MICHAEL FABER

•    Charge you camera and lights and always bring back up batteries and SD Cards
•    Remove the lens cap before shooting (no body is immune to this mistake)
•    Lighting fundamentals (exposure settings and external lighting)
•    Even if you think you've shot a perfect shot, shoot even more photos just to make sure (its hard to tell if the image is correct on the tiny little camera screen)
•    If your not sure whether you want to take a shot or not, always shoot.

•    Before/ after you shoot a photo, think to yourself, would color add anything to the meaning or principles of design? If not, choose black and white. If yes, select color.
•    It may also depend on what you want to focus on in the photo; if you’re going to focus on shadows, texture, and dramatization, choose black and white; if you’re going to focus more on emotional response (color psychology), vibrancy, and realism, choose color.

However, this is highly subjective and up to personal taste, like everything in art. But generally, in photography, you want to have meaning, usethe principles of design, and proper use of camera settings. although you can always artfully break any rules.

Just like the previous tip, this is also really subjective and entirely up to the photographer. But there are usually two types of people:

1.   Purists who think no amount of editing should be accepted and that only unedited photos are authentic.
2.   Rational people who see editing as an aid to the photography art form, from over-editing (unrealistic saturation and colors) to minorediting to fix up any blemishes that the photo has.