The Number One Mistake That Newcomers to Digital Photography Make

Although bad composition and poor use of lighting are major problems with today’s digital photographers, it is not the worst mistake that newcomers to digital photography make.

When someone buys there first digital camera, they immediately go out and start taking a ton of photos and for the most part, they turn out to be technically good photographs. However, in many circumstances, they could have been much better.

The single biggest mistake is that they haven’t taken the time to read the owner’s manual. Today,s digital camera are technical marvels. But, for the most part, the new owners of these cameras have not taken the time to find out all of the options that are available to them. They set the camera on full automatic and start firing away.

Most of the cameras today have a tremendous range of options that will help produce even better photographs. These little technical marvels may have upwards of 15 or more scene modes for specific types of situations, macro-mode, back-lit mode, fill-in flash, manual modes, aperture and shutter speed controls, sports mode, scenic mode and the list goes on forever. All of these different controls are available to improve your pictures but, if you are not aware of them, you are missing out on the true capabilities of your new digital camera.

Your first step, before you take picture number one should be to read and study the manual that came with the camera-cover to cover. Then when you go out on your first photo shoot, you will know how to best set-up the camera so that you are getting full use of it’s technical capabilities and produce far better photographs.

Then once you know what the camera is capable of doing, you should then start learning about lighting and composition. As a long time professional photographer, friends are constantly coming to me wanting to show off their latest digital masterpiece. Of course, the first thing I notice is the poor use of lighting and absolutely miserable composition but, now I am starting to notice that they are also not making full use of the different scene modes. Composition and lighting are somewhat difficult to learn but, there is no excuse for not using all of the technical capabilities of your new digital camera. All it takes is a couple of hours of study and then, at least, you are getting full use of the camera’s abilities.

Later on, we can tackle composition and lighting but start off on the right foot by reading the manual. It will give you a head-start on taking better pictures. I love these modern technical marvels. When I started out as a professional photographer more than forty years ago, I was always dragging around about one hundred pounds of equipment and it might take hours of setting up to take one photo. Today, for the most part, all that you need do is point and shoot and then you can look at the screen and know immediately if the picture is good or bad. Back in the day, there was so many variables in aperture, shutters speed, light metering, processing and printing that it might be hours or even days before you actually knew if you had created the photograph you had expected.

Compared to the good old days, today’s photographers have it really easy but, often fail to produce optimal pictures simply because they had not read the manual that came with their camera. Shame on you if you don’t bother to read the manual. The poor quality of your pictures can only be blamed on you.

Stan Pontiere has been an avid photographer since childhood. Having worked for the likes of the Associated Press and The New York Times and an instructor of photography at a college back east, I have enjoyed the transition from film to digital photography.
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