What is the most important thing a beginner photographer should learn first?

[Finley]

Wanted to share this and see what people think.

Real answers from people here are usually more useful than search results.

Part of the reason I asked is because I would rather avoid wasting time going down the wrong route.

Let me know what you think.

[QuantumLeap53]

Basically my experience exactly. When I ran into something similar the biggest improvement came from stripping things back and checking the obvious basics first.

Worth trying before anything more drastic.