10 Tips In Better Photography
Michael has some very good suggestions here. Carefully study what he has to say and your pictures can't help but improve.
Steve Thomas
by: Michael Colucci
Taking a good photo isn’t as hard as you may think. You don’t need the most expensive camera or years of experience, just 10 simple tips.
Enjoy!
Tip 1 - Use All Your Available Space
Don't be afraid to use all the space in your photo. If you want to take a picture of something, it's ok for it to take up the whole shot with no or very little background showing. Keep distractions out of your shot
Tip 2 - Study Forms
This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding forms in your photos. Don't see an object, she its shape and its form and find the best angle to photograph it from. Form is all around us and I highly suggest you read as many books on it as possible.
Tip 3 - Motion In Your Photos
Never have motion in your photos if you are photographing a still object. If there is something moving while you are trying to photograph a stationery object, your photo won't turn out anywhere near as well. Also never put a horizon line in the center of your frame.
Tip 4 - Learn To Use Contrasts Between Colors.
Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can take great shots with just one color on your subject, but the contrasts between colors in a shot is what makes you a great photographer.
Tip 5 - Get Closer To Your Subject
This is one of the biggest mistakes most photographers make, not getting close enough to their subject. Get up and personal and close the distance gap. You can always reshape and resize a good shot but you can't continue to blowup a distant object.
Tip 6 - Shutter Lag
Shooting action shots with digital camera's can be tricky due to shutter lags. What this means is, when you press the button to take the photo, it can take up to a second for the shutter to take a photo, by that time what you were photographing would have moved or changed somehow. This means you have to compensate for shutter lag by predicting what your subject is going to do and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. More expensive digital cameras don't have this problem.
Tip 7 - Pan
If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, pan with the object. Follow through with the subject, from start to finish and one of those shots will be a winner. You have more chance of getting a good shot if you take more then one photo.
Tip 8 - Continuous Shots
To pan like I suggested above you will need a camera that does continuous shots and doesn’t need to stop and process after every shot.
Tip 9 - How To Take Fantastic Night Time Shots
Night time shots can be spectacular, almost magical.... if done right! If not they can look horrible. Really horrible. Without adequate lighting, even good camera's can turn out crappy photos if the photographer doesn't know what he or she is doing.
Tip 10 - Study Your Manual
If your digital camera has a special night time mode, read the manual and follow their instructions on how to use it properly.
Steve's Tip #11
The difference between a good photographer and a bad photographer is that a good photographer throws away more pictures. Don't show your bad pictures to people. Learn from your mistakes and don't force other people to look at your junk.
Steve Thomas
Introduction to Digital Photography
by: Deborah Kilgaron
Digital Photography 101
If you own a personal computer you are already on the way to becoming an expert in digital photography. (Actually, you can dabble in digital photography even if you don't have a computer, but that would make it a bit harder.) You will definitely need a digital camera, of course. Pick one that suits your needs and sensibilities--they come in all shapes and sizes!
When buying, remember that the cheaper cameras are usually like cheap traditional cameras - okay for snaps but not much else. But you can get really good results with reasonably priced cameras, particularly if you want to show them on a screen or the Internet. In general you want a reasonably high number of pixels in a new camera - 3 Megapixels should be enough for beginners. More pixels is not always better, since the quality of the lens and so on still matters.
Generally speaking the well known brands make good digital cameras, but the market changes so fast you need to look at a few online reviews.
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