Amateur Photography

It makes me grimace every time I see the qualifier for an internet business or software sales patter that goes.... "even a five year old can do this"! Children growing up today take to computer technology so easily, unlike some of us old codgers!
I've had to get my grandchildren to show me how to use my video recorder and mobile phone!! I'm a real technophobe, but I'm determined to give this my best shot and learn as I go. RSS Feeds and bookmarks are still a bit of a mystery to me!
I am truly grateful to Bob (The Teacher) Jenkins for SquidooSecrets.

Next step is get on to the subject of better photography, if I can pass on some of the tips I have learnt as an amateur picture snapper.

Digital cameras may look complicated but fundamentally you take photos in a similar way to a
conventional film camera. The difference is that the image is captured electronically on a sensor and stored in the camera's internal memory, or on a removable memory card.
Nearly all digital cameras let you view the picture you're about to take, or have just taken, on a built-in colour LCD screen. If you don't like the image, you can delete it.

If you're after maximum image quality in order to print your photos, you can change your camera settings from standard Jpeg to record Tiff or Raw files (depending on your camera). But these formats can create huge file sizes so memory card space is eaten up all too fast. Jpeg files are good enough for most people nearly all the time.

Before you take a photo,make sure that the image quality you want is selected. Think about whether you want to print your photos or just look at them on a computer. Higher quality may be necessary if you want to use image-editing software before printing your pictures. But high image quality means bigger file sizes, so you won't be able to fit as many photos on your memory card,although you can buy more memory (for more about Digital Camera Memory Cards

When taking a photograph, there are really only three controls that matter on a camera: focus, shutter speed and aperture. Focus is reasonably obvious; you can quickly spot when a picture is out of focus. Likewise shutter speed is easy to understand since it is measured in fractions of a second. However aperture is a mystery to most people, because it is usually explained using technical jargon and its effects are not immediately obvious.

When you learn how to use aperture settings you can create better photographs. You will find that there are simple automatic settings on your camera. The aperture setting will help bring the subject matter into better view and that will help you to make stunningly better photographs.

The most common apertures to use are mid-range, from f8 to f11. Known as a "sweet spot" in the photography world, this is the automatic depth-of-field most cameras use if you do not change the settings. When you use mid-range aperture, you will be able to balance the pictures and focus wisely. This is a good range to stay in for most photography, especially if you do not have the time to set aperture after every shot. You will find that it is find for you to use automatic features to help serve you well in most cases and photography.

For those who are more creative, you will want to change the way that you use the aperture to shoot pictures. First, you can shoot in large apertures-f2.8 to f5.6-these will produce photographs with a low depth of field. In other words, use this option if you want to shoot a subject matter that is very close to your camera. By altering the size of the aperture, we can control the size of this depth of field, either reducing it so that only our subject is in focus, or expanding it so that an entire landscape can appear sharp.
Large apertures are most commonly used for photographing wildlife and portraits.

As for the small apertures, you will find that they do the exact opposite. An aperture from f16 to f32 will draw you into the picture by creating sharp focus in most of the elements in the frame. This is where larger depths of field happen to be created and you notice that the pictures will look more life like. Most landscape photographers use this when shooting so that you get a sharper image, even with items in the distance such as mountains.

When it comes to the overall capabilities on your camera aperture should be a subject to be studied so that you can get perfect results when needed. You will want to learn about how you can change aperture and depth of field so that you can quickly take a picture and reflect a little more creativity. This is what will make a good picture. You will find that you can review all of your options before purchasing, but you will also want to make sure that you use quality aperture features for specific use when taking pictures to capture a moment.

Walter, a grandfather, posed this question. There is plenty of sound advice from members of the CNET community.

First things first; you need to decide what is the best digital camera for your needs.
Choosing the best digital camera can be pretty daunting for the novice with the wide variety of choices available in today's market place.

Consider how you will use the camera. Are you planning to email more pictures than you plan to print? Are you uploading them for online auctions or to share with your best friend who lives miles away?

