What Pro Photographers Never Share With You
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- In this video I give lots of landscape photography tips, tricks and advice by showing you not my best images, but my worst ones. Many photographers will showcase their best work and explain all the things they did right to get the shot, but today I am going to show all things I did wrong. This can be just as helpful when learning landscape photography.
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This concept of showing a bad image, explaining why it's bad, and then showing a similar image that doesn't have those flaws is *fantastic*. Learnt a lot - thank you!
This so much! I think people learn a lot more from "failures" than "successes".
What James said!
I agree very much. Thanks
Totally agree. Great video!
Agree, do more pls :)
I would be interested in a Negative Space vs Empty space video as your mentioned you could do an entire video talking about it. That is something that I know I struggle with personally.
+1
Me, too!
+1
This is an interesting topic for me as well? What's the difference? How to use Negative space creatively?
That would definitely be interesting!
Do more videos of this type. I learned a lot.
You mean you learned tips that pro photographer never share with you😂
Tip for viewers: pause video just before Thomas explains what's wrong with the image, and guess what he's going to say
I wish i saw your comment before finishing the video
Thank yuu.
My notes from this video:
- Get an eagle
- Buy a chainsaw
- Buy a sailing ship
Quikee The best photographers think abstract haha 😆
And don't make your cat sick ...
Photograph clouds for later use.
A really big sailing ship*
I find symmetry doesn't work all that well in shots unless, in some cases, black and white photos.
Brilliant Tomas, it's rare the greats are prepared to show their less successful images and your explanations on why they didn't work will help all of us who watched. Thank you for your candor.
I help out in a Facebook Photography Group that is aimed at the beginner and was delighted to hear you talking about how much can be learned from images that have not worked, it is something I continually attempt to encourage members to do.
Study the image rather than dismiss it but importantly attempt to find out WHY it has not worked. In doing this it encourages the member to look not just at the technical aspects but vitally the compositional aspects. This is most beneficial on subjects local to where they live so they can then revisit the same location in an attempt to reshoot and try the aspects they have considered.
I got my first camera 5 months ago and even though this video is 2 months old, I just wanted to stay THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I learned more from this 1 video than I have watching youtube for the last 5 months. You are now my favorite to watch. It took one awesome honest video. Great Job!!!!!
I love your style. Most photographers like to show off their best work or photos, but few shows their bad images. The lesson of this is to see what you did wrong and how to improve it. it is not only a learning experience for you but for all of us that we watch your video. I have been in the same situation. There is a place or object that attracts me but at the end, i don't get the best results because no balance or interested object. Thanks for sharing this.
At last!! Some of my photographs are just like Thomas Heaton's!!
Exactly my thought!
Ha ha.
Most of my images are like his throw-aways
When I’m stuck in the “suck” trying to get a good shot your voice pops into my head and I press on...thank you for your inspiration and great art!
Thank you for the video! The format was not overly edited or fast paced, which made learning about the photography errors much more easy.
One important reason why this kind of video works: it helps those aspiring photographers see that those they look up to still make mistakes. Im often at awe of my favorite photographer's work and tend to forget they're just like me, just much more skilled, but still prone to messing up a shot, or the focal point, etc. Great work man, love the video
Spot on Thomas, as photographers we can all "pat ourselves on the back" when we take good images, but everyone else isn't looking at the images throught your eyes. I always learn more when things don't go to plan, and that's what motivates me.
Keep up the great work. Enjoy your trip.
As a new born Backpacking /Wilderness Photographer and UA-cam creator I really appreciate your videos and all the content there in. Thanks!
This is such a great video, and the most important think that impresses me most, is how humble you are to show and explain why some of your own images are flawed. As Gavin Hardcastle said...you sir have a LOT of integrity and that makes you head and shoulders one of the best photographers today!!!
This is how people learn how to take great photos the technical stuff can be easily learnt, not many doing this kind of stuff. Well done
I appreciate the honesty. Who amongst us hasn’t done similar things. Countless times in the moment when time is against me, rushed a shot without doing some edge patrol, get caught up focusing on a grand vista with an image in mind thinking that it would be enough to overcome uninteresting light. Thanks for showing us that we aren’t alone in our pursuit to get better.
One of the things that made me subscribe to your channel was that you weren't afraid to make a video of a failed shoot. Even if you didn't take a single image. Its the reality and that's what I liked. Don't feel you need to produce a great image every time. It makes you human.
Very helpful video. Photography is so often a process of taking bad images, figuring out what makes them bad, taking images that aren't bad in those specific ways but may be bad in others, and so on, until you arrive at a good image. Figuring out what would have made your images better, and which ones just sucked and should never have been taken, is a crucial part of learning.
