What's your biggest weakness in your photography...

StephyB

StephyB

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Name
Steph
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Yes
And how can you work on it?

So I'm not sure if this has been done before, but what do you feel is your biggest weakness? Do you have a plan to help with it?

Mine is composition, I think it always will be! I'm trying to experiment a lot more with different ideas, taking more time to plan out shots or scope out locations as well. I *think* I'm gradually making headway.
 
With me it's to busy wanting the latest gear and not spending enough time using and getting the best out of what I already own. But then again we all like nice new toys to play with.
Also the complete inability to get out of bed in the mornings to get the golden hour light particularly in the summer time when it's even more important.
 
Composition and trying to make this look "arty". Practice practice practice is what I have to do. Like the OP I have been trying a lot of different subjects and types of photography. Hopefully I'll improve soon, am keen to learn and get out there.
 
Lack of talent..

I see images on these forums all the time that I wish I'd had the imagination and skill set to capture. Fortunately I consider this as inspirational and strive to improve all the time. This even though I've been taking photographs for nearly 50-years.
 
I suppose my biggest weakness is that I always want to photograph EVERYTHING, but also want to specialise/excel in one particular area. Kind of a jack of all trades, master of none kind of thing. Id like to be the master of one or two genres, but get bored too easily.

Edited to say.... What can I do to work on this? I dont know really...therapy?
 
Paying enough attention to make sure that framing is exactly right. Also loss of interest at the post-processing stage - I know what I want but can't be bothered to invest the time and energy shaping the final image that way.
 
Composition is one of my issues - I tend to keep putting the subject in the centre of the shot, and this is often (as we know) not the best position! As I wrote on another thread, as I use single point focusing ususally with the centre point, I tend to get the focus then just shoot - without recomposing. To try to combat this I'm trying to learn back button focusing, as this separates the focusing from the shooting and "forces" me to think about the compostion a bit more. Also, using other focus points helps me ...

When I've sorted this I'll get on to the other aspects I want to improve :)
 
I'm a black and white film photographer - you need to know this to make sense of my problems :).

My biggest weakness is getting the tonal range correct in the print. My lesser problem (which has caught me out a few times) is getting adequate edge separation between different objects in the frame. Those viewing my photos may have other ideas :D.
 
I think my biggest weakness is not being able to focus correctly (I have use manual focus).
When I get home and look at what I've shot I normally find myself being quite disappointed as the images aren't pin-point sharp in the correct area. Maybe I should use a different aperture to get a more suitable depth of field and hide my focusing errors.
I did recently realise that I had instinctively been using my weak eye which obviously didn't help and I've now had a play with the focus adjuster on my viewfinder so I'm hoping all these will help.
[Or Maybe I should buy more expensive kit to make up for my lack of talent].
 
Cant be 4rsed-itis for me. Too quick to come up with a reason why its not worth bothering going out. And when I do make an effort and get back the results are crap and Im missing £20 worth of fuel.
 
The weather!! :mad:

It rains, and it rains, and then it rains again :(

Then for my astro photography, there's cloud, and there's cloud, and then there's more cloud. :(

What can I do about, emigrate I suppose. :rolleyes:

Dave
 
Big Andy said:
With me it's to busy wanting the latest gear and not spending enough time using and getting the best out of what I already own. But then again we all like nice new toys to play with.
Also the complete inability to get out of bed in the mornings to get the golden hour light particularly in the summer time when it's even more important.
Click to expand...

That's refreshingly honest Andy. Probably the single biggest reason why people fail to improve.
 
For me it's the 12 inches behind the camera :) and composition. My plan is practice and more practice and of course sharing pictures with TP and listening for feedback
 
Flash Photogrpahy...its just something I hardly ever need and as a self taught person I simply havent had enough practice.. I stick my camera and flash on full auto and cross my fingers...with no on camera flash available I have a quantum battery pack and canon 550ex .... fortunatly with a 1dx camera most work can be done with available light..

for me flash always looks so fake.. noit just in my pics but others.. no matter what setting i use.. its never constant same exposure... hate using flash.. hate the look of flash pictures and thus its my very weak point..

well ya did ask :)
 
DaveS2 said:
The weather!! :mad:

It rains, and it rains, and then it rains again :(

What can I do about, emigrate I suppose. :rolleyes:

Dave
Click to expand...

