You snapped the photo at the perfect moment, but the image is blurry. Or maybe the sky is white instead of blue. Or that portrait has dark eyes. Understanding the most common photography mistakes can help capture better memories and more likeable Instagrams. Here’s how to fix these seven common photography mistakes.
Incredible scenes, people, and moments all inspire a photograph — but sometimes, some of that original beauty is lost in translation. Maybe the photo isn’t very sharp. Or maybe that brilliant sunset sky turned out completely white. Or maybe your child’s bright blue eyes are dark and shadowed. What went wrong?
A camera doesn’t see the same way the human eye does — and without the right techniques, some of that original beauty can be lost somewhere in between becoming a moment in time and a JPEG on an SD card. If you’re just getting started with photography, or even trying to take better pictures with your phone, chances are, you’ll run across problems with blur, exposure, and colors. Here are seven of the most common photography mistakes and how you can prevent them (or sometimes, fix them) the next time.
One of the most common question from new photographers is the cause of the blur in a particular photo. Blur in an image actually has a number of different causes, and determining why that photo turned out blurry starts with recognizing just what kind of blur you managed to capture.
Motion blur is created when something moves while the camera snapped the photo. Motion blur looks like someone smeared a wet painting — the objects in the photo may not even have the same shape as they do in real life. This in contrast to out-of-focus blur, where objects will simply look softer (except in cases of very shallow depth of field, where something not in focus may be blurred to oblivion).
Once you’ve identified that the issue is motion blur, correcting the problem isn’t difficult to do. First, what’s blurred; just one object, or the entire image? If the entire image is blurred, the image is the result of a simple flaw: your hands moved while the camera was taking the picture. To correct the issue, you need to either increase your shutter speed or use something to steady the camera, such as a tripod.
Increasing the shutter speed means the shutter that opens and closes to take the picture moves faster, leaving less time for your hands to shake enough to cause blur. A general rule of thumb is to use your lens length to determine a minimum speed since longer lenses exaggerate camera shake — if you’re using a 50mm lens, use no slower than 1/50 second; a 300mm lens, 1/300 second. That’s just a guideline — if you tend to have shaky hands, you may need to bump it higher, whereas if you have a stabilization system either in your camera or the lens, you may be able to get by slower.
You’ll need to use shutter priority or manual mode to change the shutter speed yourself, but if you haven’t ventured into advanced shooting modes yet, try using the sport mode on the camera. When shooting in auto, even turning on more lights can tell the camera to bump the shutter speed up.
Also, check to make sure that the image stabilization is on, if your camera or lens has stabilization.
Another solution to camera shake is to use a tripod and, even better, also turn the self timer on or use a remote so your hand isn’t on the camera at all when the image is recorded. Tripods are great for eliminating blur when photographing a subject that isn’t moving. If the subject is moving or you can’t haul a tripod around, you’ll need to correct using shutter speed instead.
If, on the other hand, only the subject is blurred, that object or person is to blame for the blur, not camera shake. If something moves while the camera’s shutter is open, it will cause blur. Sometimes, that can lead to a cool effect that might help illustrate the concept of motion and speed; but it’s not so great if you actually need to see detail in your subject. This type of blur can’t be corrected by a tripod — you need to use a faster shutter speed. Alternately, you can try panning with your subject — this can take a little practice, but if you get the timing right, you’ll get your subject in tack sharp focus against a blurred background.
Unlike motion blur, images that are blurred because of focusing errors will still have the same shape (unless the focus is off by a very large margin). Instead of looking like a smeared painting, an object will simply look soft with undefined edges. Often, blur from a focusing error has something else in the photo that’s not supposed to be sharp, like the background. This results when your camera mistakenly focuses on the background rather than your subject.
If you’re finding out-of-focus shots on your smartphone, make sure you’re tapping the subject on the screen — this tells the camera where to focus. If the camera still isn’t focusing, you’re probably either too close or there’s not enough light. Since camera autofocus systems need light to work, they don’t work well if it’s too dark.
If you are using a DSLR, mirrorless, or advanced compact camera, you have a few more tools available to correct focus errors. By default, these cameras are set to choose the focus point automatically, and this can lead to errors (typically, a camera will simply focus on whatever the closest object is — but that may not be your subject).
By manually selecting just single focus point and putting that over your subject, you can dramatically cut down on the number of these errors. This feature will be called different things on different brands (Nikon calls it single point AF, Canon calls it manual spot AF), so refer to your manual if you’re not sure how to access it.
Still getting soft shots? This could be an issue of too little depth of field, which will be more problematic the closer you are to your subject. In a portrait, for example, one of your subject’s eyes may be in focus but not the other. You can increase depth of field by selecting a smaller aperture setting, either in aperture priority or full manual mode. You can read more about aperture in our guide on exposure settings.
If your photos are too dark, the camera didn’t get enough light and we call this “underexposed.” If they are too bright, the camera had too much light and we call this “overexposed.” Thankfully, this is an easy issue to fix, but understanding why your camera over or underexposed in the first place will help you anticipate it and save you from having to reshoot multiple attempts.
A camera is usually trying to find an exposure that works for the entire scene, but if you have a very bright background and a dark subject (a person standing in shade on a snowy mountain on a sunny day is good extreme example) it may underexpose the image relative to your subject.
The reverse can also happen; if your subject is in direct sunlight but surrounded by shaded areas, the camera may overexpose your subject as it tries to compensate for all the surrounding darkness. Once you learn to spot these scenes, you can anticipate how your camera will react, and you’ll be able to make adjustments accordingly even before you snap a first test picture.
On a phone, tapping on the screen will set the focus and exposure to that point. Often, just doing this will be enough to get a properly exposed image. However, you can choose to make the image brighter or darker using exposure compensation. Depending on the camera app you’re using, this is usually accessed by tapping and holding on the screen; once exposure locks in, you should now be able to drag a finger up or down to brighten or darken the image.
Dedicated cameras also offer exposure compensation, and this can be an easier way of adjusting brightness without messing with manual controls. Some cameras may have a dedicated exposure compensation dial, while others will have a button (again, reference your manual for the exact location on your camera).