This is an excellent way to take someone who's just past beginner, to the next level. I used to teach creative and business writing. I used to contrast examples of bad writing, writing that didn't work, or that flat out made you cringe, with examples of similar pieces that worked well. They saw the differences right away. I got such a kick out of watching their faces as the light dawned.
The best analogy I use for beginners is if you were a painter, would you have painted that? Would you have added those gnarly twigs on the side, or would you have painted that tree to cut across your subject? Aside from the bombardment of technical info on camera and lens specs on the web, a video like this showing how to create an interesting and captivating image is more important. If you don't know how to design a house, there's no point in buying and showing off your new hammer. Well done Tom, I love your perspective on teaching others.
I’m a wildlife photographer (as a hobby) and I never shoot landscapes but I love your videos....your photo excursions, etc.
Thomas, You are one of the only photographers that talks about self critique. That's why I love your channel, humble and inspiring, highly appreciated :-)
This is probably the most useful video I have seen for decades. Thanks!
Most of my pictures look like this or worse, and to understand why things don't work, that is gold.
Explaining why something is bad is always an effective way to teach. After all, beginners spend most of their time with their disastrous works, not knowing what to do. Thanks for the excellent video, you have a new subscriber.
Hooray! At last a photographer that understands negative space. I've sat through so many talks and competitions, listening to people talk about the lack of content as negative space. Coming to photography from a (low level) art background, I was taught about using negative space in week one. A simple definition would be Negative space is where the space is used to define the subject rather than the subject itself.
"If I'd had a chain saw" -- love it! I've made the same comment to my wife who gives me a hard time if I move some pine needles off a mushroom. Accuses me if "editing nature".
Got to love it...we all have be willing to be self critical of ourselves; not in a negative way, but constructively. I tried, on second glance it did not work and admitting to ourselves why. Experience is a great thing if we can only learn from it...
Thomas: I've watch this one several times. It's one of your many best! The review and summary at the end are excellent. Thanks for remembering that you are a teacher.
You are approachable, engaging and informative.
As pro photographer of 30+ years I'll share with your viewers a couple of tips... : ) When you shoot an image one of the most important considerations is that the final image resides within a frame, unlike what you see when you look at the scene with your eyes - ie when you are really there. And the relationship of the frame to the contents of the image is a crucial and often overlooked factor that makes or breaks a good shot! Composition is not just about how the elements of the photo relate to each other but also how they relate to the frame of the image and that frame might not always be the one you see through your camera.
Most of the issues you have with those shots is composition and you could improve many of those existing images dramatically with a judicious crop to remove "dead" parts of the image that distract from and weaken the shot. Cropping the photograph allows you to recompose the key elements in the image after even you've shot it.
That first shot of the yellow tree in the forest... A vertical crop instead of the landscape crop would eliminate the junk left and right of the image, and the bonus is the accentuation of the upright trunks with the vertical crop - a big improvement I think.
The mountains with the sloping dark foreground. Assuming you shot raw, do two outputs, one with lighter foreground and sandwich the two images together. Then again do a vertical crop and use the rock outcrop in the foreground to counterbalance the adjoining part of the slope left in the crop. Also the closer crop would increase the "stress" between the key elements and the frame
The mountains with the pool - ironically the closeups you showed of the key elements I thought were way better than the whole image. I would just "zoom in" and crop out a sizeable part of the extraneous surroundings - sea, beach etc. Bring the pool into the immediate foreground. Tighten the composition and lose the "dead wood"... speaking of trees... : )
And the drooping branches and reeds...that looked like a really nice shot, but compositionally as you pointed out you've gone all lets create a frame, but left it empty. I'd bet if you even cropped that image and removed one side of the frame it would be greatly improved.
You probably know what I'm talking about here but some of your viewers may not. Often a just ok shot can be really improved afterwards just by recomposing what you have already by kinda retroactively reframing the shot. Of course it's better if you compose and shoot it right first time. Wide vistas can be awesome but great care has to be taken when you have a big central hero like a mountain as the surrounding landscape can just become so much uninteresting padding and dilute the impact of the overall shot if that surrounding landscape lacks any features or is just plain messy. Cheers
Using a telephoto lens rather than being a slave to a wide zoom can be advantageous.
