Is It Enough to Look to the Sky and Try Again
22 Common photography problems (and how to fix them)
You lot never accept to be in uncertainty ever again
Mutual photography bug tin really take the enjoyment out of taking pictures. As 1 of the more technical pastimes yous can pursue, it can be pretty disruptive at times.
Whether you're simply starting out or have been taking pictures for a while, chances are you keep encountering the same nagging problem. Don't worry though - you're not alone and this is where nosotros come in.
Nosotros've put together some of the most common photography problems you run into and offered solutions to get round them, and so you never accept to be in incertitude always again!
We've offered a mix of camera tips, explanations, definitions and more to assist answer your questions. And we've also provided links, where appropriate, to some of our photography tutorials covering these bug in more depth.
Problem No. 1: Will irresolute lenses mean I end up with dust on the camera sensor?
Then much has been said about 'dust bunnies' (small particles of dust that tin land on your photographic camera'due south sensor and cause dots in images) that many DSLR and mirrorless photographers seem paranoid about changing lenses. Yet being able to utilise the best lens for any particular shot is one of the best attractions to DSLR and mirrorless photography.
Don't be agape to modify lenses when y'all need to, but have a few precautions. Always switch the camera off, as this removes whatever static accuse from the sensor that can attract dust particles. Where possible, cull a dust-free, non-windy location when changing lenses also. If that'south not possible, at least shield yourself from the wind.
Next, go the replacement lens ready to fit so that you don't have to waste time with the photographic camera internals exposed. Finally, go on the camera's lens opening pointing down when changing lenses, to minimise the hazard of anything falling into information technology.
Problem No. 2: Should I apply a skylight filter on my lens?
Skylight filters have 2 jobs. I is to reduce the cool, slightly blueish colour bandage that yous might run across in some of your shots, especially those taken in shade under a blueish sky. With the sophisticated white balance abilities of today's cameras, this is less critical than information technology was when photographers were using film (especially slide picture).
However, skylight filters play a second role, protecting the front end element of the lens from accidental scratches and splashes. If your camera resides permanently in an orderly studio, this might non be an issue, just if yous do most of your photography in the great outdoors, it certainly will be. Replacing a filter is a lot cheaper than writing off a lens!
- Learn more: five essential photography filters
Trouble No. 3: Should I Delete All or Format to remove pictures from a memory card?
Formatting the menu is quicker, so is virtually e'er the better option. However, if images are 'Protected' during playback, they won't be erased when you press Delete All simply will be wiped if you format the carte. You can flag photos equally 'Protected' by pressing the appropriate button.
Trouble No. four: Should I use Continuous or Automobile Reset for file numbering?
Nosotros tend to stick with the Continuous file numbering option considering, even after removing a memory card, copying the files and and so formatting it, the numbering organisation will behave on from where information technology left off. This is likewise true when swapping retentivity cards. The advantage is that, even over long periods, all of your camera's paradigm files will have unique file names.
Problem No. five: What's the divergence betwixt raw and JPEG image quality settings?
Put simply, information technology's all-time to think of JPEGs as high-street prints and raw files as negatives. You camera'south already practical an number of adjustments to a JPEG file, as well equally compressing it at the aforementioned time.
A raw file lets you brand all those creative choices, allowing yous to control exposure, white balance, colour mode, saturation, contrast, sharpening, likewise as a host of other settings. It's more time consuming, and you lot'll need to use a raw converter similar Photoshop Lightroom, merely the results are worth information technology.
- Larn more than: The A to Z of Photography: Raw
Problem No. half dozen: Should I utilize sRGB or Adobe RGB?
The Adobe RGB color space was adult to enable the largest gamut when printing an RGB epitome on a CMYK printer. The sRGB colour space ('s' stands for standard) is best for viewing images on a screen or distributing them electronically. It's also the best option for inkjet printing, fifty-fifty if you're sending your files to a printing lab.
Problem No. 7: Many of my indoor photos have a nasty yellowish cast. Am I doing something wrong?
The likely cause of this is an inaccurate white balance. The Auto White Balance setting of DSLRs typically does a practiced chore of reacting to varying daylight weather, such as bright sunshine, cloudy skies or shade, simply the color temperature of indoor lighting generally falls outside of the range covered. The usual event is that interiors lit by general-purpose lights have a nasty yellow colour bandage.
