THE 7 DEADLY PHOTO MISTAKES

(AND HOW TO BE A BETTER PHOTOGRAPHER BY REMEMBERING THESE)

WARNING! NOT EMPLOYING THESE TECHNIQUES WILL BE DEADLY!!!

Photobooth pics from your MACBOOK are not real photos!

FA C I A L COMPRESSION
Ever look at a cell phone picture of yourself? How about a webcam picture? Ever think geeze, Im ugly!? Dont worry its not your fault (not entirelyjust kidding). From now on you can blame compression. Yes you heard me, compression. When the camera is placed close to the subject, the face begins to distort in unattering ways. Big nose, wide eyesyou begin to look like you live in a carnival fun house mirror! How do you x it? Step back and zoom in. Portrait photographers know this secret, and you should too! You should be shooting at least a 50mm lens, the higher the better. If you want to be a real stud, shoot at 100mm, yep, it will do wonders to your subject (or your self esteem if its a self-portrait). To take this simple x one step further, how about getting that portrait background out of focus to really make your subject pop? Sound good? Try to bring your subjects as far away from the background as you can. This combination of zooming in on their face from far away AND placing them a great distance from the background will make them really pop. Youll be a compression master! As a side experiment, compression doesnt just relate to people. Try taking a picture of the same subject from up close, and then another one from far away but zoom in. Look at how much background space is created. Cool eh?

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4 CS !
DONT LET LAZY PHOTOGRAPHY LEAVE YOU LIMB-LESS!
Here's a photo tip that can be used for virtually ANY type of photography. Portrait, landscape, still life, even Glow-in-The-Dark Lego statues! Get ready for this acronym, because it's going to be a doozy. You ready. Here it is. "4CS." I repeat, "4CS." "Four corners, shoot." I'll explain. In any type of photography before you get all trigger-happy and go crazy with the shutter button, look to all 4 corners, and then shoot! So often we are only focused by what is in the centre of the photo, that we neglect what is being framed in or out! By looking at all 4 corners before we shoot, we can take a second to recompose, and make sure everything we intended to be in the frame is there! For example, if we use "4CS" in portrait photography, we can see if we're cutting o any limbs, ngers & toes, and step back to include all body parts (usually best to do this). If we use "4CS" in landscape, we can see if there's a stubborn telephone pole on the left side of our frame, and adjust accordingly (a beautiful waterfall shot just isn't the same with phone wires interrupting it). Apply the "4CS" technique to EVERY shot before you re away. It will make you a better photographer in the long run, because you're practicing purposeful composition, as opposed to shooting from the hip!

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YOUR WHITE BALANCE SUCKS!!!

It does, It really does. Heres the deal, Im not expecting everyone to be the next Annie Leibovitz. You can lie to me, but I still know at the end of this report, theres a chance youll still be shooting everything in AUTOMATIC mode. Fine, be that as it may (I actually know two professional photographers who use AUTO mode exclusively when in the eld, not kidding), if youre going to do this, at least gure out your white balance, PLEASE! 99% of the time,

AUTO white balance is ne. Keep it there. Far too often Ive seen skin tones as blue as the Cookie Monster because someone has left it in an indoor setting. Leave it on AUTO. The camera can do the work for you. If youre really a smart cookie, yes, you can use the SHADE mode when youre in....the shade! The only problem is, 95% of you will forget to change the settings and next time you shoot your birthday party - BAM! Youre shooting the same settings you used when skiing on the French Alps. Which leads me to my next mistake... RESET YOUR DAMN SETTINGS!

EXAMPLES: Heres an example of the same shot with three completely dierent white balance settings. Is one better than the other? Probably not, but its also a lesson in how your white balance can change the mood of your picture. From the top the settings are: 1. Tungsten 2.Shade 3.Flash

This is a sunny day, and yet she looks like an AVATAR!!!

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STRAIGHT LINES MAKE FOR HAPPY PICTURES

Keep That Horizon Straight, And Your Buildings Straighter!

Heres something that separates the pros from the schmoes! Make sure your shots are level. This isnt a huge concern out in the eld, but is an easy x in the digital darkroom. Not having your horizon on a perfect 180 degree angle is a sure re way to make someone pass over your shot. Look for a straight line in your shot, whether it be where a wall reaches the oor, the trees hit the waters edge, or the side of a door frame. Make sure all your angles are aligned and at perfect 180 or 90 degrees. But what if your horizon is straight, but vertically things seem out of whack? This probably has to do with the lens distortion. This is a 2 second Photoshop x (FILTER > DISTORT > LENS CORRECTION, or in CS5 just FILTER > LENS CORRECTION) which will make your pictures real to the eye. The only exception to this rule Ive found, is when using a sheye lens. This technique lends itself to a bent horizon, and straightening it would just lose tension in the shot!