I think there’s a lot of useful info there. I also would add that after cropping you can upscale the image and with today’s software, you can get amazing results. All the best from Germany ☺️
@@GSA_Drums Sure, but also it’s today’s 40-50Gb cameras that really give you serious crop options. These days I don’t even bother turning the camera from landscape format when I shoot portraits. I just crop to portrait in Lightroom. ; )
What better way to learn than from mistakes. To be open and critical about one’s work is a gift and shows humbleness. There are positives in a negative situation if one wants to look for them. Great vlog!
I think this is one of the best things a new photographer could watch. Excellent content!
I like honesty in this video :) It can be hard to publicly criticize your own work, but by showing us "bad" examples i can learn to improve. Thanks a lot Thomas and keep it up!
Great for learning ,evaluate and choose keepers , this kind of videos are rare yet very important -how to "read" photograph(details) is something which is always interesting to share and learn !Great work!
Thomas. This video blew my mind. Thank you for showing and explaining the good and the bad photos. This will help me so much. Tom
This video as old as it may be, convinced me to subscribe. Learning from mistakes is beautiful. I learned so much it has given me new confidence and drive. Thank you.
Thank you for this video.
The good thing about bad photographs, is that they give much potential for learning. "What if...", "If only..." and so on. Somebody actually said: "There is no such thing as bad photographs. There are only photographs that could have been better if only..." I find this a very useful way to improve my photography skills.
I hope you enjoyed your trip to my part of the world ie the north of Norway., despite the yoga when photographing "The Devil's Teeth".
Best wishes and welcome back.
Hey, Thomas. How's things? Knowing that great, talented photographers like you also make mistakes is very comforting and reassuring. You've made me realize that I'm not the only one who ends up hating some of the shots I take. I like some of them, of course, but most of them turn out to to rubbish...Thans for sharing your views.
I went to one of your seminars a few years ago looking for this type of lecture , I think most landscape photographers just need this sort of fine tuning . I can only go where my mob scooter can go and you did give me solid advice picking a focal point and isolating it in the image ,all the your favourite failed cat burgler
Best job in explaining photographic composition in quite a while. Bravo!
This is one of the most helpful videos you've ever made. Please do more like this!!!
Thanks for this. I thought I was the only one to take crappy photos and think they were good. When I see the great stuff you put out, it makes me feel like a little more attention to detail will make many of my photos better.
yes.. your first "rubbish" example reminds me of the advice of an old news photographer cohort's... ah.. suggestion. "Nah... it needs a clock. No one's gonna hang it on his wall unless there's a clock."
Love your channel, Thomas.
Great critique of your own mistakes, which makes me feel a little more human! The analysis of why the images don't work, and examples of what's better is extremely helpful as a learning tool. Cheers!
it's a great thing - to analyze and criticise your own work detailed and thoughtful.
usually only a master can do that. i mean - one should have a really good experience to do like that.
thank you for sharing your experience, it's really useful
Just from the chair, this so much looks like Granpa Heaton's Fireside Photography Stories.
Loved the premise. Can't wait for the Nepal videos!
I say this a lot, it's my Mantra when evaluating a photo, " Where is this image going to be displayed! " The first yellow tree with the mess on the right and left, just use the trees that are just to the left and right of it and crop it as an Extreme Vertical, as a large cropped vertical placed in an area that is similar in size, would even enhance it more. I think it has good potential! I'm very critical of my work, and so I don't look at judging and image if it's not good as a negative thing. Too many people have their emotional feelings attached to images, and that blocks there biased opinion, and then they get upset or frustrated facing the truth. That makes it hard to learn when one can't be open minded. Good Video!
I too felt a vertical image would have worked.
Also, bang on about the emotional aspect.
Like that yellow tree photo for example. You're gleefully wandering in the forest. You catch a glimpse of that wonder of nature. You believe this is going to be a magical shot, coupled with that serene atmosphere.
But when the shot isn't as magical, it's hard to let go. You will try your best by salvaging it in PS and so on.
One thing that has worked for me is not uploading a such an image on social media for at least a year. And then when I've grown and got a bit better at photography, I'm a bit more critical of my earlier works. So, it's easier to decide.
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Only 2 minutes in and I’m liking this. I recently reviewed “the art of landscape photography” book (which is great) but felt that the key to improving is to show more images that don’t work due to compositional issues. And perhaps to show how the photographer went back later and improved upon it.
Good content, lousy images: a winning recipe for intelligent discussion. Cheers, Thomas, much appreciated!
Best video you've done since I began following you. Totally agree that pros sharing bad images and commenting on their weaknesses is a very valuable exercise, both because it helps amateurs appreciate that everyone makes mistakes and because having pros commenting upon their mistakes helps others avoid them. All told a great idea and I hope you follow up with more like it.