The quickest remedy is to alter your photographic camera's white balance setting from Auto to Tungsten (also called Incandescent on some cameras) if y'all're shooting under standard interior lights, or the Fluorescent setting for strip lighting.
Things get trickier when you have a mix of lighting - when daylight is streaming in through a window and y'all've got interior room lights switched on also, for example. If you lot have time, you might want to experiment with your white residuum settings, but our recommendation would be to shoot in raw. As nosotros've mentioned above, unlike JPEG files, information technology's piece of cake to change the color temperature of raw files at the editing stage.
- Larn more: The A to Z of Photography: Kelvin
Problem No. eight: I took some dusk photos, but they don't look very colorful. Why is this?
The problem is that the motorcar white remainder of digital cameras will typically try to cancel out any shift in colour temperature, with the aim of producing results that are more neutral. As a effect, the AWB setting can leech all the orangish lite out of sunset and sunrise shots, giving rise to insipid, neutral images every bit a upshot.
The solution is to switch to a preset white rest mode. The regular Daylight or Sunlight setting volition oftentimes yield fairly accurate results, but the best mode to emphasise the golden quality of low-level sunlight is to alter to the Cloudy white balance setting. Moving to the Shade setting will farther exaggerate orange hues.
- Larn more: The best photographic camera settings for dusk photography
Problem No. 9: Why are some of the ISO ratings on my camera unavailable every bit standard settings?
Many cameras carve up their total sensitivity range into standard and 'extended' ISO sections.
This means cameras evangelize optimum paradigm quality in their standard ISO range, with maximum detail and the least amount of digital image noise at their base ISO settings - commonly either ISO100 or ISO200.
At the extended range, even more 'proceeds' is applied (retrieve of it like turning the volume up on a Hullo-Fi, and then system noise becomes more apparent) than in the standard ISO range, which results in more digital grain.
This does requite you some flexibility in poor lighting weather condition, merely be prepared for paradigm quality to be noticeable poorer than if you were shooting in your camera's standard range.
At the other end of the calibration, depression ISO settings that are one terminate below the base sensitivity of the camera are sometimes available. These are handy if you want to use a large aperture to minimise depth of field, or create motility mistiness with a slow shutter speed.
The trade-off is that y'all'll typically lose most one finish of dynamic range in the highlights, so they'll launder out to white more readily.
Trouble No. 10: I've used the smallest aperture on my lens to go everything sharp, but the film looks soft - have I done something incorrect?
Virtually lenses have a minimum aperture of f/22, although some (such equally macro lenses) offering an even smaller setting of, say, f/32. But why is the minimum aperture of a lens rarely listed alongside the focal length of a lens, as its maximum aperture is?
This is because the smallest aperture is rarely recommended to be used, as this setting leads to softer, lower contrast images caused by an optical miracle known as diffraction.
Diffraction occurs when light waves entering the lens are 'bent' past the hard edges of the aperture. Every aperture setting causes this, but the bending is by and large minimal. However, as the apertures gets smaller, the upshot becomes more meaning.
At the smallest aperture, the calorie-free waves are bent and spread out and then much by the aperture blades that the epitome appears fuzzy, fifty-fifty though information technology's been focussed correctly.
And so, while a lens'due south smallest aperture might enable you to maximise the depth of field when you're photographing landscapes, the resolution will deteriorate. Try opening upwardly a one-half or one total terminate instead to improve picture quality.
Problem No. 11: My zoom lens says it'due south 'macro' only I tin't get anywhere near equally close to subjects every bit I can with my compact photographic camera. What'due south going on?
True macro lenses have a reproduction ratio of 1:1, which means they can epitome a field of study the same size every bit the camera'south sensor; on near DSLR and mirrorless cameras, this is about 24 x 16mm. Many 'macro' zooms boast ratios nearer 1:4, so the smallest possible subject area is about credit-menu size.
It's true that many compact cameras do let close focusing, but they only do so with the lens at its wide-bending setting. And so the smallest field of study they can capture isn't as small as you might recall. It tin can also be hard to go enough light on the subject field, which ends up in the photographic camera'due south shadow. A slightly longer working altitude is much more practical.
