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  • What's up everyone welcome back to Tokyo Japan my name is Joe Allam and in this video, I'm gonna share five mistakes

  • I commonly see beginner photographers make and my solutions on how to solve them

  • I Should probably point out I am so stoked to be back in Tokyo by the way, I just I love this place so much

  • Alright, so issue number one

  • I see all of the time and that is wonky horizons,

  • now it may not be obvious at first

  • But when you review back your images afters and once you spot it

  • You can't help but not spot anymore. So many people are taking pictures, and they're not aware of how wonky

  • They may be taking those so first and foremost, make sure you have your horizon

  • Dead straight across the center of your image if you have that

  • Otherwise you can always fix it in your editing software so in Photoshop or in Lightroom. Wonkiness is really

  • It's really easy to spot once you go looking for it.

  • If you find yourself a notoriously bad with wonky horizons

  • then maybe some extra tips you can take to improve that is to take your time with things use two hands on the camera and

  • Steady yourself with a steady posture

  • In fact, most cameras will actually have a gyroscope built in and you should be able to enable it

  • On both the viewfinder and on the screen, so you can keep those steady

  • Particularly if you're shooting with a tripod you've really got no excuse

  • So my second mistake that I see quite commonly is a complete misunderstanding of white balance

  • now white balance is the metering that you set in your camera to set the color temperature of your images

  • Now the color temperature comes from your main light source

  • now that could either be the sunlight or it could be a tungsten light or it could be a

  • fluorescent bulb something like that so you need to set the white balance on your camera - the main source of light

  • that way you'll get truly accurate whites and colors across the board with your images

  • otherwise you may end up with very warm and

  • Orangey images or very blue and sometimes greeny images

  • If you shoot in RAW as well, you can also change this in your post-production

  • But generally it's good to get a good in camera these days cameras are actually really good at setting auto white balance as well

  • So that may even be your solution to solve things

  • To change your white balance you can either go into the settings or look on

  • The back of your camera on the top you may have a button that it's just labeled as WB

  • And you'll go through there pretty much every camera will have an icon related to the light source so that you match them, too

  • So if you really have no idea then just match it to the icon

  • And if you really want to be accurate in your white balance then you can purchase a gray card

  • And then you can match up to your images

  • With the grey card in front and then that way everything is going to be accurate

  • Okay, so if there's anything that could be the most important thing that you really don't wanna make a mistake on its this

  • Having blurry or non-sharp images. I can't stress enough. How important it is to get your images pin sharp

  • You know you can make a mistake on everything else, but honestly just get your images sharp to me

  • Nothing stands out as amateur more than if your image isn't sharp in the first place now some ways to improve that

  • you can either shoot with a faster shutter speed you can maintain a steadier posture you could use a tripod or

  • You could use a higher ISO if you're in low-light situations

  • so many people come to me with images

  • and they say hey, can I get you feedback on this and

  • beyond anything

  • The one thing that really really stands out is when your images just aren't sharp

  • another thing to take note of with that is the way that aperture plays into the depth of field and sharpness of images

  • the larger your aperture the less you actually have in focus so you may actually find

  • Some people take photos of people and the nose is perfectly in focus and the eyes are soft

  • they're not in focus just use a slightly smaller aperture or set your focus correctly on the eye and

  • That will really stand out differently, but when I say shakiness and bonus

  • I'm usually talking about when people have taken an image, and they're clearly not

  • Stood very steady whilst they're taking it. They just study your posture, and you'll get great results

  • My next tip is related to composition now

  • We all know that finding a great composition is really hard and quite troublesome sometimes however this particular aspect

  • I'd say comes down to spatial awareness

  • And I see it a lot and people maybe aren't aware of the scene that they're in and taking the photos

  • And they don't realize it just a small adjustment can actually make a huge improvement on the image

  • so a few things that are quite commonly seen taking pictures of people and things are

  • uncomfortably cropped off so maybe someone's head is propped up a little bit uncomfortably or the bottom of their feet cropped off if it's a

  • Full-body shot or maybe you're taking a picture of a building and you crop the top of it, and it just looks a bit odd

  • Or perhaps, it's something. That's maybe symmetrical, and you haven't taken it quite in the middle

  • It's just ever so slightly off-center if you can just keep that spatial awareness

  • Apparent in your images it makes a huge difference

  • Okay, so my final tip on how to overcome the five mistakes that beginner photographers make and that is

  • Setting your exposure correctly. Now this is incredibly common that people maybe

  • Unaware of how to properly set the exposure on their camera and that is completely fine, however

  • It is not big, and it is not clever to shoot in manual all of the time

  • I mean, I feel like a few years ago

  • I fell into that trap where I was always shooting manual and now quite often actually shooting aperture priority

  • Or I'll shoot something else

  • Just let something within the camera

  • Do something automatic for you to maintain a correct exposure

  • Because what you don't want to happen is go somewhere and miss a shot because it is poorly exposed or something happens and you've missed

  • It because you're on old settings for when it was exposed to something else the other thing to bear in mind

  • Is that on your camera itself in the viewfinder when you are shooting you will see a little light meter?

  • If you can get that meter as close to the center as possible by adjusting your settings

  • And that means you're gonna have a perfectly exposed image the meters within cameras are really really good these days

  • another thing that a lot of people kind of make the mistake of

  • Through reading old literature is they are afraid of high ISO s and I'm talking like anything above

  • 600 which to me is not high at all

  • If you have a camera that was bought within the last four or five years or something you could be pretty confident to shoot

  • You know3200 ISO. Maybe even higher if you've got a high-end camera

  • you could shoot anything up to maybe twenty thousand with your ISO and

  • Still be able to get shots now there will be some noise involved. That's true across anything but

  • What would you rather have? An image that's kind of noisy?

  • Or, no image at all because it's poorly exposed? For me, I'd rather have an image

  • That's correctly exposed if it comes with noise it comes with noise

  • That's just down to the location and any other light you maybe can't control

  • so yeah, be aware of your highlights. Be aware of your shadows and your overall surroundings.

  • If you can try not to clip either of those

  • Generally you want to maintain your highlights

  • You can always raise the shadows in your post-production

  • So you don't want any blown out skies that are supposed to be blue, and they've come out completely white

  • But pay attention to your light meter in the viewfinder and you'll be great

  • So that concludes my top five tips on how to solve beginner problems with photography

  • I hope you've enjoyed this video make sure you give it a thumbs up with the like button below

  • leave a comment of your own tips or any of your own experiences of how you've improved your photography recently and

  • Also, make sure you subscribe to this channel

  • I'm creating loads of content about photography, and I am loving Japan from creating so much whilst I'm here

  • I'm also posting loads on my Instagram, so you know and give me a little follow over there as well alright, so that's everything

  • Thanks for watching, and I will catch you later. See ya

  • You

What's up everyone welcome back to Tokyo Japan my name is Joe Allam and in this video, I'm gonna share five mistakes

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