One of my favorite of your videos. Shows things that I think most of go through, but often this gets tucked away by the youtubers.
Thanks a ton Tom for sharing these... So much to learn in just 18 mins from a champion like you.. have always appreciated your honesty - cheers for the great work you do always!
Was skeptical when I started watching this video, but it was one of the most helpful photography videos I've every watched. Just great.
It's definitely helpful to see examples of great photographs, but this really crystallized my thoughts about my shots aren't working out. Will be tremendously helpful in the field.
Thanks Thomas. This video really taught me stuff. Fantastic work. Photographers such as yourself take such jaw dropping images that anybody with a heart beat can see that it is good. As such you don't learn anything. This kind of video is rich in knowledge. Please more of type. It's fantastic sharing. For me this is what photography is all about. How so much effort can be put into a shot and one item is overlooked and the whole photo comes tumbling down.
This is so great, please please do more like this! - I learned so much and its a genuine joy
I've been following you for a while, Thomas. And I wanted to just say I really appreciate your style and honesty. You're a fantastic photographer, but an even better storyteller and instructor. Thanks for continuing to post these fantastic videos. Hopefully, someday I'll be able to pay you back with purchase from your site :D
I like the fact that even as a professional bad days and bad images are a thing. It’s gives me hope that I can really grow and use my bad shots as a learning experience.
This is such an honest video with so much on offer for budding landscape photographers! Thanks Tom!
I like this sort of good/bad comparison video and your candor. I found your points easy to relate to my own photography (not sure if that is a good or bad thing) and learned a lot. The good/bad comparisons make the concepts more concrete and memorable.
Great! Thanks for showing this NOW whilst I have already thrown all of my camera gear into the lake! Did the same thing with my golf clubs a number of years ago after watching Tiger Woods!
Great video. Learned a lot with your comments, combined with your thoughts at the time taking the image. This is something you cannot do when commenting on other people's work. Thanks for making this video!!
I like the way you are showing us what not to do. I learn much better from wrong, than from right. Thanks!
I class myself as a 'snapper' as I only shoot with compact cameras but,,,, I've learnt a lot from this vid, so it's a big thank you from me , keep doing what your doing Thomas, their a joy to view.
You’re right! It is super helpful to look at what you can improve!
You and your videos are the pick-up and creative inspiration I need when I start feeling burnt out, or burnt out on a specific genre of photography (I typically take sports/action shots, and sometimes I need to hit the creative reset button). I will binge your videos for hours!!
I appriciate you sharing this. I struggle in woodland environments and appreciate your humility in sharing yours.
While making a website on SquareSpace (which is NOT as easy as everyone touts) and taking a real hard look at my images......I have more to add to the reject pile! I do learn from these kinds of videos, and appreciate you sharing your rejects! As I progress as an artist, I reject more than I say WOW to, due to being brutally honest!
That's actually one of the most useful video! Easier to correct mistakes than trying to reach the perfection in one shot
Really enjoyed the video! Would love to see more like it. I also liked the first image. The empty space in the middle forms a heart. Crop it to a 4x5 taking off the sides and it’s even more obvious.
Now that was really educational Thomas, you are becoming a very relaxing and peaceful story teller, thank you.
Excellent video! I find watching fails much more entertaining and educational because they lack the perfection and help to really see what is "not a good" photo is. Also, explanations from you are very interesting.
Tip. Before summarily dismissing a "bad" photograph, the crop tool can be your friend. You can often crop a shot bringing leading lines to one your corners or you may crop out distracting objects. It can move points of interest to a 1/3 point for impact....you can crop out negative space.... or make the landscape aspect a portrait to emphasize a vertical element..
Thank you! Your honesty is admirable! This series of vids will be super informative. Will help some of us put a finger on some issues that aren't so obvious. I struggle with composition and this helped a ton.
Good stuff. The comparisons between good and bad and the breakdown of improvements really helps. I can go from "I wish my photos would look like X's but I don't know how" to "Next time I'm outside, I'll remember to check the balance".
Thank you for this! So much to learn from bad images. And it really helped to see why something works vs why something doesn't. Fantastic video! Thank you!!
I loved the idea of showing bad photos to really show what doesn't work and why. Please keep doing them every once in a while. 😊
Wonderful choices for images to learn from including similar examples that do work. Wish more photographers shared information like this. It is how we best learn
I liked this! You're right, this is much more educational than just showing good images. You are not the first UA-cam photography channel to come up with this, but I hope you keep on showing us where things went wrong and what would work better - you're view on things is much appreciated (and every photographer has a slightly different angle on it … pun intended ;-))!
