Tips & Tricks to get the Most out of your Digital Camera and Photography
Oct 6, 2008 Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
A lot of people generally can’t afford top of the line digital cameras, or at least, the more expensive top-of-the-line DSLR’s available to them, but still want to know if it’s possible to improve the photos they take with their off-brand cameras. Here are some simple tips to help improve the quality of your images.
What’s this button do?
No matter what brand of camera you have, R. T. F. M, Or Read the Freaking Manual. Take time to read it back to front then back again, learn what your camera can do. Learn what the controls are and what they can do. If you don’t understand a setting or explanation, thankfully Google is everyone’s friend and there are a million web sites out there that will help explain things like shutter speed and aperture.
And Mel said: Let there be light.
Light, first and foremost is going to be the most important thing in any photograph you take. Learn a little about light and what settings of Flash your camera has. Then you can start playing in it, whether it’s a lot of light or a little, everything you do should revolve around light. There are some things to keep in mind when it comes to light and how to use it in a photo.
- Sunlight/Natural light is pretty much the best kind of light around for photos and for those of us who can’t afford recreating it. Unfortunately, the weather and other factors can muddle that up a bit. Believe it or not, however, a bright, but nevertheless cloudy day can be an excellent environment to shoot in. The clouds can often soften the usual harsh shadows that sunlight creates.
- When shooting in daylight, put the sun to the side of your subjects, because behind them (if it’s not the effect you want) will give you a dark silhouette of the subject. The sun directly in front of them might make them squint.
- Think about the angle of light. Shadows can be powerfully cast over one half of something depending on where the light is coming from and where you have the subject.
- Time of day can influence the color of light in your shots. Early morning shots generally have a red or orange hue, morning to before noon is more yellow, noon is obviously the brightest part of the day and most shadows are gone. This is the best time for landscape photography but often considered the worst time for photographing people. Day to evening gets you similar colors as what is in the morning sun.
Do it over and over and over and over and over again.
Yes really. Take a bajillion pictures of the same thing, from seven different angles. Set a side a day and take pictures of everything you do if you don’t have anywhere “exciting” you can go to. Take pictures of your loved ones. The old saying is practice makes perfect, and it suits photography. It’s not just ‘pick up camera, take awesome shot.’ You might get a great shot 1 out of every 500, but why not practice so that it’s a great shot every time?
See the photo before you take it.
Start thinking in photos. Instead of seeing a tree with the sun behind it, start imagining a photograph of it. What about the top of the tree with the rays of light just poking behind it? Or maybe lay under the tree and see what the sun is like through the branches? Maybe have the tree and the sun to the left and blue sky fill the right? Imagine what the picture you are about to take might look like.
I can see your nose hairs.
Think outside the frame/focus. Get right on top of your subject, go far, far away. Lay down on the ground or floor to take a picture at the same height of something down there, or to take images from up above. Try turning the camera upside down–or if you are very brave, you could even try taking a picture while tossing it! Experiment with angles and strange camera positions to get an interesting image.
Hold it!
How you hold your camera can determine whether or not that shot’s going to turn out sexy, or shaky. Hold your camera in your dominant hand, (left or right if it’s comfortable, generally the button you need to use to take a photo should be near and easily accessible) and keep your elbows close to your body, not outward. Your opposite hand should curl around the lens (if it can) for further stability. If your camera doesn’t have lens like that, you can of course, grip the other side of it. Your feet should be shoulder width apart. This stance will help you take your images in a bit steadier of a grip.
There other do-it-yourself tips and tricks too, to keeping your camera steady, such as the bottle cap tripod, and pocket tripod, as well as shelling out for an actual tripod if you can afford it.
Flash. And we’re not talking the guy in the leotards.
You’ve got to know when to hold it. Know when to –okay, okay, sorry. But it’s true, there’s a place for flash and there are places where flash should never go. First, keep in mind that flash generally has no use for objects far away. Your camera’s manual should tell you exactly how far your camera’s flash can reach before it becomes moot.
- Use Flash for objects up close indoors, don’t use flash for taking pictures of objects 4-6 feet away!
- You CAN use flash outdoors. On bright, sunny mid-days, sometimes the sun creates extreme and harsh shadows across the subjects you want to take a picture of. If you have it, Fill Flash will be your friend for those bright noon-day images. Fill flash does exactly what it says, it will try and fill the shadows with light.
- If you are taking pictures of multiple subjects with flash, try and make sure they are all the same distance away from the camera. Otherwise, the objects within the images will all be exposed to different intensities of light.
- If you are using a disposable camera, or a camera where you just cannot turn the flash off at all, get in close and try experimenting with a diffuser.
- Diffuse or direct the flash yourself. A roll of semi-opaque tape over your flash, a cigarette box with top open, a small white piece of paper of card held in front of your flash tipped to the ceiling to throw it away from the subject, experiment with this to find what works for you and your camera. Bouncing your flash from the ceiling or a wall instead of the subject can also help to reduce red eye.
- Your camera does NOT always know when to use the flash and when not to. Don’t trust your camera to use a flash when it should or shouldn’t. If you are taking photos inside, on a well lit sunny day with plenty of light, turn off your flash. You shouldn’t need it and it will just wash out your photos, creating harsh shadows.
- For indoor photos, make sure that you are in between the window and your subject. The light should be at your back and falling on the object in front of you.
- Experiment with everything. Experiment with your camera’s flash setting to get to know its in’s and outs and what works for you and what doesn’t.
This is really just the icing on the cake when it comes to photography in general, leaving out composition, rule of thirds, framing, leading lines, photography at night or in low-light, which I plan on covering in a second part, as well as an endless list of little DIY tips and tricks I wasn’t able to cover. But for a beginner with no clue (such as myself) I think these might start you on the right path to improving your photos, let me know if they help and let me see any photos you have!
