 Hey everybody, it's Greg back to here and in this video I'm going to share five common mistakes that a lot of photographers make and how you can quickly and simply solve those mistakes. All right let's get started. So mistake number one, don't shoot in auto. So a lot of photographers when they first get started they shoot in auto mode. I highly recommend shooting in manual mode and here's why you'd want to do that. By shooting in manual mode that gives you more creative control as the artist when you're creating your images. So here's a couple of simple tips. One, set your ISO first. So if you're shooting outdoors choose the lowest ISO possible usually about 100. Then two, set your aperture. So if you want to blur your background set it at f14 or f2.8. If you want more and focus throughout the shot set it for around f11. Take a shot and see how that looks. Then really all you have to do is set your exposure just look in your in-camera meter. Turn your little dial there till you get a good exposure. Take a shot. If you're happy with that then there you go. It's that easy. You're now shooting in manual mode. All right so here's how to avoid mistake number two. Now mistake number two is using too many focus points. So a lot of cameras have maybe 50 different focus points and you set it for that and then your camera picks the wrong focus point and you get home and your subject's blurry in the background sharp. So you really want to avoid that. So how do you do that? You set your camera to one focus point. So if you're shooting a person for example and their eye is right here you want to shoot the closest eye to the camera. Use one focus point. Your subject will be in focus. You can get your background blurry. Use one focus point which brings us to number three. Now the number three mistake is don't shoot in harsh sunlight. So you want to pick the time of day where you're shooting so you can control the light and have the best light possible. So that usually is a couple of hours after sunrise or a couple of hours before sunset. Those are the best times. My preferred time is a couple of hours before sunset. You can get those reddish-orange skies. That's a great time to choose and it gives you more creative control of how your image is going to look. So try to avoid harsh midday sunlight which brings us to number four. Don't use presets when it comes to your editing. Now I know it's easy. Everyone has presets. You can download. You can apply and your photo looks a little bit better. But really if you're using presets you're never really going to develop your own style as an artist. You really want to learn how to use either Lightroom or Capture One or Photoshop. So take an hour, go through some tutorials and then start to develop your own style. Forget about presets, learn how to edit your photos. Which brings us to mistake number five which is probably one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of photographers make and that is avoid posting all of your work. Now really if you think about it out of 100 photos maybe one, two, maybe even three are worth posting. So what you can do to really narrow that down if you're in Lightroom or if you're in Capture One they have a rating system. So what I'll do is I'll go through all my images and I'll give the good ones four star ratings. So avoid anything that's out of focus. Avoid bad poses. Avoid bad lighting. Really be hard on yourself. Look at your photos like you would look at somebody on Instagram that has a huge following and you're saying wow how do they have this huge two million following. I don't think they're that good and that critical eye that you're judging other people with. Take that critical eye and judge yourself. Look at your photos and say is this going to get a lot of likes anywhere? Is this a good photo? Like is this in focus? Is this good lighting? Is this a good pose? Really be strict on yourself and narrow it down with that rating system. And then once you've got your top say 10 go through that top 10 and say well what's the top one? Or two and only post those and of course edit those to the best of your ability. If you follow these tips your photography will improve by 50 to 100% in the next two weeks. So let me recap. So one, shoot in manual mode. That's what you should do. Two, choose your focus point. It should only be one. Three, choose the right time of day to shoot. So get that lighting right. Four, avoid using presets and learn how to edit your photos. And then five, be very critical of your own work. Use a rating system, narrow it down to the top 10, then narrow it down to the top one or two and only post those once you've done a good job editing those photos. Alright I hope you found these tips helpful. If you found them helpful give me a thumbs up for this video. Also click that subscribe button if you're not already a subscriber. If you want to share these tips just click on share below this video and you can share this in photography groups and forums. Also if you have any helpful tips of your own just post them in the comments section below. I'd like to hear what you think. Alright thanks for watching this video. Give me a thumbs up and I'll see you in the next one.