As with any art form, photography as a craft doesn’t have any specific rules that must be upheld. There are no rules against certain practices or methods of shooting. Instead, there are recommendations and guidelines that can help beginners improve and progress.

In a recent video, I discuss three mistakes that I think photographers should avoid. Once again, these are simply recommendations, however, I feel they can help photographers that are just starting out. For instance, shooting with really small apertures. If you’re shooting with a full-frame sensor or smaller, then shooting with apertures around f/16 and f/22 probably won’t grant you the best results. Although smaller apertures help you get more of the image in acceptable focus, it can cause problems.

One of the major problems that smaller apertures have, is that they produce images that are really soft. This is predominantly down to something called diffraction which is an unfortunate issue when stopping down the lens too far. The other problem is that smaller apertures require more light in comparison and this can pose a few issues. More light could mean a slower shutter or even a higher ISO. All of these issues could affect the image quality which defeats the point of having more in focus.

To find out what alternatives I recommend and what mistakes I think you should avoid, please check out the full video linked above.