Shoot at the Highest Resolution

Always shoot at the highest resolution your camera offers. For example, the D-620L from Olympus shoots at two resolutions: 1,280 by 1,024 or 640 by 512 pixels. You can shoot four times as many of the smaller pictures, but they'll be only one-fourth as good. This goes even when shooting photos for the Web--a large original picture provides more flexibility, permitting you to crop, reduce the image size, or perform a combination of the two. Remember, you can always reduce the number of pixels in an image, but you can't magically invent more. If you shell out the bucks for high resolution, and you should, you might as well use it.
 

Get in Close

Ever wonder why all the vacation shots of you and your companions taken by other tourists look terrible? It's because the stand-in photographers step back half a mile away when they take the shots. With a digital camera, that means you end up taking about 15 pixels in the center of the image. Pixels are scarce, so you need to devote as many to the subject of the photograph as possible. When photographing a person, turn on the LCD and close in until that person fills up the screen. Don't take the shot until you see the whites of their eyes.
 

Shoot in Pairs

When shooting important images--staff parties, family functions, vacation photos--don't settle for a single shot. Like butterflies, digital pictures are free, so go nuts. The rule of thumb is to take no fewer than two pictures of virtually everything, four or five if the scene is even moderately interesting. Think fashion photographer: keep moving that camera and firing off shots. With lots of variations to choose from, there's a higher probability of getting a good photograph.
 

Shoot Big

Pixels don't treat all objects equally. About the worst thing you can photograph with a digital camera is a tree. If the camera captures about a million pixels, and the tree contains a few hundred thousand leaves, you end up with three or four pixels per leaf, so it all smears together in a big, gummy mess. The same goes for lawns, gardens, distant mountains, hairy surfaces, or anything else with scads of intricate details. For the best results, photograph clearly defined subjects with smooth, distinct outlines. People photograph well, as do cars, buildings, furniture, and most man-made objects. Stick to obvious foreground subjects that stand out clearly from their backgrounds, and you should be fine.
 

Eliminate Red-Eye

If you've ever shot a picture with a flash, you've no doubt encountered red-eye, in which everyone's pupils turn bright red, giving them a mildly demonic look. The culprit is dilated pupils. In dim light, the pupils are nice and big, permitting the flash to bounce off the inside of the retina and reflect back into the camera lens. One solution is to turn on your camera's red-eye reduction flash. This provides a preflash, which reduces pupil sizes so that the second flash is reflected harmlessly off the iris. The problem with a preflash is that it causes people to blink--and most of us would rather get red-eye than a bunch of closed eyelids. A better solution is to turn on a few lights or to shoot in a shaded area outdoors. By shining some light on a situation, you reduce pupil sizes naturally and limit your risk of red-eye.
 

Shoot Outside in Indirect Light

Most digital cameras offer built-in flashes, but they're not very good. When shooting in a dimly lit room or at night, a subject a few feet away will appear as a luminous ghoul against a pitch-black background. For the best results, shoot outside or in a naturally lit room during the day. A little cloud cover or tree shadow helps to soften the harsh color transitions you often get in direct sunlight. Counterintuitive as it may sound, low contrast is better than high contrast. There's nothing worse than a large area of white (called a hot spot) or black in a photo, because there's no way to fix it.
 

Use the Flash in Backlit Conditions

The best use for a cheesy consumer flash is to fill in shadows in full daylight. When you photograph a person against a bright sky--a condition called backlighting--the camera averages the light from the person and the sky and comes up with an intermediate exposure. But that exposure is too brief for the person and too long for the sky, so you get a dark silhouette against a blindingly bright background. The solution is to turn on the flash, a technique called fill-flashing. This not only lightens up the person, it also reduces the exposure so that the sky appears less bright.
 

Avoid Digital Zoom

Many digital cameras offer two kinds of zoom: an optical zoom and a digital zoom. Of the two, the optical zoom is the only one you should use. An optical zoom uses a system of lenses to refract light and to magnify an image onto the CCD. The result is expanded detail and clarity. A digital zoom crops and enlarges images, inventing pixels through interpolation. The result is a magnified but fuzzy image. If an optical zoom doesn't enlarge an image sufficiently, walk closer to your subject, but try to avoid the digital zoom.
 

