Even From A Modest Digital Camera
NOT EVERYONE HAS THE MONEY, TIME OR INCLINATION TO ENROL ON A FULL-BLOWN COURSE. BEGIN APPLYING THESE SIMPLE TIPS TODAY AND START SEEING THE BENEFITS FROM YOUR VERY NEXT SHOT!
Tip 1: Focusing
Even though most cameras have an auto-focus function, it can often mis-calculate the best area to focus on? Spot focusing can be an effective way to improve EVERY photo you take, it gives you more control over what the auto-focus chooses to focus on, whilst taking the hassle out of manually focusing. Whether you use a compact camera or an SLR, the option to choose spot focusing is very common just look in the menu or consult your user manual. There is one much overlooked, but great method when taking photos of people.
This is to make sure the persons eyes are in focus. After setting the camera to use spot focusing, aim the centre of the focus area over the persons eyes, there is usually a small indication in the viewfinder to show the area where the camera is focusing. Hold the shutter release button half-way down so the focusing adjusts to bring the eyes into focus. Then re-frame the photo whilst still holding the shutter release button half-way down so you have a nicely composed image and take the picture. The eyes will be more in focus, the image well composed and overall have more quality!
Tip 2: Fill-In Flash
Most of the time people don't think to use the flash when taking photo's during daytime. This can drastically improve your results immediately! Let's say, for example, you're taking a photo of
someone with their back to the sun, most cameras will auto adjust to have the brightest area evenly exposed, leaving the person's face very dark and under-exposed. This is when you need to turn the
flash onto manual override (usually when you see the lightning symbol on the screen of your camera), and take the photo - the exposure still measures the same as before so the sky isn't too bright and over exposed but the fill-in flash provides some extra lighting and brings out the good detail in the face without looking too artificial. This is excellent also when photographing someone wearing a hat and their face is in shade.
Tip 3: White Balance
Many people find that after they've taken photographs indoors or in certain conditions outdoors, the results are disappointing because of an overall orange, blue or green colour cast. This is because the white balance is set incorrectly. To prevent this, set the camera's white balance to the appropriate setting e.g. flash, cloudy, shade, sunlight etc. Most of the time the auto white balance is sufficient, but when results are not entirely accurate it is necessary to use the manual settings. This offers many benefits including creative use of white balance e.g. a warm looking photo for a sunset or low evening light. Have a play around to find what settings work best and when but the options are there to be used.
Tip 4: Picture Quality
All digital cameras store the image as a digital file, the most popular of which is a JPEG file or.JPG extension when viewing on a PC. The most appropriate and useful setting is the highest quality and largest picture size so for example if you have a 10 Megapixel camera there is little point in taking photo's in 2 Megapixel resolution. The other setting is the compression, which is how much space the same size image occupies on a memory card. If the compression is set to low (high quality) it will use more space per photo but this gives the best image quality and is the best setting to use. Memory cards are very cheap these days so there is no reason to shoot poor quality if your camera can shoot better! The benefits are when printing you will get a much better result and if you need to email the photo's most email programs e.g. Outlook express support re-sizing of photos (select photos to send and right click, then send to mail recipient) this will bring up a dialogue on most PC's to resize for emailing and will use less space, but the original file is still at maximum quality. If you prefer, you can use a re-sizing program such as the FREE Microsoft Windows XP add-on called Picture Resizer which you can download now from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/learnmore/tips/eschelman2.mspx
Tip 5: ISO Settings (also known as film speed)
The ISO setting determines how sensitive the digital sensor is to light and can be adjusted for many purposes. If you want atmospheric photos in low light without using the flash, then shooting at a high ISO will enable this, the only downside however is the amount of grain on the image, added grain however can be used for creative purposes. For bright light or daytime photography then a low ISO (ISO 100 to 200) will give a smoother image with a fine detail. If in daylight and shooting fast movement then a higher ISO can be used (400 to 800) and this will enable a faster shutter speed.
Tip 6: Shutter Speed
Shutter speed can be set as a priority on some camera's, however if it can't be there are other ways to force the shutter speed to change. An evenly exposed photo consists of correct ISO settings, shutter speed and depth of field (aperture). If the ISO setting is increased the photo will be brighter and if it is decreased the image will be darker. If the shutter speed is increased the image will be brighter and if it's decreased the image will be darker, if the aperture is set to a shallow depth of field (low f-stop) the image will be brighter and if set to a deep depth of field (high f-stop) the image will be darker. Using this knowledge we can have an appropriate shutter speed for what we want to take a photo of.
Tip 7: Choose the Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio is the ratio of the height of a picture to its width, expressed in a form such as these actual examples: 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, or even 1:1. Some cameras offer a variety of options for aspect ratio. The benefit of this is that you can select an appropriate setting for what you want to do with the picture. If you want to watch a slideshow on your widescreen TV (some TV's allow you to plug your memory card straight in!) then choose 16:9. If you want to edit on a standard PC monitor then 4:3 is best, for printing 3:2 is a good setting and will allow you to print 6×4 prints or 12×8 if you want larger prints without losing the tops or edges (with film, 7×5 cuts off part of the photo!).
Feel free to go and apply your new-found knowledge right away!
Simon Henry is a keen photographer and enjoys not only taking photos but also helping others improve and get pleasing results.
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