This reminds me a lot of the Magnum Contact Sheets book. We're so used to seeing the famous "hero shots" of great moments in history that we lose sight of all of the failed images that surrounded it. I don't do landscape photography, but as a portrait/wedding photographer I can definitely attest to how strong tunnel vision can be. I've spent a lot of time with the clone stamp tool as a result of my own mistakes.
I've taken the odd image like the first one and told myself it might be good for uploading to a stock site. That never happens, then I tell myself it could be good to try to learn how to create composites. That hasn't happened yet either😂
Great topic!!
I wish to say “ Thank you “ Thomas for sharing this video ! I actually learned a lot from you : the reason why those images were bad and how to avoid it by comparing to & learning from the others which were better. It truly added value for my understanding of what a good image looks like . Please share more of this type of real life lessons ! Cheers 🌈
The second yellow tree is a good photograph. The greenery with no subject would make a good background for a composite. I I like your chair!
This was one of your most useful videos this year. Thanks Tom. All the best for an enjoyable Christmas.
Yellow tree example is perfect, both the bad and the good. Glad to hear you’re not out pruning the forest to make your images cleaner, too!
'catsick'....innovative description :) Thanks for this...I found it a useful exercise to try and guess what you were going to say before you dove in and gave us your critique...more of this would be helpful for photographers trying to hone their craft...thanks Thomas!
This has been so helpful - thanks for being so honest, it's really appreciated!
Really nice to see the images you are not pleased with and why. But remember as with all things in life not just photography if it were not for our mistakes and failure we would not get to enjoy our triumphs. Frailer makes success that much sweeter. If we only had success we would take it for granted and stop really trying and enjoying things, and we would eventually just give up and that would be the greatest failure of all. Thanks for sharing ever you do so honestly thru you videos, you do make an impact on a lot of people, especially those of us that are just really getting started and sometimes thinking I not good enough for this.
A massively helpful video. I have long thought that photographers seeking to instruct viewers or workshop participants could use their “failures” or work in progress to best show the thought processes that evolve in producing a “finished “ masterpiece. Yours is a most refreshing approach, more please!
Mr. Heaton, thanks for the awesome content you are providing us. to be honest the shots you are calling bad are better than some of the best shots of mine and few other so called "expert" photographers.
That has to be the most useful video I've seen on your channel, love it! Regarding the difference between pictures 2 and 3 (the larch and the birch), I think another factor is that thick spruce groves look ugly while thick pine groves look gorgeous.
Great and important video Thomas. It's often by picking apart our worst photographs that we will learn the most, as proven by this comment section. A lot of people learned something, me included. Thanks mate!
Great video Tom. It's because of my bad images I actually got better over time. I always sort of learned more when I came back home and reviewed the images that I noticed things like bad composition and light. I remember looking back at one of my older images I took with my old cheapo nikon 28-70 f/3.5-4.5 lens; for some reason I just really loved the composition and light. It was near perfect and I didn't give it much thought. Sometimes you just get lucky and then keep getting bad images after for a while.
That chair is the most British thing I’ve seen on this channel haha
What about the mug of tea
Its needs a shelf of books and a old world parchment paper world map. 😁
Add a large globe to the chair, tea, and bookcases.
What about the British landscapes?
Surely you can't have missed all the rain in his other videos. :)
the way you teach is very much practical and its easy to understand
One of the best videos on photograpy, that i have found so far. I learned a lot from these examples. Please more of this type of content.
Really good video. More discussion on Negative and Empty space please . Composition or whatever you want to call is a really important area of concern in photography.
Thanks for this highly recommendable video - by seeing what is wrong one can easier understand the importance than seeing a perfect shot. It's much easier to relate to. Funny you should do this as I started something similar in our Pentaxians forum called "My mistakes" as I was not wanting to dig into other peoples' mistakes but showed how I made my own and why they were happening. It started a few months ago and the thread is still running as people now submit their own images and ask for advice. Thanks again for giving us a similar insight, Adam
Great video. So much more to learn from mistakes and you need to make those mistakes to grow. I think we've all been there. That moment behind your computer when you look at your shots and think, "what the hell was I doing here." . Actually thinking and acting upon these things in the field is what challenging. Half the time I'm just enjoying the view (which is fine), but the other half I need to remember to think about subject, comp and balance more.
I like this video. I have been subscribed to your channel for a while. I like it because it shows that not every photo is set up, shoot and its perfect. To me I get out of it that even professionals struggle to get the perfect shot.