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DNG?
Some people like to use the DNG (The Digital Negative) le format once they import their les to the computer. It takes marginally less space, and apparently will be compatible in the future. Its not for me, but do some research and see if it works for you!

RAW RULES !
Shoot JPEG If You Know What Youre Doing, If not, Shoot RAW!
Heres the deal kids. On your DSLR theres manual. But please, just shoot RAW. Cards a function that allows you to fix blown are huge, and memory is cheap. You can highlights, recover shadow detail, and afford the extra space, and when you even gain copious amounts of clarity bring back that once-in-a-lifetime shot back. Sound too good to be true? It by tuning the recovery slider in isnt. Its RAW. Im not going to go LIGHTROOM, youll be singing my RAW RULES! into the technical details on what it praises! GET THAT IN YOUR is now (this is just a report As a word of note, JPEG has lots of BRAIN! remember), but use it. Shooting amazing uses. I often shoot JPEG RAW over JPEG can bring back over a AND RAW. Crazy right!!??! JPEG looks WHOLE STOP of exposure to a photo. great. As a second word of note, dont Dont know what this means? Read the ever shoot TIFF...thats just stupid! FILE EXTENSIONS .NEF
RAW le format used in NIKON cameras. This is the best format (kidding) :)

.CR2
RAW format found in CANON cameras.

.SR2
RAW used in SONY. See how the brand names begin with the le format extension! GENIUS!!!

.ORF
Found in Olympus cameras. No one uses Olympus, Im just running out of space (kidding)

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RESET YOUR DAMN SETTINGS!!!

This is something that should be built into the camera - perhaps a visual warning, or a voice like the one found in your GPS? Hey knuckle head, have you remembered to reset your camera? I cant tell you how many times Ive reached for my camera fresh out of the bag, and started snapping away. It wasnt till halfway through shooting I checked my settings, and had been shooting at 6400 ISO! Whoops! Heres the name of the game. Reset your damn settings! This includes, white balance (Avatar blue skin anyone?), ISO, image quality, exposure compensation, bracketingthe whole gambit! There should really be an auto default on these cameras to help the layman like most of us. Regardless, before you pick up your camera and start snappin away, make a mental checklist to change back your settings and it will save you every time! As an extra bonus, because Im such a charitable guyremember to include a memory card in that camera. Im not kidding. Some cameras allow you to turn on a lock which literally locks your camera from taking pictures if there isnt a memory card in the camera. Search out this setting and turn it ON! It will save your She resets butt every her settings time. every time! Look how As a second extra happy she bonus, becausewell is! you know. Always format your memory cards in camera. This is a habit you should get into each time you dump your images over to computer. Letting the computer delete the images isnt enough. Make sure you do a clean format in-camera each time you want to start fresh. It will save you from corrupted cards, which equals headache and tears!

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Shaky Frames!
Please, please, please. If you're shooting handheld, ESPECIALLY in low light situations pay attention to the shutter speed. The rule of thumb is to never shoot hand held beneath 1/30th of a second. Folks, this isn't rocket science, but by not paying attention to this one aspect, you might as well be throwing your An eye that frames in the garbage! looked tack sharp on the If you're shooting handheld at back of my these frame rates, you'll never get LCD...boy was I a TACK sharp, or even, SHARP wrong! image, and you'll be cursing yourself to the bank. Sure the images look ne on the back of a 3-inchscreen...but the moment you bring those suckers up on your computer monitor, is the moment you start crying! Seriously! No amount of Photoshop can rescue a slightly blurry image from your tears! Here's the solution...Raise your ISO. "But what about noisy images!!??. I don't want grain!!!" Horse feathers. In the words of the great Jay Maisel (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Im not concerned about pixel quality, Im concerned about picture quality." Which means, who cares if your photo has a little extra noise, what matters is that your image is TACK SHARP! You can remove noise in post, not crappy photography! -As a side note, some cameras have the option built in to raise the ISO automatically if the shutter rate goes below a set number. I'm not a fan of this because obviously there will be times when you'll want dierent shutter speeds, but consult your manual and see if this feature is for you! Id say its a little sharper this go round!

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YOU DID IT!

Thanks for taking the time to read through this and for visiting our site!
I truly want to THANK YOU for visiting our site. Its artists like you that keep vision and creativity alive! Hopefully you learned something along the way...even if it was one tip, or a new way to look at your own photography.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS GREAT AT ANY AGE!

If you enjoyed this little tip book at all, forward it to a co-worker, friend or grandma (we love grandmas), This is a grass roots project that thanks to you is gaining momentum. Click the tweet this button below and like our facebook group. Well be giving away lots of photoshop actions, training videos, new books etc through these channels, and youll want to get some of the free goodies were giving away. Again thank you, drop me a line at info@thephotoformula.com, and keep exploring your vision! Best.

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