9 Photography Tips you should IGNORE!

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Photography tips are everywhere, and I don’t help. How to use your camera better, how to compose and edit your photos, it’s endless. It’s not all good advice though in my opinion, and in this video I go through the worst advice I’ve ever received.

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34 Comments
  1. Bally Hoo says

    Yes I agree. I liked your video. Thanks.

  2. David Reynolds says

    I used to always use a tripod for landscapes. And I still use them most of the time. But recently I’ve got into not using it as much. Rather than go to a location and spend a couple of hours taking a load of quite similar images, sometimes I spend the time visiting 2 or 3 different places and basically “run and gun”. On a sunny day, you really don’t need a tripod for 1/1000 sec shutter speed. Means I can get more value out of a day out. Keeps my Instagram ticking along nicely (with mediocre photographs 😁).
    Although I will say, the tripod does make me consider and adjust my compositions more. And then I awkwardly crop them for Instagram because I forgot landscape doesn’t really work on it.

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  4. Gun Fall says

    Jared Polin wants to know your location!

  5. Ben Storr says

    Those light bulbs!!! Still going strong. 👌

    Good bad tips btw.

  6. My Opinion Doesn't Matter says

    Skip to 2:33. Or 15:29.

  7. Paul Compton PDphotography says

    Great advice and it all makes sense

  8. Thcwub says

    Just adding to your filters tip. You dont need a filter to blur water either, as this is very achievable in post for (in most cases) close enough results to using a filter and tripod. 10 images taken at 1/2 second exposures will give you the same effect when averaged in photoshop as a 5 second exposure with a filter. With Image stabilisation as it is it has certainly become easier to hand hold longer exposures, and if you just hold down that shutter to take a couple of dozen shots you can very easily attain the long exposure look. Will take the computer a long time to process the action, but its just further advice to show you dont need to miss an opportunity to melt the water in a scene just because you dont have a tripod or a filter on hand. Also prefer this technique for long exposure type shots as, if you have enough shots to work with, you can remove some distractions or ghosting better than you could with a single long exposure…

    Just another question of whether you prefer to get it all in camera, or are happy to spend the extra time in post.

  9. Brian Gagnon says

    I understand your point about tripods in general. In-camera leveling systems are useful for keeping one's image straight but I shoot a lot of HDR and there is no way to work without a set of sticks. Geared heads make the process even better.

  10. matt821 says

    Do do *sniggers like child

  11. SM says

    This is the first video of yours I've ever watched. Great video. I think there's far too much pressure on people trying to learn photography to do absolutely everything right all the time. Photography is fun and it should be as relaxed as you can make it. I'll be subscribing to this channel. 👍

  12. Sonic says

    I absolutely agree with you..dont pick a style the style picks you

  13. Steve Porter says

    It never ceases to amaze me how many times I hear the advice that your next lens after the kit lens/lenses should be a 35mm or 50mm f/1.8. This advice always seems to come from people who don't have that much experience themselves. They never explain why and I've even heard it when beginners say they want a lens for landscape photography. How often are you going to use f/1.8 for landscape?

  14. 古德曼 says

    things go wrong when you put "have to" in front them.

  15. stew stapleton says

    Cheers for that, I shoot Raw & Jpeg, just in case the Jpeg doesn't make my own eye interpretation.

  16. Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla says

    Tips. Maybe also myths. In any case, all true and I agree with you. Perhaps some of us should stop worrying about other stuff that is not going out and take photos.

  17. Geri Tisdale says

    I'm so glad you made this video. 1) I shoot wide open maybe 5/10 times. 2) I feel like I don't need a "style" especially when it comes to editing. In my opinion, my style depends on what I'm shooting. 3) I usually only use tripods for landscapes or if I'm shooting a large group. 4) In my 6yrs of photography, I haven't used a filter, but I have been wanting to try them. 5) I also use SanDisk, but I try to find them cheap on Amazon. My photography "mentor" so to speak says to never get one over 32gb, but I have a few that are over 100gb with no problems. 6) Agreed 7) I feel like I haven't heard this one much. I'm typically told to only shoot when cloudy. 8) I have been shooting RAW for a few months to see how I feel about it. Might try JPEG again. 9) This is my favorite tip or non tip? Other photographers are usually shocked when I say I use a Canon Rebel T4i, because of my image quality. You don't need a $5k+ camera and lens to get good quality.

