3 Digital Photography Tips You Must Know If You Want to Produce Truly Professional Photographs!

It's digital photography tricks and tips like the 3 below that will have you taking pictures like a professional.

Since I started using a digital camera, one reoccurring issue that I seemed to constantly have problems with was lighting. Now I have annoyed myself on numerous occasions with dark photographs, blurry night images and overly bright pictures. Hopefully the 3 digital photography tricks and tips that you read below will help you in some way with lighting issues that you may encounter.

1. Lighting:

Whether its film photography or digital photography, one very important thing to remember is that photography is all about capturing light. By knowing and remembering that different light will affect your pictures, you can change the way in which photographs turn out. The best source of light for any photographer is natural light while outdoors or strong fixed light from indoor lights. Having these proper sources of light will cut down on all the problems associated with using a flash.

2. Indoor Lighting:

Indoors you are not going to have the same amount of natural light than you get outdoors, unless you are in a well glassed open area. No ordinary interior wall light or ceiling light will give as good a light source as natural light. At this point, most photographers will use a flash of some sort or another. Some flashes can be detachable from the camera others will be built in, but all will add more light to the picture being taken. All I will say on the flash is that some times it can be very distracting for the subjects in the shot. If you're trying to take a natural picture then take the shot a few times so that you can avoid the shocked face effect in the final picture. Also remember that most ordinary built in flash cameras can only light up areas at close range.

For these reasons professional photographers will most often use stronger external light sources or flashes.

3. Controlling light:

As you get more comfortable with the concept of light and the use light for your pictures you can start to play with light. By setting up subjects for photo shoots and concentrating light on them from various directions and angles you can change the characteristics and contrast of your subjects.

By setting up lighting sources and directing them to hit your subject in a certain way you can add shadows, darken one side of the subject or make the subject appear completely different.

As with all photography the fun is in the practice and the trying out of new digital photography tricks and tips that you pick up along your way. You might surprise yourself with some of your results, but if nothing else practice makes perfect.

For more excellent digital photography tips you need to check out http://www.digital-photography-tips-and-tricks.com right now!

Photography Tips - 10 Tips From a Professional Photographer

1. Move closer to your subject. Nothing kills a photo quicker than a distracting background. If you have a great background try bringing the subject closer to the camera so they don't get lost. Remember this tip if nothing else.

2. Take lots of pictures. Digital photography is cheap and it is good! It is okay to shoot multiple photos with only slight variations...keep and share your best photos. Also you don't need an expensive camera; I have photos from all over the world hanging on my walls that were taken with a $300 point and shoot.

Move closer to your subject.

3. Get creative. It doesn't take much to enhance a photo. Pictures taken from 5 ½' above the ground can look repetitious. Think about changing the perspective - get down on one knee or on your stomach if possible. Stand on a chair. Experiment with different lenses if you have them. Experiment with composition.

Move closer to your subject.

4. Rent equipment. Professional camera stores are not just for professionals. They have rental departments where anyone can pick up an exotic lens for a day or more. Many that can be used on non-professional cameras. These rental departments are manned by people with lots of photo knowledge and people are generally more than happy to "talk photography" if not too busy at the moment. Don't be shy.

Move closer to our subject.

5. Use the camera's flash. Especially outside. Your eyes can look at a person in front of a sunset and see their smile but your camera can't. It is either going to record the colors of the sunset and your subject will be a silhouette or your subject will be visible and the background will be overexposed. Be conscious of shadows on people's faces - again utilize your flash. If your subject is looking into the sun they are squinting - turn them away from the sun and fill shadows with flash.

Move closer to your subject.

6. Think of your camera like a painter's canvas. Be the artist. Is there a garbage can or other unwanted item in the frame that can be eliminated by simply moving a foot or so to the left or right? Look at the entire frame you are about to capture, not just the one main element you are focusing on. Sure you can fix it in Photoshop but it is better to capture it the way you want to see it.

Move closer to your subject.

7. Study Pictures. Pictures you like. Cut them out of your favorite magazines or newspapers. Keep a file on your desk and just take a moment to look at them and tell yourself what you like about them. Bookmark web sites that have photos you like. Go to them often. Develop your eye.

