I guess, the biggest newbie-failure is "light" or how to position as a photograph.
I see so many ppl who takes shots agains the sun and such things.
Espic. for decent cams or smartphonecams light/sun is essental for proper quality. It takes a while to "see" how to ;)
There is nothing wrong with shooting against the sun, when you try to accomplish a picture who can profit from that. But in most cases the result is pretty useless :D haha