  18. Brian Smith says

    You need a tripod though if you have a zoom lens off 200mm+

  19. x47plm says

    Great video James, I always enjoy your content.

  20. Chris Snyder says

    I think buying the best cards is more about buying quality cards, not necessarily fast cards. Don't buy the Ebay special thinking you got a great deal getting those 64gb cards for $5 each. Stick with a company that has a good reputation because the last thing you want is the increased risk of losing your images.

  21. Azenturi says

    Annoyingly, I don't typically do much editing or what I think is much editing, but it's still limited by the amount of data in a JPEG. I suppose my "style" still needs RAW.

  22. KRS KA says

    If you don's smoke before recording a video, your mouth won't go dry 🙂

  23. Wadger Catcher says

    11:10 is the best bit in the video! Of course i like your waffle, but puppy!!

  24. Choco Later says

    There is almost always some depth of field with foreground and backround but what people give most value to is the density of out of focus area. DOF is overrated. The more you know about photography the more you realize it. If pro gives you a good/bad tips about stuff like is this video about it is because it has worked for them/their style.

  25. 0ecka says

    Image quality and "quality image" are completely different things, James. It is possible to shoot the same exact "quality image" on two different cameras, one of which would produce higher image quality of that same "quality image" than the other camera. And saying that image quality doesn't matter all that much is very silly, in my opinion. Of course, a lesser camera can be good enough. But if you take any "quality image" and reduce its quality down to let's say 30×20 pixels (resolution is one of the essential image quality factors), it would be destroyed.
    Basically, image quality is the amount of correct information that the image is made of. A huge part of that information depends very much on the capabilities of the sensor and other camera electronics. While everything is based on the image projection produced by the lens. In the end, an image is just millions of 1s and 0s (the binary code) – color fidelity, fine detail, noise, distortions, aberrations, flaring, contrast, sharp focus, depth of field and bokeh – all that matters only if it represents reality in a sensible way. Digital camera is one of the most important tools created by our civilization. Photography itself is a tool and science. Not art. I mean, we can do art with it, but not only. Art cannot be more important than camera or photography, in my opinion. Actually, it really seems like artists are trying to take over photography. But, if/when you succeed, then what? You will demand to stop making new cameras, because they don't matter? Something like that? What's the point of your "camera-doesn't-matter" ideology really? I don't get. It doesn't make any logical sense. It's like religious people trying to preach that science is a religion too and they want to be in charge of it and tell everyone what to do. This is insanely wrong. We can replace religion with science. But we can't replace science with religion. Same thing with art and photography. We can't replace photography with art. Because that's not what it was meant for in the first place.

  26. Aram Kaptein says

    Like it. List could be a lot longer. Thanks for sharing.

  27. Tinderbox says

    The back-up-for-cropping-later suggestion is money (and goes for portrait work as well these days where people need shots in so many different shapes for different uses). There's no reason you have to get it perfect in camera, no one is keeping score! 📸 👍

  28. Ben Mendis says

    Re: #9. The sensor is just one half of the optical equation. A blurry lens on a great sensor will never make a sharp image. Lots of things can ruin the image before it even reaches the sensor, including operator error.

  29. Ben Mendis says

    Re: #5. It's not just write speed. If you shoot RAW to a slow card, it can take much longer to upload the files to your computer for editing. That's the reason I spend a little more on faster cards (and bought a faster card-reader than the one built into my laptop).

  30. Grumpy Old Man says

    That first advice was from Jared Froknowsphoto Polin 😛

  31. Ck Phurailatpam says

    Subbed.

  32. wildwalkeruk says

    7:43 – I Love that shot, well done.

  33. HerreDePerre says

    Hello I know this has nothing to do with the video. But I made a picture I think is quite nice. https://m.imgur.com/sn18t3E
    I just wanted to show

  34. Alessandro Capoccia says

    Nice one mate ! Totally agree

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