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[Music]
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so I've been doing photography for over
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a decade now and every now and again I
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still make the most basic mistakes
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sometimes my focus is off and sometimes
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my shutter speed could have been faster
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and that's okay mistakes happen and
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you'll never stop making them but at the
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very least we can be quicker at spotting
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them and correcting them on the spot so
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here are seven photo mistakes that I see
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beginners including myself often make
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and how to quickly avoid it next time
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mistake number one learning from the
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wrong people now not all but a good
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majority of Photography forums I.E
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Facebook groups aren't exactly the best
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places to go level up your photography
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loved it mediocre at best I am so done
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with this group as you can see
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photography is an incredibly subjective
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medium a photo that you might think is
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amazing can be considered a bad photo
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for using the wrong settings or if it's
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overly edited vice versa a photo that
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you might think is poly composed can't
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be considered a great photo simply
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because it tells a better story but when
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you join such a general photography
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Community you often get those
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conflicting opinions so the best way to
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learn and get feedback is to find a
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specific style that you like and get
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critiques from the right people who
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shoot very similarly for example if you
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want to get better at off camera flash
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photography my good friend Francisco
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Joel Hernandez here runs a popular
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Facebook group called learn to light
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where members frequently share camera
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settings and lighting setups of their
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own shoots it was what helped me
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immensely get better at off camera flash
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photography myself alternatively your
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local camera stores could be running
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workshops some free some paid but it's a
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great way to just go meet your local
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community and grow your photography
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together keep your apertures wide open
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for these events a little bit of a
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photography joke for you there mediocre
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at
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best over reliant on wide autofocusing
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now I'm a bit of a nosy Nancy when it
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comes to seeing what cameras other
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people are using I can't help it if I'm
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outside and I see you have a camera I'm
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going to look and occasionally I would
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get a hey buddy eyes up here Mak sense
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but often what I see is people just
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pointing their camera at a wide scene
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and taking a photo without much of a
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thought and then going into these
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Facebook groups asking why their photos
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are not in Focus unfortunately we cannot
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change the focus after the fact so the
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only thing that we can do is to ensure
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that next time we're not too over
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reliant on wide area autofocusing don't
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let those Focus thoughts run loose
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always always always always choose a
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specific Focus point the smaller the
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better and really position them to where
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they need to be even if you have a fancy
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camera where it can track the subject's
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eyes you should always try to use medium
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to smaller Focus areas so your camera
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can do the least amount of guessing that
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way you would have a higher chance of
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getting the right subject in focus and
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hey if you're using a Sony camera then
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you're in luck I have a free guide to
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mastering autofocus that goes into way
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more details no sign up necessary just
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click right up here to queue it up but
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promise me you'll at least finish this
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video first mistake number three
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mistaking blur for misfocus now in that
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vein maybe you have been choosing the
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right Focus Point you're tracking your
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subject and the focus box seems to be
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falling them pretty well but somehow
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your photos are still not in Focus then
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likely it's blur rather than misfocus I
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know it's a bit hard to distinguish the
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two terminologies but misfocus is where
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the wrong sub subject or the wrong area
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of your photos and focus whereas blur is
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usually because the right subject move
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but your camera wasn't fast enough to
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catch them now the cause of this is
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likely because you're shooting in some
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type of auto mode or aperture priority
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which often neglects a very key but
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important setting shutter if your
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shutter speed is too slow then your
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moving subject will be a blur so instead
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try switching to shutter priority and
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moving your shutter to the right
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increasing the fraction
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number now the following is not a strict
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rule but a good enough General Baseline
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if you're new to photography try one
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over 125 for still subjects like
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portraits one over 250 for moving
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portraits one over 500 for animals and
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kid Sports and one over 1,000 for Pro
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Sports and Wildlife photography mistake
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number four not thinking the opposite so
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likely right now you have the bare basic
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kit lens that came with your camera so
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our general thinking is wide focal
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length for wide scenes and tight focal
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length for distance and close-up scenes
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right but but try to think the opposite
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direction the next time you go out using
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a wider focal length but getting
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close-up shots will often make your
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subjects feel Larger than Life
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oppositely using a tighter focal length
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on W Landscapes or cityscapes bring the
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perspective much closer and often make
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it look more uniform than just shooting
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wide so earlier we talked about finding
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the right resources to learn from so a
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great resource you can sign up for today
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is PPA PPA stands for professional
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photographers of America and they have a
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ton of tutorials online to help you not
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only step up your photography game but
