Five Practical Reasons Your Pictures Could Be Better

When you’ve lined up the perfect shot, pressed the shutter, and eagerly checked your camera or phone - only to find that the picture doesn’t look quite like you imagined, it's soul destroying. It might be that the focus is wrong, it could be too bright, maybe the colours just feel off, or perhaps the composition looked better in your head.

It’s a common frustration for photographers of all levels. Now, while luck can sometimes deliver a perfect picture, great photography isn’t just about chance. Understanding why your pictures don’t always turn out as expected is the first step towards improving them.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons.

You Don't Understand The Basics of Exposure

When you don’t understand the basics of exposure - Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO - your pictures can easily turn out too bright or too dark. Without knowing how these settings work together, you have to rely on automatic modes that don’t always  make the best decision for the scene. A fast shutter speed can make the picture too dark, while a high ISO can add unwanted grain, and the wrong aperture setting can make or break a picture. That’s why you should always try to shoot in manual mode. Learning how to balance these three settings will open up the world of photography and it will help you to create perfect pictures more consistently.

Shutter speed, aperture and ISO make up the exposure triangle, and they let you control how a picture is created. It’s a fundamental concept in photography that controls how light is captured by the camera, and this impacts the overall exposure of a picture. Understanding how these three elements work together allows you to have more control over your pictures. In essence, understanding and mastering the exposure triangle will lead to taking better, more consistent pictures with the right balance of light, sharpness, and mood.

You can learn all about controlling exposure in the Perfect Picture Academy.

Your Picture Doesn't Have a Strong or Well-Defined Subject

 A great picture isn’t just about sharp focus and good lighting - it’s about capturing emotion and personality. Every picture, whether it’s a portrait, a landscape, pictures of war or famine or simply pictures of strangers in the street, must have something that keeps the viewer interested. The easier it is for the person viewing your picture to understand what the picture is about, the better. That’s why having a strong or well-defined subject is so important. Now, the subject doesn’t have to be a person, it can be a waterfall, a family pet or a rundown gas station on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere.

The point is just that your pictures need a strong subject, so before you press your shutter, ask yourself, what is the subject of the picture you are about to take.

Your Composition Needs More Attention

A well composed picture guides the viewers eye, tells a story, and creates visual balance. However, when starting out with photography, we often struggle with composition, leading to pictures that feel awkward, cluttered, or unbalanced. Poor composition can make even a technically perfect picture look unappealing. Pictures with poor composition lack the ability to hold a viewers attention.

Things like placing the subject dead centre in the frame, distracting backgrounds and cropping too tightly can really impact the power of your pictures, so always think about how you want to frame the shot and ask yourself what should and should not be included in the picture. Also check the edges of your pictures for any objects that might ruin the shot.

There are various rules of composition, but probably the most used and arguably the most consistent rule to follow is the rule of thirds. That’s a great place to start if you’re struggling with composition.

I share more tips like this in the Perfect Picture Academy if you’re interested in becoming a better photographer.

You Need More Practice

Like any skill, photography takes time and experience to master. It can be frustrating at the beginning when your pictures don’t turn out as expected, but the truth is, improvement comes with consistent practice and learning from mistakes, or someone who has already made the mistakes, like a mentor.

Now, a common misconception is that a better camera will automatically lead to better pictures. While having good equipment helps, the real difference comes from understanding how to use it effectively. Having a good understanding of your camera’s settings and features, and what you’re capable of doing with it, will help you to really master photography.

Starting out with photography, people tend to stick to the auto mode which, whilst helpful at the beginning, will only prevent you from becoming a better photographer. Knowing the capabilities of your camera will make you a better photographer, it will allow you to produce better pictures, pictures that you can be proud of, and this all comes down to practice.

If you don’t practice adjusting settings, composing shots, and experimenting with different lighting conditions, you won’t improve as a photographer.

I talk about this in the Perfect Picture Academy, but here’s a simple way to think about it.

You wouldn’t buy a new car and just leave it a garage, so why would you buy a camera and never take it out of the bag?

Take it out and practice with it, if you are serious about mastering photography. The more you shoot, the more familiar you become with your camera the way the different settings affect your pictures. So, try setting photography challenges for yourself, such as capturing a specific theme, experimenting with new angles, or practicing in different lighting conditions.

Your Picture Needs a Clear Message or Story

This final point goes back, in part, to point 2 in this short list of reasons that your pictures could be better, and it’s probably the most important reason for why a picture lacks impact. 

A good photograph is more than just a well-exposed, sharp picture - it tells a story. Storytelling in photography helps create emotion, meaning, and connection, giving a picture more impact and making it more memorable.

Without a clear story, a picture might feel empty or lack depth, no matter how technically perfect it might be. When a picture tells a story, it invites the viewer  to feel something. You often come across pictures that you can’t stop looking at, and that’s because the picture tells a story. The simple truth is, the best pictures, the ones we fall in love with, all tell stories.

Now the story doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but there must be a story. It could be a picture of two people in love walking down the street holding hands.

It could be someone on a break from working in a restaurant kitchen, standing outside smoking a cigarette, or a firefighter battling a moorland fire.

The point is, good pictures tell stories which help the viewer instantly connect with them.

Final Thoughts

Try to remember that photography is a journey that requires patience and practice. Understanding the basics, like exposure, composition, and connecting with the subject in your pictures, will make a world of difference to the quality of them.

While technical skills are important, photography is also about creativity and storytelling - capturing moments that speak to the viewer on an emotional level. So don’t be discouraged by imperfect pictures; instead use them as opportunities to learn and grow. With time and effort, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to take pictures that truly reflect your style and vision.

Use these five tips as a starting point, a basecamp, if you will, for taking better pictures, and remember, every great photographer was once a beginner, struggling with taking better pictures. Every picture they captured took them one step closer to mastering the art of photography, and it will be the same for you. 

I explain composition and the rule of thirds, plus much more in my class, so if you want to take your photography skills to the next level, take a look at the Perfect Picture Program. In it, you’ll learn all about my SIMPLE system, designed to help you to start taking great pictures immediately with the camera you already own.