Use the LCD for Close-Ups

Very few digital cameras under $1,000 offer single-lens reflex (SLR) viewfinders, the kind in which you and the camera see through the same lens. Far more popular is the rangefinder design, in which you see through one lens, the optical viewfinder, and the camera sees through another, the primary lens element. Although these lenses are designed to converge at the same point, they can't help but vary slightly as you zoom in and out. And they may vary dramatically during close-up shots, a phenomenon known as parallax. Therefore, most optical viewfinders are highly suspect.
The more accurate framing device is the LCD screen: turn it on and you get a live video feed directly from the CCD. Consequently, what you see on the LCD screen is more representative of what you'll get. Be aware, however, that the LCD requires scads of power and quickly drains the batteries. A standard set of rechargeable AA cells will last about 50 to 80 shots with the LCD turned on, compared to four times that many with the LCD off. So limit your use of the LCD to close-up shots, and keep an extra set of batteries fully charged and close at hand.
 

Use Accessory Lenses to Extend Your Range

Most digital camera lenses are 3x optical zooms. While this is a sufficient range for many photo situations, you might find yourself wanting more range for wide-angle and telephoto compositions. The good news is that you can achieve greater focal-length range by adding accessory lenses to your system. There are many such lenses available today for use with a growing number of cameras. These lenses can add ultra-wide and extreme-telephoto capabilities to your camera’s fixed zoom lens.
Accessory lenses attach to the camera’s fixed lens either directly or with an optional adapter mount. If this is something you’ll want to consider, be sure your camera can accept such lenses before you buy.

Stick to Optical Zoom

When you choose a digital camera, you’ll notice that there are a couple of zoom figures listed on the box and other promotional material. One is the optical zoom and the other is the digital zoom. Typically, optical zoom is about 3x or 4x, while digital zoom can be closer to 10x and higher. The difference between the two is that optical zoom is achieved through use of the lens elements while digital zoom is achieved by cropping in on the image sensor, then interpolating the resultant image file to higher resolution. I recommend that for maximum image quality you stick to using only the optical zoom. The newest digital cameras on the market have vastly improved digital zoom algorithms than were available just a few years ago. These improvements make the digital zoom much more useful, but it’s still a compromise.

Take Advantage of Scene Modes

Many digital cameras offer pre-programmed “scene” modes that make getting the perfect exposure easier. Landscape, portrait and night shot are a few of the most common modes, although some cameras offer many more.  Set your camera to the appropriate mode for the circumstances and it will automatically select the aperture, shutter speed, flash and other exposure choices for the best results possible. These modes are a terrific tool when you want to make the most of a scene without being bogged down with manual settings.

Battery Power

Batteries are a key issue for digital cameras. One of the worst experiences for a photographer is to be photographing and have the camera die with no chance of recovery. A good policy is to own three batteries (or sets) for your camera and a charger separate from your camera. This way, you can have a fully charged battery in your camera, a fully charged battery in your bag and the third battery on your charger. If you photograph during the day and use up most of the two batteries, you put the one from the charger into your camera and put a battery on the charger overnight. Then you have two fully charged batteries with you the next day and you put the last battery on the charger to charge up while you’re photographing.

Use a Tripod

The best way to become a better photographer is to use a tripod. I’ve said that to any number of people over the years and I still stand by it. Using a tripod does a couple of things. First, it makes your camera steady and stable so you take razor-sharp pictures. Second, it forces you to slow down a little bit. Just taking out a tripod and setting it up slows you down and makes you look a bit more critically through the viewfinder as you compose your image. Most of us end up not using tripods because they have a reputation for being big and heavy and cumbersome, but if you have a compact digital camera, you can use one of the ultra-lightweight, compact models that are available and reap the benefits. There are plenty of instances when using a tripod simply isn’t possible, but if you get in the habit of using one as often as you can, you’ll find that all of your pictures will improve.

