Digital Photography Tutorial

A lot of people think that you have to be a professional photographer in order to take pictures that will wow your family and friends. The good news is that if you follow this simple digital photography tutorial, you can be taking fantastic pictures in no time.

There are four main different parts to producing great pictures. The first is, somewhat obviously, your camera. Today's digital cameras are amazing pieces of technology and as long as you stay within a few guidelines, it's hard to go wrong. You want to make sure you have a minimum of 4 megapixels. That is a measurement of how much data is captured in the frame. I'd like to add that megapixels are not everything. These days most cameras that are being released have an acceptable amount of megapixels for general photography and printing images at an average size. A higher megapixel count will allow you to blow up parts of the picture without losing detail. You can read more about this at How To Choose The Right Digital Camera For You.

The second thing you should think about is "composition". This means creating or structuring a pleasing image. We've all seen pictures of people with the tops of their heads chopped off, or an ear missing... You can read about one of the rules of composition at The Rule of Thirds.

One common mistake that people make is the level of zoom they use. I'm sure you've seen picture that looked as if the people were ants and you couldn't really tell what was going on. Even with scenic vistas, make sure you've got something in the foreground to create "balance". Keeping this in mind, you don't always have to have the subject of your picture smack-dab in the middle. Having things slightly "off-balance" makes for a much more interesting composition somtimes but be careful, it's easy to overdo this. Read more at Let's Focus on Focal Points.

Another step in taking fantastic pictures is what I call "general photography". Things like making sure the light isn't coming from behind your subject (you've seen this, they end up looking like a ghost) or the glare from water reflecting into the shot. In fact, lighting is really one of the most important parts of "general photography".

Today's cameras are great, they are really pretty good at automatically adjusting to the ambient light conditions, but there are a few things you can do to help them along. One thing you can do is to use an indirect flash by using a diffuser or deflector. This will help prevent "Devil Eyes" even though most cameras try to do this automatically. The reflected light will also help keep your subject from getting all washed out.

If you've got the time and maybe a bit of help, you can create a "light diffuser" with something as simple as a thin white dish towel. Using nothing more than a few spare coat hangers, some duct-tape and an old broom handle, you can make a really effective "diffuser/reflector" that will make the difference between "okay" shots and "really good" shots. Having a helper hold this makes life a lot easier.

One other part of producing fine photography has nothing to do with your camera. It is your editing software. With the right software and a little bit of skill, you can transform a "so-so" picture into a "wow!". You need to know how to change the contrast, the brightness, intensity of color and hue. For most software suites, this is fairly simple and straightforward. Just make sure to save your changes as you go along and be sure not to overwrite the origional image. Save each successive as something slightly different. This way, even if you don't like the changes you've made, you'll always have the original to go back to.

Two last things to be aware of. The first is that the biggest advantage that having a digital camera offers is that you can take an incredible amount of pictures for no money. So... take them! But don't expect each shot to be a keeper... professionals routinely dispose of 99 out of 100 shots they take. But the one that's left is incredible!

The second thing to keep in mind, Take your time and have fun. Photography is an art form and you wouldn't rush a musician to see how fast he could get through a Motzart quartet, so don't rush yourself either. It's not a speed race.

If you've enjoyed this article, I encourage you to go to my digital photography tutorial site for more tips and help on getting the most out of your photography.