Why do most photographers fail? FAILED

For the last 20 years, I have worked in the photographic trade, supplying clients and campaigns with a potential million or more versions of the same original – and a million potential ways to get it wrong. Everyone makes mistakes, in all areas of life, and as part of the learning process, we all have to start somewhere. In this blog, however, I offer some pointers – hoping to save you from some of the mistakes that amateurs shooting fashion, advertising or location photography tend to make from the very start. Here we go…

Impressing the Wrong People

Most fundamentally, stop trying to please the wrong people – yes, that old chestnut again – the loudest, most often most critical, and too often most garrulous voices on the web. the self-styled ‘photography nerds’ for whom proprietary, pixel-peeping is a mastery and a mantra. Who loves nothing more than to chip in with snide remarks about everybody else’s stuff, who insists on making ‘popular’ vs ‘professional’ criteria based purely on megapixel counts? But who (again, mostly) tend not to be photographers making a living in the here and now? Make work that speaks to clients, and audiences in three dimensions, not just to other photographers.

Overcomplicating Lighting

One of the first mistakes made by a beginner is to make lighting more difficult than it has to be. As a location photographer, this is a particularly easy trap to fall in, especially for the young photographer just starting and looking to make a splash. Here’s the thing about fancy lighting: fancy lighting is 10 per cent cheerleading and the other 90 per cent of the job has to go into figuring out what the hell you’re doing. Yeah, I do fancy lighting. I like fancy lighting. But sometimes I get to play with ridiculously complicated five-light ghetto setups for fun because it becomes kind of a puzzle. I’m trying this thing, I want to play with it. But by and large, approximately 90 per cent of the stuff I’ve shot this year has been a single light on the far side of the location on full power, doing the same job. What looked good? Yeah, it looked really good. No one wants what looks cool, to customer, they just want it to look good and tell the story of their product and service. You want to look good for their customers, not look good for the other photographers who show up.

The Obsession with Sharpness

And it’s a myth that sharper is always better. In most cases, some sharpening can improve a photo, but brutal over-sharpening – of any subject, but particularly a portrait – can verge on the downright brute. And the images coming from today’s cameras are generally sharp enough in the first place. The same of course goes for the mania for using wide apertures to over-blur the background to a silly degree (the bokeh effect). Again, opt for a halfway house, with the benefits of sharply articulated focus, but no loss of context.

Copying vs. Creating

It is important to imitate but, after that stage, it is important, too, that you make it your own. Vary those big chef techniques so you perfect them, put your twist on them, and then you can come up with things of your own. I believe, in the professional kitchen, that’s what you want to be doing. There are so many different techniques, and if you put your spin on it, you can get pretty much anywhere.

Developing a Narrative

Everything you do needs to be narrative. It’s not just the content of what you’re doing, the thing that you work on, that also needs to have a narrative, some kind of message behind it, and be somehow reflective of you. But even your existence as a maker, your brand, whatever it is…needs to have a narrative as an undercurrent to it. My YouTube persona of me is strict and hard-arse, while the great majority of my photographs head towards the frivolous, flippant, and downright silliness of me. Everything needs to be about the self and your work.

Beyond Pretty Pictures

Pretty isn’t going to cut it anymore. Much more than just a pretty picture requires pointing your fancy phone towards the vista. Hell, you don’t even need to be a fancy soft-handed phone person anymore. Kids with flip phones are taking pretty pictures these days. Taking pretty pictures. What will make your photos stand out is that extra layer of content. That connection to ‘mood’ or ‘feeling’. That thing. That layer of ‘taste’ that elevates your work from ‘recent grad’ eye candy to something grown up and interesting. It’s not about your gear. It’s not about your technical wizardry. It’s about the story. It’s about the emotion. It’s about something beyond the technical. It’s about more. It’s about showing them but showing them. It’s about showing them something worth paying more for than your technical skill. It’s about your ideas. Your vision. Your creativity.

Key Points to Watch Out For

1. Overwhelming Yourself:** Trying to learn everything at once can be overwhelming and counterproductive.

2. Gear Obsession:** Believing that having the most expensive gear will make you a better photographer, instead of letting photography skills take centre stage.

3. Failing to Make Time For Continued Development:** Not spending sufficient time on courses, tutorials, workshops and online resources.

4. OVERLOOKING THE NECESSITY OF PRACTICE**: While consistency in shooting by itself may not prove statistically significant, consistent practice is critical, but given their lackadaisical approach to practice, many beginners just don’t put in the crucial number of practice rounds to see steady improvement.

5. Underestimating the Learning Curve:** Going into a new creative endeavour with the exaggerated belief that quickly mastering it will have some immediate rewards.

6. Missing Your Niche:** Trying to be all things to all people and spreading yourself too thin instead of committing to doing the work that most drives your passion.

7. Neglecting Post-Processing Skills:** Overlooking the importance of learning editing techniques.

8. Forgetting to Build a Network: Being self-trained and self-employed can lead to isolation.

9. Quitting Too Soon:** Photography requires tenacity and stamina; beginners often quit too soon.

10. Not Keeping a Foot in the Social Door: Failure to establish an online presence, including developing an online portfolio and being part of the social media photography community.

11. Failing to Understand Your Audience:** Write to fit your audience, not yourself.

12. Ignoring Feedback:** Constructive criticism is vital for growth; don’t ignore it.

13. Lose work due to lack of backup: The same principle applies to photography. You never know what can go wrong with your equipment so it’s vital to have a backup system in place for your photos.

14. Over-editing:** Less is often more when it comes to post-processing. Avoid overdoing it.

15. Bad Composition**: Get the composition right: pay attention to the rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing.

16. Shooting Without Purpose:** Always have a clear vision or purpose for your shoot.

17. Neglecting Light Quality**: the quality of light is just as important as its quantity. Look and think about how different illumination conditions affect your photos.

18. Washing It: You Remember.

19. Not Making Prints:** You can keep things purely digital, but you’ll miss an additional look at your image, and a sense of connection to your photos if you don’t make at least some prints.

20. Paralysis from Analysis:** Don’t be afraid to experiment with new techniques or approaches. It could lead to great discoveries.

Final Take 

So newer photographers, learn, mess up, grow tough, and learn to pay attention. Invest wisely, make yourself visible, work it, and network, too. It’s about always learning and more learning. It’s about curiosity, about enjoyment. You won’t always know exactly how to do something, but be open, your senses curious, your world moving through your sight. And then, you can snap.

Happy shooting, and I’ll see you next time!

James Nader