 
Slightly Overexpose a Subject to Reduce Blemishes

If your portrait subject suffers from skin blemishes or wrinkles, you don’t have to wait until you get the image in Photoshop to make his or her skin look better. Slight overexposure of your subject can reduce those unflattering details. Overexposure often results in a lack of detail because the camera is recording an excess item_price_1 of light off of your subject. In this case, this is exactly what you want.  By overexposing by two-thirds of an ƒ-stop or more, the subject becomes brighter and the contrast is significantly reduced as are the blemishes. Different skin colors as well as lighting conditions will determine what item_price_1 of overexposure is necessary, but by using a digital camera’s LCD display, you quickly can determine whether you’re increasing the exposure by too much. For the best results, bracket your exposure so that you have some comparison to choose from when editing the portrait.

Use an Off-Camera Flash

Using a flash off-camera allows you to shape the light around the subject. An on-camera flash often results in a flat look to an image. While it’s quite effective in eliminating harsh shadows that may appear beneath the eyes and nose, there’s a noticeable drop in contrast and texture. An off-camera flash allows you to create a sense of depth. A flash held off to the left results in the light “wrapping” around the subject. If your camera has a hot-shoe or flash sync port, you can tether the flash to the camera using a sync cord. A TTL-sync cord maintains most of the camera/flash controls, including through-the-lens flash metering. If you’re using a standard sync cable, exposure will have to be determined manually or by using the flash’s auto metering mode. You also can use an auxiliary slave flash. Make sure the slave flash is designed for digital cameras. Digital cameras often use a pre-flash to calculate the correct flash exposure, which may lead to the slave firing prematurely. A slave designed to work with digital cameras will provide accurate sync.

Mega Pixel Madness

Mega pixel escalation is the name of the marketing game. How many mega pixels do you really need? It all depends. Mega pixels aren’t an arbitrary indication of quality—they mainly tell you how big a photo can be from the image file. If you make a 4x6-inch print, 2, 3 or more mega pixels largely will give the same image if other things like the lens and internal processing chips are the same. A 2-megapixel camera will give excellent 4x6- and 5x7-inch prints. At 3 mega pixels, you gain size so that superb 8x10- and 11x14-inch prints can be made; 4 mega pixels give you larger prints yet, as well as the ability to crop into this larger file to still make excellent prints. You can crop a 4-megapixel file considerably to make a 4x6-inch print and still have it look great.

Selective Focus Effects

Small digital cameras have short focal-length lenses. They have an inherent tendency to give a greater apparent depth of field, so selective focus effects (where the subject is sharp and everything else is soft) are harder to do. To get this effect, there are two approaches. First, shoot as much as you can at telephoto, zoomed-in focal lengths and back up to get your subject in the frame. Telephoto settings have less depth of field. Second, use a neutral density (ND) filter so you can shoot at the widest lens opening possible (the smaller numbers such as ƒ/2.8 or ƒ/4) with your camera. Wide lens openings give less depth of field.

Try Unusual Angles

If we look at our images, we may see that a great number of them are shot with the camera at eye level. A whole new world can be opened to us when we pull the camera away from our face and try different compositions and angles.  A great way to experiment is to focus on a single subject and try every angle and position you can think of. Position the camera at various heights above and below your subject. Tilt the camera slightly to the left or right. Start with a wide shot and slowly move closer until you’re filling the frame with some details of your subject. You’ll soon discover that there’s more than one way to take a picture of any subject. As you review your photographs, you’ll find that angles and camera positions you normally wouldn’t try add an interesting and dynamic quality, even to a static subject.

Sharpen Your Files

Due to the way in which digital cameras process captured images, photos taken with a digital camera benefit from sharpening. You want to increase the contrast of edges in your image. For best results, use the Unsharp Mask filter.  In the Unsharp Mask filter dialog box, set the item_price_1 of sharpening to a high percentage, starting between 100% and 200%. Next, set the radius to a low number, around 1 pixel. Finally, adjust the threshold setting to 0. Have the Preview option selected and view the image at 100% so you can see how the adjustments affect your photo. If noise begins to appear in the continuous-tone areas of the image, reduce the radius or increase the threshold in small increments until the noise goes away.  If you don’t have an Unsharp Mask filter in your software, use whatever sharpening filter is available and apply a light to moderate item_price_1 of sharpening. If the image starts to look funny, you’ve sharpened too much.

