How to Take Better Pictures Indoors - 5 Digital Photography Tips

Digital cameras are getting more intelligent with each new release. This should mean that we can get great photos all the time. But it ain't necessarily so. Just because the camera has intelligence built into it, that does not give us an excuse to not use ours (intelligence, that is). If you want to learn how to take good pictures indoors, you will need to study and practice.

First: Read the camera manual. It is possible to take pictures just by pressing the shutter button. The camera technology will generally produce a photo that is acceptable, quite unlike the days of film when you could get those black prints back from the lab and wonder what it was you were trying to photograph. However, if you read the manual, you will not just get acceptable photos, you will get great photos.

Nikon D3000

Second: Use a tripod. Low light means that the shutter must stay open longer to let in enough light to properly expose the image. The longer the shutter remains open, the more chance there is for movement, resulting in blurry photos. Using a tripod will keep your camera steady for those long exposures. You can even consider using the timer so you can be part of the photo.

How to Take Better Pictures Indoors - 5 Digital Photography Tips

Third: Raise the ISO sensitivity value. A normal ISO value is 100. You can raise that value in order to let in order to increase the shutter speed, thus having less chance of images blurring.

Fourth: Adjust the White Balance. Have you ever noticed that indoor photos do not look as "normal" like outdoor photos? That is because the lighting is different. Most cameras are left on Auto White Balance. Some of them do a better job of getting the color correct, but if you, the photographer, set the white balance, you take the guesswork out of the process. You can set the white balance to tungsten (incandescent) or florescent to get a more pleasing color output.

Fifth: Set the Scene Mode. Many newer digital cameras have numerous scene modes. If you are in a unique lighting situation, there may be a scene mode for it. For instance, the Panasonic ZS3 has scene mode settings for "party" and "candle light" among others. Using these will get much more agreeable color output.

I don't know if you realized it as you read, but numbers 3, 4, and 5 will require you to Read the Manual (the First tip)!

How to Take Better Pictures Indoors - 5 Digital Photography Tips

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How to Take Outstanding Pictures

Since way back when I first began to study photography, I have been getting asked how I take such good photographs. There are many different styles and types of photography, but I usually end up giving the same key photography tips for most of them.

Professionals Use SLR Cameras

Nikon D3000

I cannot stress enough, if you want to take quality pictures, learn how to use a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. You would not believe how many self proclaimed amateur photographers have not started to learn how to use an SLR (some still use those point and click cameras).

How to Take Outstanding Pictures

I know that with the advances in technology, digital cameras and memory are getting better and better every day, but there is just not enough versatility with a point and click camera. They are great for general day to day snapshots, but they will never match up to the versatility and professional results obtained with an SLR camera.

With that said, the increase in versatility equates to more functions in the camera. So, once you have a good SLR (preferably digital), learn these functions from the owners manual. Learn how to control the shutter speed, aperture settings, ISO (film) settings, and white balance.

Note: In older SLR cameras (not digital) ISO is a function of the film and refers to the film's speed. Only digital SLRs offer ISO function settings.

Clear the Viewfinder

Too many photographers shoot much wider then they really want and have to use software to crop the shot down to the scene they want. This just causes more work later, and there is no guarantee that all of the distractions can be cropped out.

Unlike a point and click camera, the viewfinder of an SLR uses a prism and mirrors that allow you to look directly through the lens. This is why, with an SLR, âwhat you see is what you get.â By taking everything in the viewfinder into account, you may notice distractions that you otherwise would not have.

Don't you hate it when you think you have captured a really good scene just to find out later that there was something distracting in the background?

Composition

One of the most often used techniques of composition is the Rule of Thirds. Divide the viewfinder into nine equally sized boxes like on a tic tac toe game board. Where the dividing lines meet is where interesting points in the scene should be placed. Relativey straight lines (vertical and horizontal), such as a long tree trunk or the ocean's horizon, needs to be placed on a horizontal or vertical dividing line.

This technique causes stress in the scene, and this stress causes interest.

Keep in mind that the more a shot is prepared before taken, the less likely Photoshop will be necessary.

Note: Before each major session change, reset the white balance of your camera. Lighting conditions may change throughout the day (from session to session). Correcting white balance between sessions will cut down on necessary Photoshop corrections. The answer to how to take good pictures does not involve correcting them later.

Portraits

Even though the techniques we just talked about work with just about any style, there are some techniques that are commonly used with particular styles. With portraits, the subject is not the entire scene, just part of it, so it is important for the subject to stand out.