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also running a photography business with
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over 900 individual classes you can
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learn everything you need from mastering
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Studio lighting to the psychology of
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Landing a sale and it's not all online
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either they have events they have
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workshops they have a community where
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you can meet like-minded individuals
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including their yearly conference
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Imaging USA which is coming up in
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February 2025 in Dallas Texas and
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admission is free when you're a PPA
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that means you get full replacement
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coverage with a flat $350 deductible or
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flat $50 deductible I know some of you
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out there who are born with butter
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need this to learn more check out my
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membership when you sign up thank you so
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much for listening and uh let's continue
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to not make these following mistakes
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mistake number five always using the
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lowest f- stop so the notion here is
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that you spend all this money on a fancy
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f1.2 or f1.4 lens it would be a waste to
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shoot anything higher than that right
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God forbid we tune it up to just
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f1.6 the Mutiny now for those of you who
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are still learning the basics what makes
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these super low f-stop aperture lenses
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so special well allow me to give you my
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famous 3bs Jason B's famous 3bs number
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number one Boke big beautiful background
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blur that you cannot achieve with the
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most basic kit lens and people go crazy
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for these background blurs number two
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bigger hole wider aperture means you can
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open up this hole in your lens to let in
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more light therefore it's highly
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recommended for low light situations
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number three but really wider aperture
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prime lenses usually mean they're in the
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more premium line of lenses AKA it's
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expensive and people just want to FX
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their big old butth holes and that's
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okay obviously use the lenses to their
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best advantages but what I'm trying to
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say here is it's not the end all be all
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of apertures if you blur the hell out of
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everything I mean yeah it's a nice photo
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but you could also be blurring out a lot
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of context here's a classic example that
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I love to share from my friend Professor
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Hines the lockets on the fence here are
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cool but when you close down on your
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aperture you get a bit more context that
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the photo was taken in New York City the
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f stop numbers here just like the lens
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itself and the camera itself they're all
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just tools to help create the best final
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image so don't disregard them just
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because you spend so much money on them
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to do that one thing that they're good
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at give a reason to make your photo to
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be worth a th000 words mistake number
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six all blurry photos are bad now just
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to be clear I don't want to give off the
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notion that all blurry photos are bad
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okay blurry photos can 100% be a
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stylistic choice when used correctly but
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if you misfocus or the photo is slightly
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blurry don't toss it in the bin quite
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yet I've shot a wedding years ago it was
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a fatherdaughter dance got lots of great
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sharp shots but they didn't really have
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the extra o if you know what I mean but
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there was this one photo that nearly had
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all the elements but the focus was not
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tag sharp now at the time I was new to
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all of it subscribing to the idea that
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if it's not sharp throw it out but for
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some reason I didn't I sent it off
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anyway with my aperture down here close
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down to the max worrying if the bride
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might say something but it ended up
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being the bride's favorite photo how did
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I know that she changed it to the exact
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photo on Father's Day mistake number
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seven forgetting who Their audience is
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and that's the thing right we sometimes
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get so caught up with trying to get the
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right settings and the sharpest photos
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that we tend to forget who our real a
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audience is which brings us to the final
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mistake of this video what's going on
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guys when I first started out both
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photography and here on YouTube I was
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always so anal to make sure that all the
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settings that I use and share on social
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media were correct my shutter speed had
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to be pinpoint perfect my flash setting
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had to be so doubted that no extra power
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was wasted the eyes had to be Tac sharp
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but not the eyelash it just got to the
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point where I feel like I was just
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shooting for other Pros or so-called
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Pros on the internet but really it's
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just a bunch of strangers that have zero
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mes or attachment to my work but the
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people I delivered the final photos to
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never cared about what settings I used
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nor did they ever zoomed in to check if
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I nail Focus perfectly or not of course
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you should always try to aim to get it
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right in camera but my point is don't be
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too hard on yourself so when we're
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starting out how do we figure out who
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our audience is well it's going to
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largely depend on why you pick the
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photography in the first place maybe
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it's just for you and your friends and
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family then in that case they aren't
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going to be too hard on some of your
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mistakes you don't know my family
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however if you want to take dope photos
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of cars then your audience is going to
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be car people if your business is
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weddings then obviously you want to
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appeal to inquiring brides and when you
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show your targeted demographic the
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photos you'll get a more positive
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reaction versus the ones you get on the
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internet these photographs are
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breathtaking so remember don't shoot for
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the photography SL camera Community
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shoot for your community guys thank you
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so much for watching check out PPA and
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I'll see you guys in the next video
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peace
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thanks for watching