What photography advice do you ignore?

[olivermoss]

I follow the twitter of a few photography related accounts on twitter, including some blogs, to try to stay in the loop on things. One thing I see often is professional photographers urging me not to pixel peep! I usually pixel peep. If you are unfamiliar, pixel peeping is when you pause after a photo to preview it, zoom in and check the fine details. Apparently, this is bad for some reason. Since I do a lot of shooting in the dark, and also shoot street art, I need to pixel peep. Shooting handheld in the dark is hard. Also, as I've learned the hard way, street art might not still be there the next day!














I've looked at a few of these articles I keep seeing in my feed, and apparently making sure you got a clear shot hurts your artistic self or stops people from experimenting? I am baffled by these explanations.

What common photography advice do you ignore?

Comments

[bleodswean]

So, we used to call this aping, some of us still do. But pixel peeping is all about enlarging the image on the LCD....and that takes time if you're in the field. In the studio, I have to do that with the Hasselblad to insure my focus as I tend to shoot wide open. In the field, I will ape to make sure that my settings are where I need to be because who has time to bracket if you're shooting people. You can do that if you're shooting subjects as you do.

I def say IGNORE.

[highlander_ii]

i think, aside from the 'rule of 3rds', i just don't remember most advice and do what i want. XD i have to SEE the end result to have any idea of what i'm getting anyway, b/c i literally cannot picture things in my head - so take picture -> look at picture -> decide if good -> move to next thing. =)

also - i ascribe to the 'learn the rules at the beginning, then break them as you see fit for your style' =)

[mistressofmuses]

That sounds like kind of bonkers advice.

To be fair, I'm working with an off-brand cell phone camera, mostly taking pictures on nature walks and hikes, so I know that I'm not the target audience.

But of COURSE I want to make sure I got a decent picture of whatever it was I was trying to get a picture of. I wanted a picture of a flower or a bee or a frog or a rock formation, and if I get home and discover all the pictures I took were out of focus, I'd definitely be disappointed. (And sometimes still am, ha.)