Emigrate to Scotland then ;)

I've many weakness but the one that always leaves me frustrated with results is being too lazy to use half the equipment I have.

If I'm tired or cold or wet I can't be bothered to get filters out or change to a more appropriate lens etc
 
Impatience! I don't have the patience to wait for the right light or the right person / animal / bird or whatever. If it's not in front of me when I want it to be there, then I'm up and off elsewhere. Similarly, I'm too impatient to get the tripod out, or to use it when I have got it with me. Or I can't wait around a take a few more shots if the ones i've got aren't right .... I really need to slow down, be more considered, think more about what i'm doing and generally give the whole thing more time.
 
Talking myself out of a good landscape session due to weather/costs/cant get out of bed/tired/busy/etc etc

Focusing too much on gear when what I had a few years ago was more than good enough to do what I do.
 
Currently, not being able to get where I want to be when I want to be there! Hopefully that situation should be resolved soon but I'll still be short of flair.
 
Mines composition as well, quite a lot of us by the looks of things. I tend to shoot a lot of wildlife, birds and airplane shots which are generally on the move so I usually end up shooting with centre point and everything ends up in the middle of the shot. I do try to crop to enhance the composition afterwards but I'd prefer to get it right to start with. With me it's having the time to compose the shot, when I'm shooting portraits or similar and I have the time to arrange the shot I'm fine so I know I can do it, I just don't do it quick or often enough.

The other thing I would like to improve on is my PP work. I don't use it too often as I'm mostly happy with what I get but a typical example is at a registry office wedding recently I shot in raw and jpeg as the light had a distinct yellow cast. I used all my raw shots to get the shots right but I'd like to improve my PP skills even more for when I need it.
 
Mine is lack of spontaneity.

I'll arrange my subject, lighting, props, composition, etc. until its 85-90% of the way there before pressing the shutter for the first time, then continue to finesse the small details and expressions from there until I get exactly what I initially envisaged. Which has worked fine for me and is obviously how my tiny mind works. But I'm acutely aware that stressing over all this small stuff is probably irrelevant for others.

So I'm going to try and break this desire for perfection (bordering on very minor OCD) and try and shoot a lot more freely and more organically. I've got a girl group shoot and big fashion shoot coming up and I'm determined to break my self imposed restraint....you watch, it'll end in disaster. :)

Cheers,
Tony
 
Lack of confidence in what i produce, im my own worst critic. Not helped by all the great shots i see on here. And a bit of lens envy. :(
 
Pressing the shutter button lol


My pp skill isn't great and I would be happy to process a raw file and get it to look something close to what I see on the back of the camera
So if anyone knows of a good link to YouTube video's covering this I would be most gratefull
 
Taking photos of people.
I don't like my photo taken, so have to try and remember that some people actually like posing for photos...

Pamplemoose, I know exactly how you feel
 
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Probably not paying enough attention. I'm fairly comfortable with the technical side of things, but I tend to "see" the image in my mind and fail to notice the unwanted shadow, or clip part of the scene at the edge of the frame, because I'm not concentrating on what I see in the viewfinder.
 
Flash has always been a right pain for me, especially using remote flashguns.
 
Spending hours on TP, Youtube, Facebook when I should be out with my camera (on a nice day like this) or editing images !!
 
Everything is my weakness.. And it’s caused by a lack of taking photos, I don't get out enough with my D3100 and I've now somehow convinced myself I need a D7000 but in reality I'm more limited by skill than equipment.
 
MartynK said:
Probably not paying enough attention. I'm fairly comfortable with the technical side of things, but I tend to "see" the image in my mind and fail to notice the unwanted shadow, or clip part of the scene at the edge of the frame, because I'm not concentrating on what I see in the viewfinder.
Click to expand...

This is one that rings true with me and also the amount of shots I have with the horizons that slope.
 
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