Introduction
Might there be any person who do not know Peter McKinnon? Everyone who is professional or is a Photography/videography enthusiast knows him. What I like about him is the way he explains things and some tips he keeps giving in between his knowledge about photography/videography. Okay, for those who does not know him (i.e. one in a million); He is a Canadian creator, he is internationally acclaimed creator, a videographer and a photographer, he was also awarded Breakout YouTuber of the year in 2019. He is role model for many who wants to do something in photography and videography.
He explains about some things he had done better when he was starting, he would have taken better photos faster if he had known about these things.
- Not using Histogram: Among the mistakes done while starting photography is not paying attention on histogram. He says the small funky graph in the monitor of your camera is very much important. He simply explains how to read the histogram; far left of the graph represents blacks and shadows in the photographs, while far right of the histogram represents the highlights and white or anything that is over exposed, and the middle are the mid-tones. Hence, when you look at the histogram you don’t have to look at the photo in the LCD. Don’t trust the eyes when you look at the image on your LCD Screen, many times the image looks okay in the LCD but not in the computer while you are editing. Later you might think that if you had looked at the histogram for like just 5 more seconds while capturing the image you would not have to regret it now.
- Not moving: Don’t settle in one place for a photo, when you can do too much better if you just move here and there for some distance for right angle or move your subject, or move something in or out from the frame to look it beautiful. Sometimes walking up the hill or down the hill to get a better vantage point, or trying a few extra locations instead of being okay with what you have. Sometimes these little tweaks by just moving something out of the way can make a massive difference with how good your photo looks.
- Not bringing a tripod: He says how much he hates tripod. Buying a tripod for Peter is worst thing to happen. Form him monopod is okay than tripod. But he wished he had onboard any place with tripod earlier, he never carried one. He could make many beautiful pictures by just bringing the tripod with him; long exposures or to just have clear in-focus images. Even if you feel your shutter speed is fast enough you would getter better result if you lock it off in your tripod. Plus you will have all the advantages of shooting wide range of different types of photos because you have a tripod; long exposure, making water falls looks better, star trials, cars passing by and many more if you have a tripod with you.
- Not being thorough: Do not be thorough. Peter says his mistake was being thorough. He says, so many times he just grabbed the camera and shot what he needed and didn’t check the setting, not just because he thought he knew it but he was arrogant he thought he got it in camera. Many times what happens is you may have shot in JPEG instead of RAW or even many times even small JPEG. He gives his example, how he thought he had all settings best pictures when he clicked pictures of Ice caves, star trials, something happened and Peter found that all the images he took were on small JPEG. There were some of the best photographs he has ever taken but all were of just max of 1200 resolution. So never make the mistake. Be thorough to check all the necessary settings, the small things must not ruin something beautiful. Check the ISO is not too high, shutter speed is of required amount, checking the EV meter is not over exposed or under exposed.
Over all sunnary Tips:
- You never want to see the graph towards one direction neither too much to left not too much to right. Unless you want your picture to be too much over exposed or too much under exposed.
- Just click some pictures randomly and see and keep thinking about what would have happened if you had moved a little bit right left or front back, or removing some subject from the frame.
- Just make habit of checking the settings it’s never harmful, its good habit.
Taken from channel of Peter McKinnon
