Here are a few of the mistakes that I spotted in my own photography and practiced to fix or be more mindful of. I included some oversights I make while I'm shooting, and some changes I've made to my post-processing habits as well. When I Shoot Learn to set white balance. Generally when you're conducting a photoshoot, the photos will all have thematic resemblance. The largest contributor to ensuring the theme of the images is maintained throughout the shoot is your white balance. White balance can give your subjects a warm or cool tone and effectively alter the entire atmosphere of the shoot. My bad habit was using the auto white balance setting on my camera instead of setting it manually. As you can see, the following two images were taken at the same time, however their white tones vary drastically. The first is warmer, while the second is cooler.

Setting the white balance yourself gives you full control of the atmosphere of your images and you can maintain consistency throughout the photoshoot.

You can get bokeh with a higher aperature. Everyone loves a good bokehlicious image, including me, it's definately one of my guilty pleasures XD But it's always important to be mindful of the situation you're shooting in and what you want to achieve from the shoot. If you're shooting a headshot for example, of course having a clear distinction between the background and the subject is important, and showing that depth of field, however we need to keep in mind that all aspects of the subject should also be in focus. In the next image, the strawberry is focused however the rest of the picture isn't, and in the image following, the child's hand is focused as well so it was better than the first but not the best.

Increasing the aperature for these shots (where the natural lighting would have easily covered the loss in light retention in the camera) would have allowed enough distinction between the subjects and their backgrounds, it would have also allowed me to have both of their full hands in focus. Of course, this all depends on what you're looking to achieve, if this was the effect that you wanted, then no changes need to be made.

Framing.

Improper framing on my part is one of my biggest pet peeves. In my experiece, it has been the worst with sports photography. I can't tell you how many times I took pictures where the player's head has been cut off, or part of his racquet or foot. Sometimes you can't help it with sports photography, but it's easier to practice and improve with portratiure. Learning about the rule of thirds can really help you frame your images in an aesthetic manner, but there are also some simpler tricks like making sure to give your subject headspace, and if you're cutting off a part of someone from your image make sure it's clear that it was done deliberately rather than accidentally. The picture below is an example of when I was so excited to capture my parent's expression I missed the top of my dad's head XD

This could have been easily fixed if I had setup my camera focus points and situation prior to calling them over for pictures. The following image is an example of using the rule of thirds to create a more dynamic image. However, I still need to work on more interesting angles with my shooting.

Post Processing

I was (and still am) obsessed with vintage photos, and most of my post-processing habits root from this love for everything antique. it's hard to say that things done in post processing are mistakes, because it all depends on your vision as a photographer and if that's the effect you wanted to acheive, but here are a few habits that I've personally changed while searching for my photography style.

Grains.

I'm putting this down as one of the things I've changed, but really, my love for that grainy texture hasn't changed much XD But in retrospect, it highly deteriorates the quality of the image and there are other ways to achieve texture without physically putting it in. removing the grains really gives you a much more clear image, and you can still get the same hazy feel by paying attention to the lighting around you. If you still love grains too much to let it go (like me ;___ 😉 you can atleast try to tone it down a bit more. As you can see from the two images below, the grains in the first one has a unique feel, however it changes the texture of the person's skin in an unfavourable way

The second image has a similar feel to the first and was taken about half a year later, but as you can see, It's much more crisp but still conveys the same atmosphere.

Skin tones and colour balancing.

Balancing skin tones is hard, especially when you have an array of different people in an image with different skin tones. I find it much easier in natural lighting however I'm still trying to get a grasp of how to make corrections to ensure peoples skin tones show naturally. This first image was one where the skin tone worked out perfectly in natural lighting even through post processing. In the second image, we can see a sort of neon effect happening because I was trying to play with the colour balance (to no avail).

All said and done this is something I try to be mindful of when I shoot and I'll definitely write about this again if I find the secret to nailing natural skin tones in photography consistently 🙂

Low contrast sports photogrpahy.

The habits of a vintage photo lover strike again! Why I used to use low contrast in sports photography? I don't know. It really drains and dulls the intensity of the moment, especially when you're in such a well-lit situation

This second image is much more crisp and intense. It captures the intensity of the player's form and expression and I don't think I'm going back to low contrast sports photography any time soon after seeing the difference it makes.

Hope some of these ideas will help you out when you shoot!! It's important to stay on the lookout for things you can improve on so every shot can be better than the last. The best way to learn is always to TAKE MORE PICTURES!!!