reviewing your work may be the most powerful learning tool you have. We'll also discuss editing with intention and how to avoid the comparison trap that social media creates for so many photographers.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your photography to the next level, this episode will help you identify what's holding your images back—and, more importantly, how to fix it.

In this episode:
• Why gear isn't the answer to better photography
• How light shapes every image you create
• The mistake most photographers make with perspective
• Why simpler compositions are often stronger
• How to review your work for faster improvement
• Editing techniques that support your vision
• The danger of comparing your photography to others

If you've ever wondered why your photos don't quite match what you see in your mind, this episode is for you.

It's time for another podcast...

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever looked at your photos and thought something feels off? Or have you ever upgraded your gear and um then your photos look pretty much the same? They certainly don't turn out how you imagine they would with new equipment. Or it could be that you're putting time in but you're not seeing any improvement. So if you've answered yes to any of those, I'm gonna carry on from last week's podcast where I spoke about how your camera can be holding you back, and it's really about how you understand the operation of your camera and how to get the most from it. And today I'm gonna look at seven common mistakes that a lot of photographers make and it holds them back. And the really good news about all this is that none of these fixes require you to buy new gear, none of them require you to spend any money. And this is something that I feel quite strongly about because as a photographer, it is very, very easy to spend a lot of money on gear, and unless you know specifically what you're buying that gear for, you can easily spend quite literally hundreds, thousands of dollars on kit that is completely wrong for what you're trying to do, and you get no benefit no benefit from it altogether. And in fact, it can get to the point where it just turns you off photography completely, which I think is a real shame because I I see photography as a really valuable creative outlet, which in turn it's not only fun, it's not only a source of maybe meeting other people, um expressing that creative side, but it's also very good from a mental health perspective, and given the uncertainty of things that we're living through today, uh having some sort of outlet where you can just step back from the everyday and all the worries and stress and all the rest of it, and have something that can help you is really, really important. So I'm gonna go straight into it. And the first mistake that people tend to make is they focus on the gear instead of I'm gonna call it the vision. So the mistake is that, and I hear this a lot, but people think if you buy a better camera, you will automatically get better photos, or if you get a better lens, you'll get better creativity. So I I guess you could call this gear acquisition syndrome, and as I said right at the start, it's very easy to spend quite literally thousands of dollars today on equipment, and you don't see any difference in your results. And the reason is that the problem is not the camera, it's it's the um the person holding it, the person looking through the viewfinder or the screen on the back. And the reason that's a problem is that they don't understand what the camera is doing, they don't understand how to use, and it's the same with any tool that you use, and that's what a camera is. If you do not understand how to use it properly, then you are not going to get the results that you're hoping for. So, and I do this in uh, in fact, my short course. Um, there's a getting out of auto, there's a composition course, there's um a full online self-pay course self-paced course. So, and I'm just one, there are lots and lots of other places where you can learn about photography, but I think it's really important to go through something structured at least once so that you're going from a position of no knowledge and you're going through all of the important steps that you need to go through in order to get a good understanding of the aspects of photography, and then you can build on those. So, what do you need to focus on? Well, the things to look at are how you observe light. Are you conscious of where the light is coming from? Do you understand how to use light to emphasize features? It might be on a portrait, if you've got light coming in from the side, there is a very different um feeling of the depth of that image to if you had the light going on to the front of the person. So, in other words, right behind you, uh, that that light will flatten, a light from the side will enhance, it will enhance um the shape of um somebody's head, for example. So, are you conscious and are you aware of the light and where it's coming from and how to use it effectively? Uh, what about timing? If you are photographing action, how good are you at not only catching something when it happens, but predicting when something is about to happen? And that's the real secret to good timing. It's recognizing what is happening and then being ready for the moment when it does occur, then you're all ready to go and you and you you grab it. Composition is really, really important and it it makes a massive difference to your photographs when you understand composition. And composition is essentially about how you put everything in the frame. What's your subject? Is it obvious what the subject is? How does the background support the