Pay attention the background. Make sure you don't have utility poles or tree limbs "growing" from someone's head.
Even a small, compact digital camera can take great pictures. Start on the path to taking high quality photographs by really learning the ins and outs of your camera. Each one is a little different, so read the instruction manual thoroughly. Pay attention to the composition of your images. Take several pictures of the same scene and look for an unexpected angle.
Know How Your Camera Works
Know the different shooting modes available on your camera and use them. Shooting at the maximum image size available produces quality prints that can be cropped and manipulated more easily in photo-editing software programs. This option is often found in the camera's "Settings" menu.
Use Your Flash Sparingly
Digital camera flashes can be a lifesaver when your subject is 10 to 15 feet away from the camera. The flash overexposes the image when the subject is too close to the camera. That creates unnatural lighting effects, strange shadows and the red-eye effect. Stand too far away from your subject, and your picture will be underexposed. Try turning off the flash. Use the natural light, moving people closer to windows and other light sources.
Move Your Feet, Not Your Lens
Turn off your camera's digital zoom option. Also avoid using the optical zoom lens, as most have a tenancy to make fuzzy, bit-mapped images. Instead, move yourself closer to your subject. Moving your feet also helps you with composition. Change where you stand to look at the scene you're photographing a little differently.
Remember the Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds maintains that pictures are more appealing if the subject is in the upper, lower, right or left third of the image. Don't always put your subject in the middle of the picture. To do this, you may need to pre-focus the picture. Press and hold the shutter button halfway to focus on your subject; when you move the camera, the focus won't change.
Take Control of the Exposure
As you grow more comfortable with your camera, experiment with shutter-priority and aperture-priority modes to change the exposure. When using shutter-priority mode, you select the shutter speed, and the camera chooses the correct aperture. This allows you to either freeze or blur action. Aperture-priority allows you to select the amount of light coming through the lens, and the camera chooses the shutter speed. The aperture controls the depth of field of a picture; the more light coming through the lens, the more shallow the background will be.
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