- Learn more: Macro lenses: how to choose one, and how to utilise it
Problem No. 12: Some of my shots are blurred, peculiarly at longer zoom settings. How do I avoid it?
Camera shake is something that becomes more than problematic with longer focal lengths. The easiest way to avoid it is to use faster shutter speeds, even if this requires increasing your camera's sensitivity (ISO) setting.
A general rule of thumb is that the shutter speed should be faster than the focal length yous're shooting at, and then for instance, if you lot're shooting with a 200mm equivalent lens, you shouldn't shoot any slower than i/250 sec or you risk photographic camera shake ruining your shot.
Prototype stabilisation can also be a big help in reducing photographic camera shake. With a 4-finish stabilizer yous can await consistently proficient handheld results when using a 400mm lens even when reducing the shutter speed from 1/500 sec to 1/xxx sec.
- Learn more than: x reasons why your photos are blurry
Problem No. 13: Which autofocus mode should I use?
Most cameras featurre ii basic autofocus (AF) modes: Unmarried and Continuous (though Canon helpfully calls them One-shot and AI-Servo).
For general shooting, single mode works all-time because autofocus locks onto its target when yous utilise a low-cal press to the shutter release push and remains stock-still while yous maintain the lite press, until fully pressing the button to take your shot.
Continuous autofocus style is better for moving targets, because focus continually tracks subjects, though how successful that will be is dependent on the sophistication of your photographic camera's AF system.
- Larn more: 10 surefire ways to get your sharpest-always shots
Problem No. xiv: I notice manual focusing quite difficult. Is in that location a way of getting more precise results?
If you're using a DSLR, endeavor and avoid using the optical viewfinder, and instead use the camera's rear brandish to frame shots and focus manually. You'll find almost cameras characteristic magnification options for really precise focusing.
Some cameras likewise feature a Focus Peaking, with areas in-focus highlighted on the photographic camera's display (or electronic viewfinder).
- Larn more: Discover how to main transmission focus
Problem No. 15: If my photos are coming out besides light or besides nighttime, how do I ready them?
This is where the exposure bounty part of your camera comes in. By pressing the button marked '+/-' and rotating your camera'south control dial, you tin right the meter's interpretation of the scene.
Your camera's exposure level calibration, measured in stops, is visible in the viewfinder and LCD screen(s), and this is your visual guide to getting it right. The marker in the middle of the scale represents the 'right' exposure, according to the exposure meter. As you rotate the dial, you'll run across an indicator mark move up and downward the calibration.
When it moves towards the '+' end of the scale, you're making the prototype brighter; turn the dial in the other direction and the marking moves towards the '-' end of the scale, making the picture darker.
If you're using an optical viewfinder, y'all won't encounter this change happening to the image as y'all do this, but the effects of exposure bounty are simulated in alive view and electronic viewfinders (EVFs).
Of course, the amount of bounty y'all may need to use depends on diverse factors, such every bit the tone of the subject, the lighting and the type of metering being used.
- Learn more than: The A to Z of Photography: Exposure bounty
Trouble No. 16: In many of my landscape shots, either the ground is also nighttime or the heaven is besides bright. What am I doing incorrect?
Pale skies are ordinarily much brighter than the land, so if the ground is correctly exposed the sky will wash out. This is considering the dynamic range (the range of light intensities from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights) of the scene is wider than what the sensor tin can capture in a unmarried shot.
The simplest solution is to use a neutral density (ND) graduated filter to balance the exposure - y'all can read our guide below, otherwise, shoot in raw and it can exist possible to recover lost detail in the sky. Try and under-expose the scene slightly to retain highlight detail.
- Buying guide: Best ND grad filters: 6 summit models tested
Problem No. 17: I've oft seen examples of these long exposure landscapes, but I tin can never seem to get a sufficiently slow shutter speed. Tin y'all assist?
For ho-hum shutter speeds in daylight, you'll need to use a narrow aperture of around f/16 or f/22, merely fifty-fifty at ISO100, this may exist bereft to enable a long exposure. The flim-flam is to utilise a neutral density filter. These vary in strength, but tin can turn a exposure that would last less than a second into i taking longer than xxx seconds.