Turn on the Flash During the Day for Fill

When you see a professional photographer working, you’ll notice he or she uses a lot of flash. It’s an easy and highly effective way to dramatically improve your pictures. Flash helps to soften or completely eliminate harsh shadows and adds emphasis to the main subject in your shot. This is especially useful when you’re taking pictures of people.

Continuous Shooting Mode for Portraits or Close-Ups

A camera’s continuous shooting mode was designed to help capture fast-moving action. Yet, it’s a great tool for shooting portraits or close-ups because it can help to ensure a sharp picture. Anytime you depress the shutter release button, slight movement occurs, which can have an impact on the image. This is especially a risk when working with a very shallow depth of field or a relatively slow shutter speed. By using the continuous shooting mode, the camera takes several almost identical pictures in quick succession. The vibration may impact the first shot, but the subsequent images are noticeably sharper. The trick is to maintain pressure on the shutter release button while you’re taking the pictures. Although a tripod is always preferable, this camera feature increases the chances of having a tack-sharp image.

Long Exposure Effects

Long exposures can give moving subjects a beautiful, soft and flowing look, from water to cars on the freeway. However, this can be a problem with small digital cameras with lenses that only stop down to ƒ/8 or so. You never get a slow enough shutter speed to really see the movement effect. Try using a neutral density (ND) filter. You’ll probably want at least 8x strength; for a shaded waterfall and an ISO 100 setting, this typically will give about 1/8 sec. at ƒ/8. This starts to show movement. Use two filters for even slower exposures. Singh-Ray has a new variable ND filter called the Vari-X, which allows you to adjust its strength.

Apply Unsharp Mask to a Separate Layer

Every digital image requires a degree of sharpening, whether it’s produced in a digital camera or scanned using a film scanner. As a result of the image being digitized, a slight loss in sharpness occurs. The Unsharp Mask tool found in most image-editing applications is one of the best ways to achieve this. While other tools sharpen an image globally at a fixed item_price_1, an Unsharp Mask provides individual settings that you can adjust to customize the results.  By creating a separate layer for the application of the Unsharp Mask, you provide another way of adjustment beyond the tool’s settings. You can choose settings for a high degree of sharpening, but then reduce its effect by slowly reducing the opacity of the layer from 100 percent. You can quickly see the before and after effects of the unsharp layer by enabling and disabling the layer in the Layers palette. You even can apply different degrees of sharpening to specific parts of the image by using a Selection tool. In a portrait, for example, you can select the eyes and lips for sharpening and create a layer. Another layer can be created for a slightly lower item_price_1 of sharpening of the hair and clothes.

Preset Exposure and Focus to Reduce Shutter Lag

One of the chief disappointments for many photographers when they first use a digital camera is the lag time between the moment when the shutter release is depressed and the instant when the image is captured.  This lag time is the result of the camera going through a number of processes, including the charge-up time of the camera’s recording sensor, finding focus and exposure metering. There’s nothing we can do about the first of these—it’s something that undoubtedly will be worked out as the technology progresses. However, we can reduce shutter lag by presetting our focus and exposure.  First, compose your image; then depress the shutter release button halfway and hold. This will cause your camera to set the exposure and focus based on your camera’s metering and focus mode. Some cameras offer a separate button to lock exposure or focus; you can use these options if available. With focus and exposure locked, wait for the decisive moment and then fully depress the shutter release. You’ll find that this approach can cut shutter lag time significantly.

Choose a Self-Assignment

Every photographer periodically falls into a creative funk. Rather than shelving the camera, it’s the perfect time to challenge yourself by creating a self-assignment. By choosing a simple photographic task, you not only engage in an exercise that will sharpen your photographic skills, but you’ll bring back the fun of shooting, too.  Choose a single color or shape or subject and shoot nothing else for the day. You’ll become more aware of your surroundings as you search for things that fit your limited subject matter. It’s important to keep your equipment simple: a single camera and lens. A compact digital camera is even better as your mind will focus on what’s in the viewfinder rather than camera settings. If you prefer your SLR with a zoom lens, try to limit the lens to a single focal-length setting. If you prefer wide-angle, shoot instead at the telephoto position.  By doing something different, you’ll discover something new, and you’ll reintroduce yourself to the excitement you experienced when you first picked up the camera.

