Frequent Photo Flubs: 15 picture pitfalls and how to avoid them

By Lori Grunin on 31 January 2006
Frequent
Brighter brights and whiter whites! Find out how to get the best pictures in our handy guide.

You know the feeling: you've just snapped that once-in-a-lifetime moment, and you're already thinking about how big you want to print it. It looks great on the camera's LCD, and everyone in the room wants a copy of it. When you get home, you eagerly load it up on your PC, only to discover it's too blurry to even make out the faces. We've all been there.

Thanks to our friends at Webshots, we had a boatload of photos to browse through in order to pick examples of the most typical mistakes that snapshooters make. For instance, a camera phone is fine for the occasional spur-of-the-moment shot, but if you know you're going to be at a party, an event, or some other venue where you'll want to take photos, please -- use a real camera. The only truly bad photos we saw were clearly taken with camera phones. So, by remembering a few simple rules and taking a few minutes to page through your camera's manual -- if necessary, by trashing your old clunker and buying a new camera -- you'll increase your odds of shooting photos that impress, not distress.

Avoid these picture pitfalls:


1. It's a complete blur
2. Demon eyes
3. Off colour
4. Don't stand so close to me
5. So far away


6. Lazy photographer
7. Off kilter
8. Snow blind
9. Backlight bugaboo
10. Too flashy


11. Back flash
12. In the dark
13. Supernova surprise
14. Stamp out date stamps
15. Bad camera

 
1. It's a complete blur
2. Demon eyes
3. Off Colour
4. Don't stand too close to me
5. So far away
 6. Lazy photographer
7. Off kilter
8. Snow blind
9. Backlight bugaboo
10. Too flashy
 11. Back flash
12. In the dark
13. Supernova surprise
14. Stamp out date stamps
15. Bad camera

Topics: photo, picture, pitfalls, flubs, diy, 15, frequent, how-to, avoid, camera

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Comments (1)

  • Sergei Plishka commented on 11/02/2006 13:21 Report abuse

    If you do notice a reflective surface in the background, simply take the shot at an angle to the surface so that flash reflects away from the camera instead of right back at it.

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