Photoventure March 12, 2014
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you’ve ever been admonished for driving with only one hand on the wheel or for splitting your infinitives, you’ll know how easy it is to get into bad habits when doing something familiar.Photography is just the same — here are some 8 bad photography habits that could be preventing you from getting the results you want.
Bad photo habits: 01. Being cavalier with your gear
Modern cameras and lenses are tough but they’re not indestructible.
Chucking them into your bag or squeezing them into a narrow space can do more than cause scuffs — you might end up seriously scratching an expensive lens or activating an unwanted function my mistake.
This writer once thought his viewfinder was playing up, when all he’d done was send the diopter out of whack by cramming the camera into his jacket pocket. Doofus!
Bad photo habits: 02. Chimping
Compulsively checking a shot on the rear LCD (chimping) after you’ve taken it is a really bad habit.
Travel photographer and teacher Gavin Gough bans his students from doing it as it breaks their connection with the subject — a vital part of portrait photography.
Obviously, there are times you need to check for extreme over or under exposure, but the rear LCD image is only a JPEG preview — call up the exposure graph, or histogram, if you’re that worried about your settings (but don’t then become addicted to eyeballing the histogram every time you’ve taken a shot!)
Read about the other six bad habits.
Good habits produce great pics. (Photo by Richard Farino)