True Infrared

Black-and-white infrared has long given a wonderful, almost exotic look to scenes. Skies turn dramatically black, clouds pop out in white, trees and other vegetation turn a pale gray or white, and haze disappears. Film was so tricky to handle that infrared was hard to do. Digital camera sensors actually are sensitive to infrared light. Most high-end cameras, though, have a cut-off filter built in that limits infrared light to the sensor.  But on low-priced cameras, there’s usually none, so the camera can actually be used for true infrared photography. Just buy an infrared filter (several filter manufacturers make them) and hold it in front of the lens. The filter is black, but the camera usually will compensate. Exposures tend to be long, so use a tripod or other support. Set the camera on black-and-white, if you can (otherwise, you have to convert in the computer). You may need to do some lightening in the computer, but the end result is great.

Place Your Subject Where the Light is the Best

Photography is dependent on light, but a great image is dependent on a photographer’s awareness of light. If you take a photo of a brightly painted green door in the shade, the image is significantly different than if you shoot that same door being illuminated by a setting sun. The difference in lighting creates two distinctly different images, one of which likely will be more dramatic and satisfying.  Yet, late afternoon isn’t the only time to create great images. Take the time to see how light is falling around you. Maybe a shaft of light is passing between two buildings and shining on a busy sidewalk. Maybe sunlight passing through the leaves of the trees is creating a fascinating pattern on the ground. Once you have the light that you find interesting, you may want to move your subject into that light. By making your search for great light your priority, you’ll increase your chances of creating a dramatic and stunning image.

Use White Balance Settings to “Filter” Images

Filters have been a creative control for photographers for as long as there has been film. Digital cameras allow the use of conventional filters just as their film counterparts always have, but digital cameras also have a built-in tool that can be used the same way, and that’s white balance. By setting white balance manually, you can give a scene a “warm” or “cool” look. Try using the cloudy day setting to “warm” your shot and the sunset selection to “cool” it. (Be sure to consult your camera’s manual, as different manufacturers use different terms for the white-balance controls.)

Bracket Your Exposures

If you’re not familiar with the term, bracketing refers to taking multiple exposures around the one the camera’s internal meter suggests. In-camera light meters do an excellent job, but they can’t “think.” Occasionally, the in-camera meter will generate an exposure that ignores an element in the frame that’s of special importance to you. By bracketing, you ensure that the critical subjects are properly exposed. In the film camera world, this was an expensive proposition, but with a digital camera, it’s easy to bracket and discard the images that aren’t right at no cost.

Frame Your Prints To Preserve Their Life

Inkjet prints are infamous for fading quickly. While ink and paper manufacturers continue to make great strides in improving the life expectancy of inkjet prints, it’s a good idea to protect your favorite images from the elements.  Sunlight is one of the chief enemies of print longevity. Gasses in the environment also can be very detrimental to your prints. The best way to protect them is to mount and frame them under glass. Choose acid-free matte papers and mount your prints with “archival” tape. UV-reflective glass also is preferable. Once framed, hang your prints away from direct sources of light. Protect your prints, and they will last much longer than if left unprotected.  Of course, one of the great benefits of digital photography is that you can always make another print easily in the comfort of home if a favorite image begins to fade or color-shift.

Elegant Border

One way to make an elegant-looking print is to add a thin black line as a border, a classic way of presenting images. There are several ways to do this. The easiest is to make a selection of the entire image (Select/Select All, or keyboard commands, Ctrl or Cmd A), then change the selection to a border selection. (In Adobe products, this is in the Select Menu under Modify; in Ulead Photo-Impact, this is in the Select Menu under Border). In Jasc Paint Shop Pro, you can go directly to borders under Image/Borders. The size of the border to use depends on the size of your photo and your taste. Try something in the 4-pixel size to start. Then fill with black, deselect and you’re done. For more flexibility, you can put this border on a separate layer.