subject? Um, what's the journey that you're taking people on through that image when they look at it? What's the story? Why should somebody look at that image? What's in it for them? What are they going to learn from it? So composition starts to get into all of that, and I've kind of let led into the next one, which is storytelling. Because the strongest images tell a story, it doesn't have to be a long story, but it tells some sort of a story. So the bottom line when it comes to gear is that your camera, first of all, it records what you see. So you can only shoot what you see. You can't just point your camera at you know anywhere and just hope it's going to suddenly come up with an amazing photograph. So the camera records what you see, it's a tool, it doesn't teach you what to look for. That is all on you. That's the photography part of it. So that's the first mistake. The second mistake is ignoring light. So I've I've mentioned that a little bit. And a mistake that people make is they get caught up in settings, but they ignore the quality of the light. So, in other words, um, a good example of that would be a harsh midday sun. So, what happens if you're photographing in in a harsh midday sun? It flattens everything, it's very, very bright. Uh, if you are trying to take pictures of people, they're probably squinting, even if they're not looking directly at the light. We would still we till we still tend to squint. Um, if you are doing a portrait, even if we're out of direct sunlight, that's still uh likely. If you are trying to photograph wildlife, well, for one thing, most wildlife isn't doing very much in the midday sun because it's too hot and it's it's it's too bright. But you're you've got bad shadows, there's very little in the way of shadow, things tend to get washed out, the colours go, uh, you can't see uh they don't look very 3D, they tend to look very 2D. So that that's one scenario. What about a flat overcast light? Um, now an overcut a flat overcast light, in other words, some say you've got strong um cloud cover, that can give you even lighting. Now that can be quite good for portraits if you know how to use it, but equally you don't have those um highlights. Uh everything's pretty evenly lit. It can be a difficult work uh lighting to work with. So, how would you approach shooting in that kind of light situation? How can you get the best from it? Because if you don't understand that, then you're gonna struggle. And and that isn't the camera. This this is down to how you're using the camera. Um, another example is uh mixed lighting indoors. Do you understand colour temperature? Now, you don't need you you just need to understand it as an idea, and what I mean by that is simply that the the quality of the light that comes from the sun and the colour content, if you like, is different to what you'd get from a tungsten bulb indoors. Tungsten tends to look more blue, and this is defined by the colour temperature, it's it's uh recorded in Kelvin. You don't really need to know all of that, but you do need to understand that there is a difference in the quality of the light when you move from outdoors using the sun to indoors using an artificial light source, such as tungsten and there are others. So, what's your understanding of mixed lighting when you go indoors? How do you correct colour changes? Because colours will look different. So this is really important because if you think about it, photography is all about light, it's even in the name. Um, I think it translates directly to drawing with light, but um anyway, it's about light. Let's not get too sidetracked. But this is the important thing, though. If you if you don't understand this or even have a basic grasp of lighting, then you really shouldn't be going out spending a lot of money on an expensive camera because honestly, you don't know what you're doing. So the thing to the thing to do here, if if you if you're listening to this thing, well, actually, I don't know much about light, to be perfectly honest with you. Well, there's a few things you can do. I mean, as I've already said, there are courses and things you can take. I've got a few of those, but the the thing to identify, just the thing to think about, is first of all, identify the direction of the light. Where is it coming from? So I've already spoken about that. What's the quality of the light? Is it is it a strong light? Is it a soft light? And what's the impact of that on the photograph you're trying to take? So think about that. What about the colour? So different lighting, as I've already explained, has a different colour tint to it. The colour components are different, and obviously what we look at is, and the colours are the colours that are reflected back by the object we're looking at. So you need to understand, at least at a very basic level, that there is a difference. And then what about contrast? Because contrast is really important, uh, it makes all the difference. When you have good contrast, things can look very sharp with poor contrast, even things that are correctly focused can look out of focus. So there's a whole um there's a whole skill set here. Now you don't need to know it in depth, but you do need to have a basic understanding of it. So, what I would suggest you do, if you want to work on this, is to just spend a week photographing the same subject but at different times of day and look at the difference. You can even use the same settings or more or less the same settings, you want to get a correct exposure. But start to get a practical understanding of how light changes during the day, even if you do nothing else. So, the bottom line on this is that light creates the photograph, the camera just captures