Bonus – What could go wrong?

Sometimes “The Mistake” isn’t really your fault.

I mentioned “The Mistake” in this week’s blog post – it’s the one glaring error that ruins an otherwise awesome photography. I’m infamous for taking pictures of kids with messy faces. I should catch that stuff, so I developed a mental checklist for every photo I take.

And then there’s the ones I can’t control quite as easily – like bumping the shutter speed button so that everything gets blurry and not noticing until 15 minutes (and 50 shots) later.

No matter what kind of camera you have, if it has a button for something, there’s a chance you’re going to push it at the wrong time and get something you never expected. The next time you snap a photo and you see something wrong with it, look at this quick cheat sheet for a little help…

Photos too blurry?

Is your…

·      Lens clean?

·      Shutter speed high enough?

·      Digital zoom turned off?

·      Auto focus turned on?

·      Image stabilization turned on (not all cameras have this)?

Photos too dark?

Is your…

·      ISO high enough?

·      Aperture at a lower number (like 4)?

·      Shutter speed open wider (like 1/60)?

·      Flash on?

·      Environment too dark?

Photos too bright?

Can you…

·      Dial down your ISO, aperture or shutter speed?

·      Turn off your flash?

·      Use the ND feature on some cameras?

·      Move somewhere darker?

Photos have a weird colour?

Do you have…

·      Your white balance set correctly?

·      Some custom colour functions turned on by mistake?

Eyes red and crazy looking?

Can you…

·      Turn on red eye reduction?

·      Turn off the flash (it’s causing the red eye)?

·      Stop taking pictures of zombies?

Hey everybody! The good people over at Intel Canada want to see your photos - and they're giving away a fantastic new i5 laptop for the best example of a Visual Life. Check it out here.