Amature photography

A common misconception with many photographers is that good quality photos can only be taken by using a big bulky digital SLR camera. Technically, yes the digital SLR can produce a photo that has more pixels, but there are more things to a photo than pixels. Here are a few ways to take better photos with a digital point and shoot camera.

Learn the limitations of your camera. The boring method would be to read the manual. The method I prefer is to go out and take a bunch of pictures. Change the settings and then see what the results are. Most digital cameras have these three basic settings: Portrait, Landscape, and Auto(matic).

Portrait and Landscape does not refer to the horizontal or vertical orientation of the picture. It simply means one setting is better for portraits and one setting is better for taking pictures of the landscape.

In the "Portrait" setting, the item that the camera is focusing on will appear in focus, and the background and foreground will normally be out of focus. This is a setting in which emphasis needs to be given to one object in the photo. The next time you watch a movie and two characters are on the screen, but one character is closer than the other, pay attention to who is in focus when someone is talking. Usually, the person in focus is talking. Visually your eyes are drawn to that person and you kind of forget the other person is there. This setting doesn't apply to just people, it could apply to objects in a photo that need more emphasis.

In the "Landscape" setting, almost everything in the picture will appear to be in focus including the background and foreground. If you are taking pictures of scenery, this would be the setting to use, unless you wanted to focus on a particular subject. What if you are taking a picture of a lot of people? If people are standing at different distances from you, Portrait mode may render a few people out of focus.

Most of the time the Auto(matic) setting will work just fine, and you will have more time to address other items such as composition. I'm not talking about professionally posing a person or thing, I am talking about simple composition.

Dos and Don'ts of composition

1. Don't center all your subjects. Pictures usually look better when the subject is slightly off centered.

2. Don't center a person's head in the frame. This leaves a lot of space above them in the photo.

3. Do try and keep all lines perpendicular when possible. Tall buildings will never be perpendicular when shot from the ground, they will always appear to be leaning backward, but other things can be lined up to look more appealing.

4. Do try to keep garbage cans and drinks out of a picture unless you want those things in the picture.

5. Do be mindful of where people are standing. Is that tree branch coming out of his ear?

These Dos and Don'ts are not strict standards. Sometimes, a photo is more fun and appealing when these Dos and Don'ts are not followed.

The best tip for taking better photos with a digital point and shoot camera is, your camera flash is only good for a distance of about 10-20 feet, and the flash is not only for using at night or in dark places.

Have you ever been to a concert or seen a concert on TV? When the artist comes out on stage, the crowd goes wild and you can see a bunch of flashes from people trying to take a picture of who or what is on stage. Guess what, they probably got a nice picture of the person directly in front of them, but not a very good picture of whom or what was on stage. If the area is dark and your subject is more than 20 feet away, chances are the flash will not help you at all. You can either try to get closer or try to take a picture without the flash (picture will be brighter, but most likely out of focus). Do you know how to turn the flash off?

NOTE: The person with the bulky SLR has a flash distance of around 30 to 100 feet. At a concert, the person with the bulky SLR would get almost the same results as the guy using the point and shoot camera if they were both standing more than a 100 feet away from the stage.

In the daytime, standing under the shade of a tree, or indoors under bright fluorescent lights, these are the times when a flash would be a good idea. Under the shade of a tree, if you are going for the dark, shadowy look, leave the flash off. But if you want to see the details on a persons face, turn the flash on. If you like the greenish or yellowish haze of the lights, by all means, leave the flash off. But if you would rather see the natural color of your subject, turn the flash on. Do you know how to turn the flash on?

Not every picture looks good on the automatic setting. This is why understanding how your camera works and knowing how to turn the flash on and/or off is a good thing. Most people like the simplicity of a digital point and shoot, they didn't get it to mess with all the settings, in those cases, the best advice is...Take the Picture! Better to capture the moment then worry about all the other stuff.