it. That that's all the camera is doing. Even I mean, cameras are really smart these days, but they can only do so much. So, mistake number three, shooting everything at eye level. And this is a great way to produce very boring images because most people take photographs from a standing position. They basically shoot at the same level that they would look at whatever it is they're they're photographing. So, what do you get? Well, the picture's very predictable, there's no tension, there's no interest in the image, there's no sense of discovery from anybody looking at it. So, this is really, really simple. Just get down low, get down to ground level, or if your knees and back and whatnot won't let you get that low, at least put the camera on the ground and hopefully you can reach down and press the shutter. Uh, whether you're using um a DSLR, a mirrorless, or a smartphone, whatever, whatever type of camera you're using. But try shooting from down low, maybe at a crouching at a crouch or putting the camera on the ground, and then do the opposite shoot from above, go up step ladder if you need to obviously make sure you're safe and all of that kind of stuff. But um, for portraits, I used to carry a little three-step mini ladder thing, and it was great because it just allowed me to just jump up higher than my subject, and then I could shoot down onto them. Uh, and there may other, and if you're outside, there might be just things you can stand on, so whatever it is, though. And then start looking at how you're using foreground elements. So when you're looking at your frame, is there something you can have in the foreground that begins to add a sense of depth? Uh, generally, the foreground object will often look there first and then go on to the subject. So think about how you might use that. Um, and then move around the subject. Just try it photographing the same subject from different angles. So, again, if you want to just experiment with that, find a subject, photograph it at eye level if you like, to give yourself a reference photograph, but then photograph at different heights from different positions and see what see how it changes. So, all of this allows you to start creating photographs that hopefully you'll really enjoy and are definitely going to be a lot more interesting than than if all you're doing is shooting eye level. And then we get to mistake number four. So that's where people just try and include too much. So you get a problem, uh you get um a photograph that's really, really busy. There's lots and lots of stuff there, and it's really cluttered. So anybody looking at it, it it's it's kind of like a where's waldo. You're trying to work out where the subject is, and maybe there's too many subjects, so too many points of interest. Now, a nice balance is to have three points of interest, but one of them needs to be very clearly your subject, or in most cases, you want one of them to be a clear subject. And this is important because when you're constructing an interesting photograph, you need a clear visual hierarchy, you need something at the top, which would be your subject, and then you need other points of interest, or at least other points of interest will add to the photograph as long as there aren't too many. And this is where the rule of threes come in. If you've maybe heard of that or maybe you haven't, but it's basically having three primary points of interest in the image, one of which would be the subject that needs to stand out, ideally, but the other two are also in there and in some way supporting the story of the um the photograph. So one way of approaching this is to just ask the question what is this photograph actually about? And then look at what you've got in frame and just ask, does everything that I can see is this adding or taking away from that the answer to that question, what the photograph is about. Anything that is adding to that, then fine, that stays in. But anything else really needs to come out or get rid of it as much as you can. So remove distractions, simplify it. If you've got a very cluttered background and you can't do much about it, then use depth of field. So the key thing here is that photography or a good photograph can often be as much about what you leave out as what you leave in. Uh, so don't be afraid to get rid of things and uh even try shooting the same scene, but with certain elements in the photograph and certain out, and see what they see how it feels to you, what works, what doesn't. So I'm gonna pause for a moment and just recap on where we are. So the first mistake that I spoke about was focusing on the gear instead of the vision. And I think this is pretty common actually. People assume that they're not getting the results they want because the gear isn't correct, and and I will guarantee in most cases, there's nothing wrong with the gear at all, it's that they just don't know how to use it. Number two is ignoring light, number three is shooting everything at eye level, and then I've just spoken about trying to include too much. Now, these next three mistakes are often the reason that photographers stop improving entirely. And I I was reading something the other day that it was actually in a different context, but it was saying that if you if you're not moving forward, you don't actually typically you're not standing still, you're actually starting to slide backwards. And I think there's something to that, and it's certainly worth considering. So, mistake number five is taking photographs but never reviewing them critically. So, what I mean by that is just stopping and looking at at least some of your images and asking, why does this image work or why doesn't it work, and what you're trying