8. Learn to take a little criticism. All photographers love their own photos. You put your heart and soul into them. You want to show them off. They are pictures of your kids, taken with the camera you always wanted and just bought. How can people not love them? Remember art is subjective. Not everybody is your mom.

Move closer to your subject.

9. Get your pictures published. Local newspapers have photography contests, generally centered on a theme: children, pets, travel. If you are in the right place at the right time, CNN might be interested. Don't forget about the internet. There are always photo contests you can enter online. Publish your own website. There are plenty of free sites that will allow you to build a web site using your photos. They are a great way to share our art and these days you don't need a degree from MIT to do it.

Move closer to your subject.

10. Learn from your mistakes. But don't be afraid to break rules. Photography is fun and creative. Nobody is going to die if your snapshots are a little off or weird. What might not work one day may be a stroke of genius the next.

And one last time, move closer to your subject.

For the amateur photographer, these are ten easy, non-technical tips to help you improve the quality of your photos. While there are many technical aspects of photography, great pictures usually begin with a confident photographer who has learned to master composition before worrying about F-Stops.

Andy Templeton is a professional photographer located in Orange County, CA. Andy specializes in editorial, public relations and corporate photography. Please visit his site at http://atempletonphoto.com to see his photography, access articles on leveraging images to enhance your business or access his photography blog.

7 Simple Digital Photography Tips You Can Put to Work Immediately For Professional Quality Results

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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http://www.masteringdigitalphotography.org

Wedding Photography Tips For When You Hire a Professional Wedding Photographer

Today I went to interview a professional wedding photographer for my wedding occurring next year, and it sparked an idea to share my experience with my readers. As a wedding event planner, why not provide some wedding photography tips and a wedding photography checklist to help another fellow bride with her wedding?

I think it is important when you are researching a professional wedding photographer to let your groom in on the experience. (Based upon the fact that he's interested!) My fiancee happens to be a professional photographer so he has a vested interest in this part of the wedding.

Therefore, take a look at different photographers' portfolios, ask your friends, relatives, your wedding event planner for references as well as research online at various wedding sites that offer suggestions and wedding photography tips when you are first selecting your photographer.

Next, go and interview your potential photographer like I did today (well, I didn't really interview Michael since I have worked with him as a wedding event planner on other weddings)! It's important that you and your fiancee are comfortable with your photographer so that you will look relaxed and happy in your pictures no matter what happens at the party.

Discuss with your professional wedding photographer what type of pictures you are looking for.

* Do you want wedding portraits or journalistic-styled pictures?

* Do you want black and white and color shots?

* What type of wedding photography package do they offer?

Prior to the meeting, you should create a wedding photography checklist to help you focus in on hiring the right type of photographer for you and your fiancee.

Other wedding photography tips to think about include providing the photographer with the name of your other vendors, such as the DJ, wedding event planner and florist since many times they work together at other weddings and will talk amongst themselves as to what important shots should be captured that day.

Also, very important, well in advance of your wedding, create a wedding photography checklist for your wedding day. Remember to include and write down which type of family shots you want and who you want in them, ceremony shots, bridal room shots, candid pictures during cocktails and the reception and party shots to name a few.

Keep in mind where you're getting married (indoors or outdoors) as well as the time of day. You want to make sure that your photographer knows the people you want photographed by face and/or name so you might want to consider making a Facebook for your photographer. All of these elements are just the tip of the iceberg when you start to generate your checklist, and this is why you want to start early with your list and then continue to add to it up until your wedding day.

I hope you found these wedding photography tips helpful for when you start your selection of a professional wedding photographer. It is not only important to create a wedding photography checklist during the selection process but also one for the wedding itself. Until next time, remember the Budget Bash mantra: make it simple, delicious, stylish, fun & economical to all!

Andrea Wyn is owner of A Wynning Event http://www.awynningevent.com, a Los Angeles wedding and special event management company. She is a marketing & special event planner with over 15 years of experience and for the past ten years, she has been the event planner for the Screen Actors Guild Awards(R). She has taken her knowledge and special event experience and written an easy-to-read book called Budget Bash http://www.budgetbashbook.com where you can find more ideas and helpful tips on event planning including menus, decor, budgets, timelines, florals and more.