Master Your Camera

Today’s sophisticated digital cameras enable anyone to take good, and sometimes great, photographs by simply using one of the automatic shooting modes and pressing the shutter release. However, most digital cameras offer many additional features that give serious photographers considerable creative control over how photos are taken and ensure that a higher percentage of photos are taken as you want them.

 One major advantage of most digital cameras is that you can review the image and camera enables you to check that you have composed the photo as you like and that the camera settings were set as you expected. Some digital cameras even provide a histogram to give you a graphical view of the exposure. These review features are well worth using.

To get the best photos, learn all that you can about your digital camera. You must master your camera, or it will limit your success.

Know Why You Are Taking Photos

Should you shoot horizontally or vertically? If you have a choice of digital cameras, which one should you use? What camera settings will you use? Will your photographs be framed or displayed on a Web page? Are you going to display your photographs in a series, or should they be shot in a particular style? Are you shooting to get backgrounds or objects to include in another photograph? Do you plan to digitally edit your photographs with an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop after you take them?

Your answers to these questions and others like them will have a substantial impact on how you should shoot. Knowing why you are taking photos before you take them can help you get the photos that you want. For example, suppose you make a once-in-a-lifetime trip and get excellent pictures. You then decide to make a calendar but cannot find enough photos to fit the horizontal format that you have chosen. Thinking about why you are taking the photographs and how they are likely to be viewed can help you to better plan your photographs.

Picking Good Photo Opportunities

Unless you have specific reasons to shoot particular scenes or subjects, the best photo opportunities for you are those things that you enjoy. If you enjoy gardening and appreciate the thousands of different variations of iris, shoot irises. Or if you are a birdwatcher and find pleasure in watching wildlife, choose places where you can find birds and other wildlife in settings that make great photographs.

 When planning a trip, give yourself plenty of time to stay and take photographs. Allow yourself some time for bad weather or other shooting conditions that prevent you from photographing. You can spend an entire day or more at a site and not have good enough light to shoot. Do not fall into the trap of trying to see too much too quickly. You may miss the kinds of shots that you had hoped to capture because you saw everything and shot little. Photography takes time, and time is often the most important factor in getting truly great photographs.