Carry a Towel

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by the late Douglas Adams, a towel was described as the single most useful item one could carry. While that may be a bit of hyperbole, there’s no question that a towel has uses that extend far beyond its mundane appearance. I recommend that a white towel be a permanent part of your camera gear. You can use a towel for wiping down wet or dirty cameras, you can sit on it when the ground is dirty, and a white towel can be used to easily set white balance in tricky situations or when you want to create a special effect.

Get Bigger Prints with Less Resolution

You probably know that the generally recommended image resolution for making prints is 300 dpi. Setting your images to this resolution will always deliver high-quality prints.  What you may not know is that you often can get away with less resolution, thereby allowing you to print your images larger. Some digital images, especially those from digital cameras (as opposed to scanned images), can make excellent prints at resolutions as low as 200 dpi, allowing you to increase your print size by a fair item_price_1. For example, an image I recently captured with a 4-megapixel camera delivered a 6x8-inch image set at 300 dpi, but jumped up to an 8x10-inch print at 240 dpi and a 9x12-inch print at 200 dpi. Try setting your image resolution to 240 or even 200 dpi and make a test print; print the same image with the resolution set to 300 dpi and compare. You may be pleasantly surprised to notice very little, if any, difference in image quality between them.

Bracket Your Compositions

You might already bracket your exposures. We also recommend that you try bracketing your compositions. By this, we mean experiment with minor or even dramatic changes in the way you frame a given subject. As photographers, when we’re drawn to a subject, we usually have an initial impulse that guides us to our composition. Many times, this impulse leads to a fine image, but there are countless other images that could result from the same photo opportunity. Bracketing your compositions is a way to move beyond your first view of a subject and explore other ways of presenting it. By trying several compositions, you have a good chance of finding an even better photograph than the one you originally intended. You also get the opportunity to improve your photo skills by challenging the almost automatic response that we develop as photographers over time. It’s easy to get into a compositional rut, and this is a creative way to break out. Think of it as “sketching” a subject from as many angles as possible. Thanks to digital cameras, you don’t have to worry about wasting film with such an exercise. Shoot as many images as you like until you feel you’ve exhausted the possibilities. You can always delete the shots that don’t work.

Archive Images Immediately, Burn them to CD or DVD

Workflow is important when you use a digital camera. If you don’t develop good habits, you can easily lose images forever. I like to download my images from the memory card to a folder on my computer desktop. Then I do a quick batch rename (with an image-management program like ACDSee) on all of the images to get rid of the cryptic name from the camera. Typically, I don’t even try to edit the pictures at this point. Once they’re renamed, I immediately burn all of the images to a CD or DVD. That becomes my fail-safe backup copy of the images. Only after I confirm that the images are safely saved on the CD or DVD will I erase the memory card. I adapted this workflow after losing a number of images to a computer crash—never again!

Exposure Compensation

Most consumer grade digital cameras will not allow to set exposure time.  However, you may have an exposure compensation feature, which allows you to over or underexpose your photos.  This could be handy for taking some pictures under low lighting, or bright lighting conditions.

Know Your Camera's Limits 

Read the manual.  Become familiar with all aspects of your digital camera's features.  Experiment. This will eliminate fumbling to figure out a particular feature, perhaps missing the perfect shot!

Shoot at High Quality

You can squeeze more photographs onto a memory card by adjusting the image quality. Lower-quality settings apply higher item_price_1s of JPEG compression, which, loosely defined, reassembles an image's pixels into a grid of square blocks. This reassembly saves space, but it makes the image look less natural as well. Most cameras let you select from three compression settings, usually defined using comparative terms on their settings' menus. For example, Kodak uses the terms Best, Better, and Good, and Fuji uses the terms Fine, Normal, and Basic. Sometimes they vary on this theme a little. Epson, for example, uses a series of stars. Whenever possible, stick with the highest-quality setting. If you desperately need to squeeze more images onto a nearly full card, switch to the second-highest setting. But don't go any lower than that, if you do, your pictures will suffer.
 

Buy as Much as You Can Afford 

This isn't saying that you have to run out and spend $500 or $1000 on a camera.  But if you buy a basic one, it may not provide you with all of the features that you require!  Having said this, there is nothing wrong with purchasing a basic digital camera, and upgrading as your needs grow.

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