Shooting the subject in a narrow depth of field is one of the easiest ways to make sure that he or she stands out. The depth of field is the length of the distance in front of the camera where things in the scene appear equally in focus. This is controlled by the size of the aperture opening. The lower the setting, the bigger the opening in the aperture and the more narrow the depth of field.

Note: This allows more light through the lens of your camera so the settings of the film (ISO) and shutter must be changed to compensate.

Taking a portrait of a subject in a narrow depth of field while keeping the foreground and background out of the depth of field makes the subject appear in focus while keeping the rest of the scenery a bit out of focus. This results in the subject really standing out and even seeming to pop out of the picture.

Landscapes

Another common style requiring specific photography techniques is landscape photography. Unlike portraits, with landscape photography the entire scene is the subject; it is often desirable to keep the entire scene equally in focus and to shoot at a wider perspective to encompass as much of the scenery as possible.

In order to obtain this, an infinite depth of field is needed along with a lens that allows a perspective broader than the human eye. This is why wide angle lenses are commonly used in landscape photography. These lenses allow a large perspective of a scene to be captured.

A high aperture setting must be used in order to obtain an infinite depth of field. This causes the opening in the aperture to be very small. To compensate for this the shutter must be left open longer. With that understood, it is absolutely necessary to use a tripod or other camera stabilizing apparatus with landscape photography so the camera will not move while the shutter is open.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and that it has been useful. If it has helped in any way, the next time someone asks how you take such good pictures, feel free to send them this article.

How to Take Outstanding Pictures

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How to Take Award-Winning Pictures - A Complete Guide

Nothing is as easy as writing about something and make it sound easy. Take this for example "Shoot the model with some nice light and make her pose with a natural smile - and you have a winner". Could be right next to the word "Easy" in the dictionary. If only life was a piece of written advice. Well, fear not - we will get down to business and get cranking with some real world tips and tricks of how to get great pictures.

First up we need to make sure we have what it takes:
Camera Pen and paper (or laptop for the ones who have fear of papers) A friend or no fear of talking to one self Be ready to plan ahead - the cost is in not knowing what you need Photoshop or equivalent application for editing our masterpiece Start with the camera - check if the battery is 100% loaded with juice. If not, put it in the socket that connects to a wall and let that baby recharge while we sit down with that paper and pen. Write down cool concepts - don't let real life get you down just yet - nothing is impossible at this stage. Right now you are Annie Leibovitz and the world is your oyster. Your imagination is your limit. Damn I'm starting to sound like that cheap "life-coach" tape stuck in the tape deck in the garage. But truly only the imagination is the limit here. Let it out. If you need inspiration think about contrasting subject - a giant in a class room or a colorful leaf in a black and white photo. Don't fall for the temptation to surf the web. The web is your enemy right now - can you spell unoriginal? Don't feel bad if you can't I'm just trying to make a point. There are gazillions of similar images on the web and you are not in the business of adding to the list and become a gazillion and one. Let the concepts grow on you, take one paper and use it to draw some figures, see potential angles for the image. Try another - is that even better? Cool go with that. Call a friend - a good friend that is ready to help out for no pay. Tell him/her your idea. Do you get the response you want? If not invite the friend over to help out with ideas.Good, now you might have (in your minds eye) a football-team of rhinos standing in a pretty line to buy lemonade, high noon, from a bossy little girl with freckles and a Leia hair due.

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(Amazing how everyone thinks of that exact image huh?)  You think I'm going to shoot you down with your crazy concept? I'm not. Let's use this example to see how it could be executed.

How to Take Award-Winning Pictures - A Complete Guide

For this image I would use:
1 camera with a wide lens 1 masquerade mask of a rhino head (a few dollars at tops if you give them the right to use the image one-time-only in the store) 1 American football dress A Suburb in the summertime A girl with long hair (camera facing her back, over her shoulder where we see the lemonade table and the queue) A table with a bowl of lemons and a pitcher. A tripod Photoshop Put a guy (that friend you always help move but who never got around to help you move is prime for this job) in the mask and the football gear. Get the table and lemonade ready where it should be. Walk around holding up the camera or thumb and index-finger in a rectangle until you find the perfect angle. Put the camera there on the tripod. Make that sucker stand against wind and hurricanes with a big rock or something. Direct your assistant (that is the first friend you called - you might need to call him/her "creative director" but that's cool) to put things where you want them. Now you need to carefully put the camera in Manual mode and find a exposure that works in the whole image. If the sky is in the frame, you might take just one "OK" exposed frame of that and let the sky be over-exposed in the rest. But keep that "sky"frame! Take a picture of the "front" rhino where he gently puts a coin in the girls hand and she is holding his glass of delicious lemonade, with her other hand, teasingly far away until he pays up. Make sure your happy with that frame as it is the most important one. After that, direct your rhino friend to step one step back and hold a new pose, then one step back, and so on until you have a long cue of very hot (as in warm) rhinos standing in queue. Give the guy in the suit a pizza, thank the girl, pack up your table and go back to wherever you keep your computer. Open your RAW-files in Adobe Camera Raw (or your choice of RAW-processing application) and make the same "development" on all the pictures.

