7 Simple Digital Photography Tips For 2010

It doesn't matter if you are a seasoned photographer or if your new camera appeared under the Christmas Tree this year. New Year's Eve tends to make people reflect over the past year and look forward to new possibilities in the coming year.

Tradition has it that we should make some sort of list to try and motivate us to achieving greater success in different areas of our lives. It is no different for the professional photographer or the budding photographer. Making a list of New Year's Resolutions can be positive and encouraging. Here are 7 simple photography tips for 2010 that will help you all year long.

Tip #1: Read Your Camera Manual.

It doesn't matter if you've never read it or perhaps read it several years ago. It's always good to refresh your memory and perhaps find a hidden nugget you've either never knew or forgot that you had. You can pick up new tips from your photography bible.

Tip #2: Take a Photography Class.

If you're new to photography or if you're seasoned but find yourself a little stale, look for a course that will broaden your horizons. There are numerous courses offered online from beginner to advanced. It is always a good experience to find a local school or experienced photographer that offers hands-on training. It might take a little digging but having 'real' people to talk to and learn from is worth the time and expense.

Tip #3: Join a Camera Cub.

Joining the local camera or photography club can help you network with local photographers. Meeting regularly with them can provide you with educational resources, motivation and offer you encouragement.

Tip #4: Learn to Use Your Lenses.

Chances are you have at least a couple of lenses in your bag. Sometimes we are tempted to buy a new lens when we can't quite get the image we want with the lenses we have. Spend time this year learning how to use the lenses you have to their fullest potential. You might amaze yourself at what can be achieved by making more effective use of what you have.

Tip #5: Use Your Tripod.

I am sure most camera owners have a tripod of some sort laying in a closet or drawer somewhere. Learn to use your tripod and then make use of it regularly. It can increase the sharpness of your image by controlling camera shake and enables you to compose your shots more effectively.

Tip #6: Getting Off the Green Mode.

The auto (green) mode on your digital camera can do a wonderful job of taking snapshots. Take the time to learn about using your manual settings (this can be a scary thing to do) and you will find a whole new world of camera control opens up to you. Search the internet; there are plenty of books and tutorials that can help you learn about exposure, shutter speed and ISO settings.

Tip #7: Take More Photographs.

In photography, as in anything else, practice, practice, practice. In the digital world, there is no reason to limit your picture taking. It does not cost you to develop rolls of film, you simply hit the delete button and start over again. Make a commitment to take at least one photo every day. If you take more, pick out your best shot and save it in a '365 Day' folder. At the end of the year pick out your favorite image for each month, arrange them in a collage then print it. You will be amazed at your progress and have something permanent to remember your year in pictures.

These are just some suggestions, so feel free to add your own.

Scott Voelker is the creator of NewPortraitBiz. He has taught 1,000's of students how to start a photography business. To receive his Free video lessons visit http://newportraitbiz.com
Visit Scott's Blog at http://newportraitbiz.com/blog for even more up to date Free lessons.

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.

Visit the MasteringDigitalPhotography blog and sign up to our mailing list now to receive a free 28 page report with even more great tips! Simply click on this link

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How to Take Good Perfect Digital Pictures - Simple Point and Click Camera Photography Tips

If you want to take professional grade photos then you will need to invest in an expensive DSLR camera, lenses, light meter and a lot more photography equipment. That does not mean however that you cannot take stunning pictures with a inexpensive point and click digital camera with a little photography knowledge.

For example you could give Rafael Nadal a cheap racket and he would still win many a tennis match. It because Rafa has the skills and knowledge to make the most from the racket. It is a same with point and shoot digital camera you just need to know your camera.

It may be obvious but in order to get to know your camera well you need to read your manual and practice with your camera on the different settings to see the affect it has on your resulting pictures. You need to make yourself acquainted with you camera its menus and how to navigate them. It will allow you to have the perfect setting in any photographic opportunity quickly to get that great shot before you miss it. People tend to forget this step and the are over excited by their new gadget and want to just try it out.

To take good pictures you need to have a tripod with you at all times. This maybe cumbersome but these days you can get great mini-tripods that can grip to any object so are versatile enough in any setting. When you use your hands taking a picture any little movement you make as your press the shutter affects the sharpness of the picture especially if you are in night mode or a low light mode. If you don't have a tripod then try to utilize the environment around you such as a wall or fence.

James has been writing articles for five years. He has two new website about ringtones for cell phones and the remote control light switch to get the best deals to save you much needed cash.

Photography Tips - The 1 Simple Thing You Can Do to Improve Your Photography 100%

Most of us have cameras and record our lives as little moments stopped in time.  Our images are of memorable times we want to hold onto.  They are the most valuable pieces of our self.  Years ago I wondered why my images were nothing like what I saw and felt at the moment I took the picture.   My first experience was with a little 110 Instamatic on my first backpacking trip to Yosemite in 1970.  I had never seen anything like Yosemite--the falls, the cliffs, and strange mountains.  I shot all what little film I took along.  I thought for sure that I had some award-winning shots.  To my disappointment, I received washed-out; blurry semblances of what I felt when I looked out over the mountains.  Nothing like what I saw in the calendars at the gift shop.

There are two sides to photography.

One is a left brain techno thing. It involves f-stops, shutter speeds, depth of field, and a bunch of stuff the other part of your brain wants nothing to do with. Like in my early years I knew there were left brain things I needed to learn to capture those right brain moments in front of me. That second part of photography is how we see the world and the camera gets in the way of this. A good image was more luck than craft. On my days off from work I camped out in photography classes at a local college. I saw great photography and wanted to be able to do it. I went to a Robert Mapplethorpe show in Berkley and felt chills with every image that glowed from the paper. I still love when I see an image that makes me feel that way.

My first tip is easy and involves no thinking.

It is something worth having if you want to become a better photographer.  It is a tripod.  A teacher once told me that the one thing that will improve one's photos 100% without doing anything else, is putting the camera on a tripod.  

It does a few things:

First it steadies the camera at all shutter speeds like handholding cannot.  You take the human factor out of the equation. 
Second it forces you to look at what's in the viewfinder.  You can see what you want in your photo and what you don't.  You start learning to see.  Composition starts to become second nature. 

Oh yes, you say, I see fine.  Changing a word from some of Paul Simon's, "a man [sees] what he wants to [see] and disregards the rest."  We all live in the same world but all see it differently. Most of us are in auto pilot when it comes to seeing.  We see what we want to see and seldom look.  Our photography reflects our indiscernible, ordinary, look at our world.  A good shot is the luck of the photo gods and camera designers.  For those who don't foresee a tripod in their future, try spending a little more time just looking through the viewfinder before pressing the button.  You will be amazed at what you see.

Gene Rodman

Montana Photographic Arts

http://mtphotoarts.com

For a copy of my FREE REPORT "How to Avoid The 12 Mistakes People Make When Purchasing Art" which will help you avoid making the wrong costly decisions when buying art including photography and how to get the most out of your purchase visit my website at [http://mtphotoarts.com/1/19be7/#/page/free-reports-and-newletters/]