to communicate. And what that does, it gets you very specific about what's right and what wrong, what's wrong. And and the reason this is important that when you get specific about something, it's it's much easier to change it. So, for example, you might have shot a photograph that looks good because you got the lighting right, the angle of the lighting is great, the the it's it's the right um it's it's the right softness, let's say, and it just really works. So, okay, that's a takeaway. So you now know that by looking for that kind of light, having that kind of lighting setup, you know you're going to get a result, or there's a good chance you'll get a result that works for you. On the other hand, there might be something that doesn't work, which could be just too much in the background. So then it's a case of okay, what were the options? Or if you're looking at the photograph as you're shooting, which obviously we can do with digital photography, just ask, well, what happens if I if I change maybe the orientation of the camera? Maybe I've shot in portrait mode, and what happens if I go to landscape or the other way around? Um, can I step to one side? Can I move in? Close, what can I do? Um, what would make a change here that would make that image better? And if you can uh make this a regular thing, and then this and be very clear, this is not about beating yourself up or anything, it's being objective and being constructive about how you improve and you get consistently good. Consistency is really important. So do this regularly and just look at the ones that really work that you're really pleased with. Just be again very objective and specific about what works, look at your near misses and look at the complete failures. And the growth, and this is really important because the growth happens when you're reviewing and then choosing uh actions to take next time. The growth doesn't happen with the shooting, that's what you do next. But you need to take a look, you need to make conscious decisions about what you're doing, you need to understand what you did to get a result in the first place so that you can can change it, improve it, hopefully. Uh, but if you don't do that, you're gonna you you may well stand still if you're lucky, but the chances are you'll start to slide back. Mistake number six is editing without intent. So, what do I mean by that? It's just random editing decisions, basically. Um you you can see this with images that are oversaturated, the colours are oversaturated, there's way too much contrast. Um maybe presets have been used, but they've been used in a very handed, heavy-handed way. The colours are all horrible, you've got all sorts of things going on in there that are that are distracting, they take away from the image. It doesn't look natural unless you deliberately want something abstract, then that's obviously a different thing. But editing should be supporting the image, not becoming the image. So, in other words, editing is a way of just getting that image to um a point where it looks the way you remember that original scene looking. And one of the measures I use when I'm editing, because I do a lot of wildlife, so I'm outside, so there's often grass or green things about. I'll try and get my greens about right because that acts as a reference. And the other reason is anybody looking at it uh will probably have an idea what a good green looks like, even if they don't know what a line looks like, you know, in in real life, or that that sort of thing. So before you do any editing, just ask yourself what mood you're trying to create because you might want to either have something that's very realistic, or you might want to add some sort of a mood. You might want to make the photograph feel happy or feel more tense, whatever it is, and you can achieve that or at least finish that part of the storytelling process in your editing. Okay, so finally, um the final mistake, mistake number seven, is comparing yourself to everybody else. Um, so I've spoken about this before, and I I did mentor someone a while back now, and she and I totally understand this because I felt the same way when I first started putting stuff on social media, but she was getting very upset and actually was getting um depression from feedback that people were giving her about her images, which was um, you know, I think pretty nasty at times. So, uh, how do we deal with all of that? Well, the first thing is social media creates unrealistic expectations because people always post their good the best stuff. So if you're just photographing and you look at somebody else's work, uh always remember. That's what they're putting on Instagram or Facebook or wherever it might be, this is their best stuff. So for every image they post, they probably have dozens that are pretty horrible and quite ordinary. So, you know, that's what we present. Social media is a bit of a fantasy land. It's um, you know, in my opinion, fantasy people leading fantasy lives. So, but maybe I'm too old for that. Um, so but be aware of that with social media. The second thing is the comments that people make. Um so I think this is really important because first of all, if someone I never asked for feedback on my photographs, and that's quite deliberate. Because if I want feedback on a photograph, I will go to somebody who is a good photographer. I I like their work, I respect their work, and I believe, I mean, it depends on the person, obviously, but I believe I believe there will be value in the feedback that they can give me. Now I hope it will be constructive, but you don't always know unless it's someone you know and you've been to before, then you know what to expect. But that's the only time