Then open them all as layers in the same Photoshop file. Put the First image (with the rhino-player giving coin) at the bottom, take the second in line and put it in 50 opacity - and start masking around the bottom layer. When the mask is top-notch put layer in 100% opacity again. Keep doing this until you have your award winning picture. Mask in the potential sky-frame. Done. total cost? Not more than 70 bucks. And you have an award-winning image. The real cost would have been 25 guys in Rhino/football gear. With Photoshop we eradicate that need but get exactly the image we want. There is no cost to developing photos - all you need is your brain, your hands, and some time to practice the pitch in the mirror before entering the costume store.

How to Take Award-Winning Pictures - A Complete Guide

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How to Take Perfect People Pictures in Digital Photography

Most often people that enjoy taking pictures love to take them of other people. These are the ones you see running around at the parties snapping pictures of every guest there and every funny event that is happening. Then quite often, when they get them downloaded they are disappointed with the quality of them.

There are techniques that can be utilized to create a far better quality photo when the subjects are human.

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All too often, the amateur photographer works very hard at centering the person exactly in the middle of the frame. Probably the reason for this is simply that it has always been the norm to do this. It does not have to be this way and in fact, the pictures become far more interesting when they are off center. Before you take your picture, take a few minutes to think about what would make a more interesting composition. For example, a profile of a person picking a leaf off a tree would be far more interesting then the person standing their posed for the shot.

How to Take Perfect People Pictures in Digital Photography

A photograph taken naturally is much more effective than one that is staged. You can tell a staged picture quite often just by the smile on the subjects face. Prove this to yourself. Take a staged picture of an individual then later catch them off guard and take another one. You will see the difference just in the facial expressions and tones as well. Look for opportunities to take pictures when people are in their natural element. At the same time, though do not become invasive where they are dubious every time you are around that you are going to be snapping pictures of them. This can get annoying.

Most often, when you see amateur photographers holding their cameras to take the picture it is always in the conventional manner, which is horizontal. It is probably because once again it is a normal habit. Try taking some pictures on the vertical you will get some interesting shots and it will not take long before you become comfortable with this.

An important aspect of taking pictures is that you enjoy it and your subjects do as well. It is a hobby that you can get many hours of enjoyment from. If you put some time into your photography work, you will soon find friends asking you to take pictures of their special occasions. This in itself is quite a compliment to your photography endeavors. Aside from this, you will find that there is a never-ending challenge to photographing people.

For the most part people enjoy having their picture taken and will often get caught up in the moment if you allow them to be natural. All of a sudden they seem to start naturally posing but in a relaxed way. They almost become amateur models in a fun way. The important thing to remember is photography is meant to be fun, and to capture some memories of a lifetime.

How to Take Perfect People Pictures in Digital Photography

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Better Pictures With Your Digital Camera

Photography is about knowing your camera and knowing how to look for the angel, light get the bet framing, so your picture looks as good as any professional shot.

Do you ever wonder how the best photographers' in the word get there fantastic picture?  We could always say that professional photographers have the best cameras that a very expensive and much too complex for the everyday person to operate.  But the truth is, we now have a verity of digital cameras that are able to take hi quality photos at a very affordable price.
 
Tips on Purchasing a Digital Camera
 
Firstly consider what you will be using the camera for. And what features you really need the camera to have. A person that will use the camera for taking quick holiday snaps may want a camera that is fully automatic and dose most of the background work for the owner, like auto focus, whit balancing and aperture settings. But for the more astute photographer who wants to have much more control over the image a more advanced camera with options for manual overrides may be a better option.

Nikon D3000

So when purchasing a camera consider the following:

Better Pictures With Your Digital Camera

What will I use it for?

How much do I want to spend?

What features do I need?
 
What quality do I need? (mega pixels)

What brand do I want, and why is it better than others? (compare everything)

What is the backup service like? 

When you buy a digital camera, you have to take care of and keep it in its best condition. Make an effort to regularly clean your lens, because if this gets dirty parts of your pictures will be blurry, Do not use anything but proper lends cleaning solution, with a lens cleaning cloth, anything else may damage your camera lens and cause blurred pictures.
 
