The Four Main Mistakes When Taking Photos

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Once I got into talking with the shop assistant of a photo shop. That was before digital photography was invented and people went to photo shops to have their photos developed. I asked him, “Why is it that so many people make horrible photos but don’t realise it?” The man smiled and said, “Have you noticed that we always place the photos in front of the customers so that they can see them the right way up? We don’t do this only for the customers, but also so that *we* don’t have to look at them. Most photos are indeed so horrible that it’s too much for us to endure.” It’s rare that a shop-assistant is so honest! Now what is it that makes a photo horrible or ugly or whatever negative term you want to use? 1. The photographer concentrates on the object they want to take a photo of and doesn’t see what else is near it. The human eye is capable of blending out everything which is not important, the camera isn’t. For a camera everything is of equal importance. And so it can happen that someone is standing somewhere in a pretty landscape with a telegraph pole sticking out of their head. You want to take a photo of the blossom of the flower? Good! Then why don’t you do it? Why do you show also part of the stem, part of the lawn and part of the garden path? 2. The photographer does *not* concentrate on the object they want to take a photo of. For example, you are at the beach with friends and want to show the people and the beach. If you find the beach extremely pretty, then take a photo only of the beach. If you want to include people, the people are more important than the beach. That means: have them in the foreground and the beach in the background, not the other way round. I‘ve had to look at photos showing a vast beach with a group of people near the upper end of the photo. Their faces were hardly discernable. The photographer pointed proudly at the dwarves and told me who they were. I’d have known that myself had I seen them clearly in the foreground of the photo. 3. You are impressed by a beautiful landscape. Don’t just raise your camera and click! Find something in the foreground which attracts the viewer’s eye and from where the eye can move on into the photo so-to-speak. That can be a tree, for example, or a bench, or a big rock. This something in the foreground will give the photo depth. 4. When taking photos of small children and/or small animals, **do not do it standing and towering over them**! I have seen lots of horrible, horrible photos of children with - as it seems - hydrocephalus and stubby legs who would look perfectly fine if the photographer were sitting on a chair or kneeling. In order not to get a distorted image you have to be on the same level as the object you are taking a photo of. This goes for small animals, too, of course. ----- Photo: Andre Furtado The photographer here is standing in the right way. Arms pressed to the sides of the body helps to keep the camera steady and not take blurry photos.