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Which Tips for Photographers are not Worth Using?
There are now hundreds of articles on the Internet with tips for photographers. If you are a beginner, of course, you will trust most of the training materials. Thanks to many years of practice in the field of photography, only true professionals can single out the most valuable recommendations for themselves and not waste their time on useless advice.
Today we will tell you why much advice about photography is wrong. This will apply to both shooting techniques and equipment. By the way, on the Skylum website, you can read an article about the advantages of 35mm vs 50mm lenses and other interesting materials.
Shoot only in RAW
This is the most common misconception, so let’s break it down in more detail at once and in sequence:
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Almost the first thing they tell all new photographers is that RAW files provide the best picture quality.
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The message here is that you are not doing serious photography if you don’t go home after a photo shoot and spend hours post-processing and perfecting your work.
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Today’s cameras have learned to do JPEGs better than ever, and in many situations, that’s enough.
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For a family photo session or day-to-day shooting, JPEG is fine (though it still makes sense to shoot RAW in parallel, just in case).
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With most cameras, by turning off RAW you get a bigger buffer when shooting bursts, which increases the chances of catching the perfect shot.
Set JPEG quality to the highest possible
One of the first things I learned about digital photography is that you should always set JPEG quality to the highest possible level or you risk getting compression artifacts, especially if there are diagonal lines in the frame. Since then, camera manufacturers have learned to use processing that doesn’t create visible artifacts.
Some have gone even further and added ultra-low compression, which technically produces results that are closest to the original subject matter, but there is no visible improvement to the eye. They are often turned off by default and there is no need to activate them, as this will only fill up the memory card faster and slow down the camera.
Full-frame cameras are everything
With all the hype surrounding full-frame mirrorless cameras, you might start to think that smaller formats are good for nothing. This, of course, is nonsense. Full-frame cameras have certain advantages in terms of image quality, such as less noise, greater dynamic range, and a shallower depth of field.
However, this comes at a price in terms of size, weight, and price. On the other hand, smaller format sensors work with smaller lenses, making them even lighter and more portable. Choose what works for your particular shooting style.
More pixels, more noise
Perhaps the oldest myth in digital photography is that sensors with more pixels produce noisier images. In the case of early inefficient sensors, there was some truth to that, but things are different now. For any given sensor size, more resolution will be noisy simply because the pixels get less light.
However, if you look at the whole photo, the noise balances out and the higher-resolution photo will look no worse, both when displayed on the screen and when printed. The main difference between photos taken with a high-resolution camera is the greater detail.
Kit lenses are useless
The standard zoom lenses that come with DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are designed to get the customer started in photography with minimal extra cost. Consequently, they will never be as high-quality and sharp as the more expensive models, nor will they provide the same creative opportunities. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get good pictures with it, because in the end, it all comes down to the photographer’s vision.
Focusing on one-third of the frame
This advice comes up in articles and conversations all the time, but it is not completely correct. It assumes that the depth of field behind the focal point is the same as in front of it. However, this is only true under certain conditions: for example, with a 50mm lens mounted on a full-frame camera, an aperture of f/8, and a right subject distance.
Put another lens, change the aperture, focal length, or even sensor size, and the depth of field ratio will also change, often significantly. In the case of macro photography, the depth of field in front of and behind the focal point is almost always the same, while it differs significantly when shooting distant landscapes.
Focus and recompose
In the days of film photography, when cameras had only one focal point, a common technique was to focus on the subject in the center and then recompose the shot to have him on the side. Sometimes you might be tempted to do the same, but then you’d run into focusing errors when shooting with a wide aperture. Now almost all cameras have multiple focus points, so if you want to get a sharp shot, use the one closest to the subject.
Depth of field on medium format cameras
According to the laws of optics, for any given angle of view and aperture, large formats provide a shallower depth of field. That’s why you’ll often find photographers chanting about the blurry background that only medium-format cameras can produce. If you want the shallowest depth of field possible, you’re better off using a full-frame camera with an f/1.4 or a faster fx lens.
Final thoughts
As you can see, some popular advice about photography can be challenged. Another misconception is that real professionals only use Photoshop for post-processing. Today many high-end photo editors are much easier to work with.
For those who want to improve their photos, Luminar Neo is a must-have tool because of its artificial intelligence capabilities. On the website of the developer of this modern photo editor, you will find many tutorials and interesting articles. For example, if you are a beginner and have not yet figured out the equipment, we recommend reading about the disadvantages and advantages of 35mm vs 50mm lenses.