- Buying guide: Best ND filters: half-dozen tiptop models tested
Problem No. 18: When I playback images on my camera's LCD screen, parts of them are flashing - is that a mistake?
This is just a 'highlight alert' characteristic that is normally activated or deactivated via the camera's playback carte. With it switched on, areas of the picture that are (or are close to existence) overexposed will wink or blink between blackness and white.
This warning enables you to instantly run across, for case, if yous've lost all the detail out of the sky or other very calorie-free areas in an image. It'southward very useful when you're trying to retain highlight detail, as you tin dial in some underexposure bounty and re-shoot.
Problem No. nineteen: Why exercise my flash shots keep coming out dark?
The about likely explanation is that yous're trying to shoot subjects that are too far abroad. Flash has a express range, and built-in units are weaker than external flashguns.
Problem No. twenty: How tin can I become improve looking portraits on sunny days?
Sunshine is the enemy of portraiture, as information technology creates a difficult and unflattering low-cal. When the sunday is low in the sky, people volition squint, and when it's overhead, there volition be deep shadows that plough their eyes into blackness holes.
The respond is to get your subject area to turn away from the sunday, so they tin pose naturally, and to use fill-flash to banish shadows. When using a flashgun with TTL (Through The Lens) metering, most cameras will do a decent job of balancing flash light with ambient light, giving fairly natural results.
Apply the camera'due south metering system every bit a guide, but don't exceed the maximum shutter speed for wink synchronisation - the flash sync - typically effectually i/200 sec. The TTL flash exposure organization should enable the correct corporeality of illumination for fill-flash, merely be prepared to dial-in some positive or negative flash exposure compensation. For ultimate control, switch to transmission power settings on the flashgun and adjust the power for the best rest.
Another skilful choice for natural-looking fill flash is to use the flashgun off-camera, holding it high and to one side of the subject, using an extension cord or wireless connexion.
- Learn more: Flash photography made easy: from simple shots to advanced techniques
Problem No. 21: When I take photographs of buildings, walls and roofs appear to bow outwards. What am I doing incorrect?
This is well-nigh likely caused by photographing these buildings from a fairly close distance, using a wide-angle zoom setting. Wide-angle focal lengths tin effect in noticeable butt distortion, making the top, bottom and sides of the building appear to bow outwards.
You'll also need to indicate the camera upward, which accentuates perspective and makes the sides announced to lean in towards each other towards the top. The solution is to proceed your distance and then you lot can use a moderate zoom setting of around 35mm (50mm on a total-frame camera).
For photographing alpine buildings, information technology'due south ideal if you tin detect a vantage point that's higher than ground level - such equally some other building. Y'all could apply perspective correction when editing, but y'all'll lose part of the frame, so leave enough of infinite around the building when shooting.
Problem No. 22: In all of my panning shots the groundwork is too sharp or everything's blurred. Tin you give me any tips?
It's difficult to discover a shutter speed that's slow enough to create motion blur in the background but fast enough to stop unwanted camera milk shake blurring the car or bike that yous're shooting.
Behave in mind that you'd normally aim for a shutter speed of almost 1/500 sec to avert camera shake when using a 300mm lens.
To create attractive motility blur in the background, you need a much slower shutter speed of about one/threescore to 1/125 sec, so developing an constructive panning technique is a must. To go panning correct, place your feet comfortably far apart, so that when y'all're facing forrard you're aiming at the position the vehicle will be in when yous shoot it.
Every bit the subject passes, hinge from your hips rather than your upper torso as smoothly every bit possible, and gently squeeze the shutter button rather than stabbing at it. Continue the panning move for equally long equally possible, even after you lot've taken the shot.
It does take a expect of trail and error, so don't give up if it doesn't work start time out.
- Learn more than: 9 tips for taking sports photos like a pro
Phil Hall is an experienced author and editor having worked on some of the largest photography magazines in the UK, and now edit the photography channel of TechRadar, the UK's biggest tech website and i of the largest in the globe. He has also worked on numerous commercial projects, including working with manufacturers like Nikon and Fujifilm on bespoke printed and online camera guides, also every bit writing technique blogs and copy for the John Lewis Engineering guide.
Source: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/common-photography-problems-and-how-to-fix-them
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