Digital Photography is a highly complex activity, with a steep learning curve and many advanced techniques that take years to master! However, we all have to start somewhere. So, here’s a list of 5 Great Tips that will ultimately help you improve your digital photography, and set you off on the right foot.

1. Use a Tripod or Bean-Bag.

Yes, these can be such a pain to carry around, but they’re definitely worth the time. Using a Tripod or alternative such as a bean-bag will add stability to your camera, meaning you have greater control over exposure times and composition. You’ll also never see that annoying camera shake ruin a picture again whilst using a tripod!

2. Get a High Capacity Memory Card.

Have you ever had one of those photography days which is going perfect? The light was great, your subjects look fantastic, the weather is holding off, your capturing the shots you only dreamed of…Then it happens.. Your Memory Card is full and you don’t have a spare! You could manually sort through and delete, but it’d take hours. It’s a much better idea to spend a bit more and invest in a high capacity memory card. They’re now available up to 8GB!!

3. Use a UV Filter.

Using a UV filter on your camera lens is a great idea. They’re small circular pieces of glass that screw over the end of your lens, and offer great protection from scratches, dust, finger prints and also filter out UV rays, improving the color of your images. Best of all they’re dirt cheap!!

4. Add Warmth To Your Tones.

The White-Balance settings on your digital SLR control the tonal effects of your images, so try experimenting with them. Don’t think that just because a setting is called ‘cloudy’ that you can only use it when it is cloudy! In fact, using the ‘cloudy’ setting when taking pictures adds warmth. Perfect for a sunset or evening landscape shot.

5. Shoot, Shoot, Shoot!

This will obviously depend on your memory card size as discussed in point 2, but is still very important in trying to get those great shots. Simply put, do not rely on a single shot to capture a great image. Imagine taking time finding a fantastic composition, only to find later that the shot you took has a lens flare or dark shadow in it! Its very frustrating indeed! Take several shots for each composition, try slightly changing the angle each time. This way you can compare and choose the best one later. Remember you can always delete the images you don’t want, that’s the beauty of Digital Photography!

About The Author

Courtesy of Gary Bunn and http://www.Your-Digital-Photography.com

by Kerry T. Giviens, MD

BE SELECTIVE. At a flower show , there is an enormous number of beautiful flowers. Don’t rush to photograph the first blossom you see. Find a plant with the best combination of form, color, lighting and background.
ISOLATION. For impact, isolate your subject. Find a camera angle that minimizes distracting elements, such as other flowers or spectators. Take the time to try low angles, high angles, or moving to the right or left. A wide lens aperture ( a lower-numbered f-stop on and SLR camera) will enhance this effect by softening the background.
COMPOSITION. Pay attention to the position of your subject in the viewfinder. Putting the subject in the dead-center of the picture is often the first instinct, but is not always the most aesthetic composition. Concentrate on what you see in the viewfinder, and recompose the picture until it looks the best to you. And don’t forget to try vertical framing, as well as horizontal.
TRIPOD. Because the light in parts of the Conventions Center (or building) is varied, you may be forced to use slow shutter speeds. In this situation, hand-holding your camera might result in vibrations and unsharp pictures. Use a tripod to steady your camera if it has a tripod screw-socket. If you don’t ( or can’t) use a tripod, try to steady your camera in other ways- nestle it on a bean bag or your coat; brace the camera against a wall; or at the very least, take a firm stance while shooting, with your legs slightly apart and your elbows braced. When using and SLR camera on a tripod, cable a release can significantly reduce unwanted vibrations.

PATIENCE. When photographing flowers outdoors, be aware of small breezes that might set the flowers in motion. Likewise, breezes can be caused indoors by the opening of a door or the brisk movement of people. For sharp picture, you must be prepared to wait for all movement to cease before releasing the shutter.
ENVIRONMENT. Wonderful photographs can be created by showing the relationship of you subject to its environment. A simple way to achieve this is with a wide- angle lens on a SLR camera, or the wide mode on a dual-lens or zoom lens point-&-shoot camera. Position your subject as close as possible in the foreground.
EXTREME CLOSE-UPS. Flowers take on an entirely different look when viewed in extreme close-up. Use your viewfinder indicators to move in as close as possible, while still maintaining sharp focus. If you are using a 35mm SLR camera, your macro (close-up) capabilities can be extended with accessories such as a macro lens, a macro teleconverter, or even screw-on supplementary close-up lenses or extension tubes for your present lenses.
THE WHOLE PICTURE. Consider the whole plant when you photograph, and not just the colorful bloom. Examine the fascinating textures and geometries of leaves, seed pods and fallen petals.
EXPERIMENT! Don’t be afraid to shoot a few extra pictures. Try different angles and different lighting. Also depict your subject from several different viewpoints.
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES. If your picture don’t convey what you saw in your mind’s eye, ask yourself: “What went wrong?” If you study your mistakes, you will be rewarded wit a greater number successful photographs on your next outing.

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.

by: Michael Colucci

About The Author
Michael Colucci is a technical writer for http://www.photography-tips.org - A site that offers the latest tips on photography.