I'll go for feedback. So I never ask for feedback generally because I've no idea who these people are, I've no idea how good they are at photography. The chances are I'm way better than they are anyway. And particularly when it comes to people who make nasty comments, from my perspective, or what I believe is that tells you more about them than it does about your work. They're gonna take anybody down, the the you know, maybe angry, disappointed people, whatever it might be, and this is how they vent their anger. And of course, what you do when you put put your own work on social media is it's very personal. You're putting yourself out there. Um, and it's in public, it's in a public forum where people can do whatever they like. So that's I I think a really important thing if you do get negative feedback on photographs from people, well ignore it, frankly. Um, is my advice to you, unless it's somebody whose work you respect, but then I would approach them directly. Now, um that's that that's the problem. And the thing is the company comparisons you make, if you allow those to get to you, you can start to feel that you're never going to get anywhere and that everyone's way, way better than you are, and that's just obviously nonsense. So the thing to do, the much more constructive thing to do, is to compare your current work with photographs that you shot six months ago or a year ago, and look at them objectively and look at what's different, and that will tell you what you really need to know. Uh, because hopefully, um if you've been working on your photography, you'll see improvement, and you may even look back at older work, the EEI IC, what we're thinking about, you know, or okay, you know, we all have those reactions to older work, but that's the point about it. The only photographer that you need to compare yourself to is the photographer you were, you know, six months ago, a year ago, whatever it might be. But that's the one who matters. So those are the seven. So we're very quickly just recap. So number one was focusing on the gear instead of the the vision, instead of the photography itself, ignoring light. It was number two, number three, shooting everything at eye level. Number four, in trying to include too much. In number five, taking photographs but never reviewing them critically or objectionally uh uh objectively. Um, number six was editing without any intent. So you really need to understand what your intentions are when you edit, when you look at an image, you've got to be very clear about the outcome and not just play around with it until it you know hurts your eyes. And then number seven is comparing yourself to everybody else. So what what's the message of this, I guess, when I'm telling a story? Um really important things. Um most breakthroughs you are gonna experience in your photography, and they and you will get them if you stay at it, but they're not gonna come through buying something new, they're gonna come from how you're approaching your photography. It's gonna be maybe learning more about how auto uh, you know, how the camera works, how to get out out of auto, for example, and that opens up huge creative potential. Um, or it might be just understanding composition, taking the time to just do a course or do a challenge or something where you're looking at composition and you're starting to understand the basic elements and how you can use them together, uh, what the guides are, what the rules are, and then how you break the rules, all that kind of stuff. These are the areas where you're much more likely to get a breakthrough, and then you can objectively look at the gear you have, but any changes you make, they're very, very specific because you know, um, for example, that you need more active autofocus tracking than you have on your current gear, just because the nature of the things you're photographing and you know that the current gear you're using is falling short in that area. But this is the only this is the exercise I always suggest people go through. Just go through what you're currently using, be clear about what works, what doesn't work. So that those differences or that that those things together give you a list of what you need in new cameras. Obviously, the things that are working in the current camera, yeah, you definitely want those, but also the things that are missing, and that's your reason to upgrade to different cameras because you now need these other things. But if you don't have that list, then you're you're flying blind and all you're doing is burning money, and you're you're um you're unlikely to get the result you want. You you may well find that you've completely wasted all of that money, which would be a real shame. And um look, if you want to make a comment, just tell me which of those the seven mistakes I've given you have you struggled with the most. Um let me know because I'm always looking for ideas and feedback for for future podcast episodes. And and some people have come back, and that's certainly resulted in an episode on a specific uh area. So I'm very keen to get that that kind of feedback. Um, and that is it for this podcast. So I hope you found that useful. And um, yeah, good luck with your photography, whatever you're doing, try something new. You can also do my 14 day challenge. You can access that through the website uh www.ge.photography. That's all free, and you get an email every day for two weeks uh with a photography challenge. So, again, it's another way of just pushing you out of your comfort zone and trying something different, which is how we help you grow and expand. All right, that's enough from me. Have a great day. I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.