Digital Photography For Beginners

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Digital Photography For Beginners

At its simplest, digital photography is just "point and shoot". Modern digital cameras have been designed to adjust for the most common mistakes we make. Usually there's a pre-flash to cut down on red eye when you're taking flash photos of people.

Slightly more expensive cameras will compensate for your hands shaking.

But there comes a stage when you want to take your digital photography to the next level. Whether it's because you want better photos display on your family album on the web or to show off your eBay auctions better and make more sales.

One major advantage of digital photography is that you can see your results instantly. This is a really, really big advantage over cameras that use film, where the first you knew about your photos not coming out properly was when the photo lab got back to you.

Another advantage is that there's no film cost and, unless you print out your photos, no printing cost either.

So don't be afraid to experiment.

If you've ever seen a professional photographer in action, you'll know that they take hundreds of photos. This increases the chances of some of the photos they take looking good and is probably the best kept secret of photography. It's the law of averages at work - the more pictures you take, the better the chance you have of taking a good shot.

Buy a decent size memory card for your camera so that you're not constantly asking yourself whether you've got room to take another photo.

Keep a backup battery as well - batteries have a habit of running down at the most inconvenient times and I've found that rechargeable batteries give almost no warning either.

Then get hold of a comprehensive digital camera tutorial and follow through the examples it gives.

Finally, follow some of the tips below for enhancing your photos once you've taken them - something that you'd need to be a skilled lab technician with 35mm photography can be done in the click of a mouse nowadays.

Learning Digital Photography 

There are various ways of learning digital photography:
  • You can take a local class. Some people find this is the best way to learn as they can ask questions and check they are "doing it right".

  • You can get hold of an up to date digital photography book. These are often an excellent way to learn as you can pick up tips and tricks that would take you forever to find out just by experimenting on your own.

  • Go out and take photos! Unless you've got an excellent memory, it will probably pay you to keep some kind of journal so that you know how you got a particular shot to come out so well.


Remember that even if your photos aren't 100% perfect when you take them, modern software can compensate for many of the common mistakes that almost everyone makes.

What Do You Want To Do With Your Digital Photography? 

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Learn How To Take Good Digital Pictures 

The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography (Amphoto Guide Series)

Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $24.95

Expertly teaches the principles of composition, light, depth of field, exposure, and closeup and wildlife work, never assuming one is entirely conversant with the intricacies of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO numbers. This is one of the best books on nature photography and makes a fine general manual; highly recommended.

How To Improve Your Digital Photos 

Aside from taking plenty of pictures, you can also use software to improve and enhance your photos.

Chances are that your digital camera came with a basic photo manipulation program when you bought it. The programs that come with cameras vary in quality. Sometimes they are cut down versions of software like Photoshop, other times it looks like they were put together by some high school dropout in a few bored minutes.

The two main pieces of software that are used are Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. They are both around the same price (although Photoshop also has a professional version at a much higher price) and which one you choose will depend on personal preference. I use Paint Shop Pro because when I first started editing photos, Photoshop wasn't affordable.

If I was starting out today, there's no question that I'd choose Photoshop. It's industry standard and has almost worked its way into our language as a term for editing digital photographs.

Whichever program you choose, take time to experiment and learn how it works.

Work on backups of your photos so that you're not worried about ruining the shots you've taken.

The help files for the programs are reasonable but if you find yourself struggling then this Photoshop tutorial is recommended.

Once you're happy with your photos, it's time to get them printed.

Your color printer may be able to produce good quality prints but be careful of the cost. Photos use 100% ink coverage so unless you're careful you'll find yourself going through ink cartridges regularly.

You may find that it's cheaper to use your color printer for drafts and then take a CD of your photos to your local photo shop for them to print them out.

If you want to print lots of digital photos, then it's well worth using one of the postal services like this one that will print your photos for as little as 9 cents each.

The other thing you'll almost certainly want to do is share your photos with other people.

Probably the best known service for this is Flickr. You can join for free and upload your photos for the whole world to see. You can see a selection of other people's photos from Flickr further down this page.

If you want to go even further, look into creating your own album that friends and family can view and even contribute to.

Good Landscape Pictures 

Blackpool North Shore Sunset by Henry Brett

Blackpool North Shor...

PICT1065 by Henry Brett

PICT1065

PICT1066 by Henry Brett

PICT1066

Winter Scene2 by Henry Brett

Winter Scene2

Winter Scene5 by Henry Brett

Winter Scene5

PICT0178 by Henry Brett

PICT0178

PICT1058 by Henry Brett

PICT1058

Winter Scene4 by Henry Brett

Winter Scene4

PICT0175 by Henry Brett

PICT0175

PICT0633 by Henry Brett

PICT0633

More About Digital Cameras and Digital Photography 

Many compact digital still cameras can record sound and moving video as well as still photograph. In the Western market, digital cameras outsell their 35 mm film counterparts.

Digital cameras can do things film cameras cannot, displaying images on a screen immediately after they are recorded, storing thousands of images on a single small memory device, recording video with sound, and deleting images to free storage space.

Digital cameras are incorporated into many devices ranging from PDAs and mobile phones (called camera phones) to vehicles. The Hubble Space Telescope and other astronomical devices are essentially specialised digital cameras.

Share Your Digital Photography Tips and Tricks 

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Thanks for such a great lens on digital photography. 5 * from me.

Jeremiah
Digital Wedding Photography Tips

Posted June 09, 2008

Look who made this lens!

GeoffWhite

GeoffWhite
Digital photography is becoming cheaper by the day. You can even get cell phones which take great pictures at any opportunity.  more

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