Understand how your camera focuses will help you get better pictures. Most digital cameras have an autofocus when you press the button halfway down, the picture will focus, Then, when you press the button down fully, you take the picture. If you want the subject of your photograph not to be in the centre but still focused, first centre them in the picture and focus the frame by pressing down halfway. Without removing your finger, reframe the picture with your subject in the right position, and take the picture. Your subject will still be focused.
 
A great technique for taking eye-catching pictures is the rule of thirds. This creates a a pleasing balance between the different objects in a photograph. To use this rule, divide your screen into six different parts: three horizontal sections, and three vertical. Then place the subject of the picture at near one of these focal lines. This will give your photo better balance making it more pleasant to look at.

Better Pictures With Your Digital Camera

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How to Take Long Exposure Scenic Waterfall Pictures

Things you will need

* Digital Camera with M for manual settings

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* Camera Tripod

How to Take Long Exposure Scenic Waterfall Pictures

* ND Lens filter or Circular polarizing filter

* Beautiful waterfall

Find the angle and point of view that will look best in your picture. Use the camera viewfinder or LCD screen to get the perspective that will look best with your picture. If possible it is best to find a waterfall and perspective where the light is dim and where the waterfall is not reflecting bright sunlight.

Position your camera tripod on a solid and sturdy surface so that it will not fall or move; then mount your camera on the tripod positioning the camera so that you can obtain the original perspective you chose in the above step.

Place your ND - neutral density filter or circular polarizing filter on the front of the lens of your camera. If you have an SLR camera the filter will screw onto the front and if you have a point and shoot camera it may require fitting the adapter to the camera.

This will slow the light down on a bright day so that you can take a long exposure without over exposing the water.

Turn your camera to the "M" setting so that you have manual control. You may also use the "TV" time value setting so that the camera will automatically choose the "AV" aperture value.

If you chose the "M" setting you will now need to adjust the "TV" time value and "AV" aperture value in order to get the right exposure. This is accomplished by changing the settings while watching the exposure indicator which will have a positive and negative value.

You need the exposure to be in the middle or "0" zero. +1, +2 or +3 will over expose the image and your picture will be too bright. -1, -2 or -3 will under expose the picture and it will be too dim.

The TV setting which is indicated in seconds should be at least 1" one second or more. The longer the time it is exposed the smoother the fluid look of the water. A TV setting of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 - 500 etc is a measurement in 100ths of a second. A setting this fast will not give the preferred effect. Ideally you should have a TV setting of 10" or up to 30" if the lighting permits.

The AV setting is the aperture and this is how much light is let in the set time as opposed to the TV which controls how long the light is let through.

The AV setting should be as high as possible on a bright day, typically this will go as high as F22. But on a dimly lit evening you may need to open it up some (F11 - F18) to let more volume of light to come through.

You should notice that as you adjust the aperture this also affects the exposure value -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 so you will need to adjust your time value to keep it as close to zero as possible.

You may want to experiment once you get the hang of it and you may tend to underexpose you images to get a little more detail.

You will find that the circular polarizing filter and/ or Neutral density filter are crucial to slowing the light down so that you can have a longer exposure.

You may even choose to stack the ND filter and CP filter to achieve a very long exposure even in the bright day light. Also note that turning the CP filter will either allow more light or less light depending on where you stop turning it. It is best to slow the light down as much as possible.

If you choose the "TV" setting instead of the "M" setting you will simply need to adjust the setting for the longest amount of time possible without over exposing the picture.

Remember to keep the exposure setting around or slightly below zero.

-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3

Again, you will find that stacking the CP and ND filters will slow the light down so that you can adjust for a longer exposure.

If your camera has an IS (image stabilization) mode turn it off. This will allow for a sharper image.

Unless you have a remote control now you will need to set the timer.

Some cameras have 2 second timers and some have 10 second timers. Depending on how quickly you can move your hand and not touch the camera you may choose to use the 2 second timer if you need more time to not touch or shake the camera then opt for the 10 second setting.

Click the shutter button and wait....

If you are taking a 10, 15 or even 30 second exposure you will need to wait for it to expose the image.

If you move or shake the camera at all it will blur everything and not just the water.

Take note that the water is the only thing that is moving through this long exposure and that is what causes the silky motion effect.

This in contrast with the stationary landscape gives the impression of motion.

Enjoy your new photography technique and start shooting like a pro. Experiment with stacking filters and different exposures for different details and effects.

You are sure to find that this is a very artistic and rewarding photography technique.

How to Take Long Exposure Scenic Waterfall Pictures

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