If you are looking for professionally finished prints, brilliant color and a sharp image, you will need a digital camera with high image quality. The quality of an image is directly related to how many pixels it can capture horizontally and vertically. To print quality standard sized photos that will last, you'll need a minimum of a 1-2 mega pixel digital camera. Larger photos will require 3 mega pixels to get the same quality. With at least 4 mega pixels, 11 x 14 enlargements will look sharp.

Zoom lenses can also play a key role in the appearance of your photos. Many cameras will have zooms, but the size and type of zoom are important to consider. The larger the zoom (a 3x would be average and 10x large), the closer you will be able to get to subjects like sporting events and wildlife. But for good quality photos, be sure the camera has a true optical zoom rather than a digital zoom, which merely enlarges the center of the basic image.

The new life of digital cameras gives us all the opportunity to capture images as we go. Whether you simply hit the shutter button to take pictures of your friends and family or if you want to have your camera with you at all times in order to capture the beauty of life wherever you find it.

For this purpose, a simple and relatively cheap camera costing $100 to $200 and having a 2 mega pixel range is sufficient.

For those of you who can't resist all this 21st century technology Tekxon has developed a brilliant new all-in-one solution.
This digital video camera combines 5 different functions in one sleek little pocket-size machine.

If you want to be creative -- experimenting with self-timers, flash, shutter speed, lighting, and photo enhancement features, you'll need a camera with a full range of manual controls.

Personally I feel the best way to start is with an inexpensive point and shoot digital camera, and you don't need to spend a bucket-load of money on a top of the range digital camera. You can always upgrade later.

You can find a range of good cameras at JonsDigitalCameras.com and the site carries a lot of useful articles to help you understand some of the complexities of digital photography.

Take your camera everywhere you go! Keep your eyes open for candid situations - they can be found everywhere. You are looking for unposed interesting activities.

Spontaneous snaps of people 'doing things' make the best candid photos.

If you're in a public place, it's usually okay to photograph people. If they object, however, you need to stop. If you're not sure, it never hurts to ask permission beforehand. Your subject may want to pose, so explain what you saw them doing and ask them to continue as if you weren't there.

Experiment! Sometimes the artistic expression of a candid photo can be limited by you,the photographer. Try different angles, places and scenes. Look at candid photos created by others (they can be found in lots of magazines) for inspiration.

Nearly all digital cameras have an automatic mode whereby the camera chooses all the settings for you so that you simply point and click.

Many have a burst action or continuous shooting;this can be useful for getting still images from action. The camera takes several shots immediately after each other, usually one to three shots per second.

It is a simple matter to delete those photos you don't like.

Most digital cameras let you view the picture you're about to take, or have just taken, on a colour LCD screen. The beauty of digital photography is that if you don't like an image you can simply delete it. So, providing you have sufficient memory, you can snap away taking multiple pictures of the same subject from different angles and then select the best and delete the rest, freeing up space on your memory card.

Rule of Thirds.
Many artists and photographers use the rule of thirds when composing pictures. Instead of placing the subject dead centre in the picture, they draw imaginary noughts and crosses lines across the picture dividing it into nine equal boxes. If the subject is positioned on one of the intersections, it often makes for a more pleasing image.

Landscape or portrait?
Before you take a picture,think about whether it would look better taken with the camera held horizontally (landscape) or vertically (portrait). A vertical shot of a tall tree,for example,emphasises its height. A horizontal shot of a countryside landscape can give a feeling of breadth.

Zoom. Experiment with zoom, moving closer and further away and changing your angle relative to a subject to get different perspectives.

Portraits. For the most flattering portraits, try to avoid having your lens zoomed right out, or right in, as this could distort facial features. Select a small f-value using aperture priority or portrait mode to throw your background out of focus and make your subject feel at their ease. Spontaneous shots taken when someone has just stopped laughing are often great, as their facial muscles will be at their most relaxed.

The time of day can have a great influence on the way your photo will appear. If you shoot outdoors at dawn, your picture will have a slight bluish colour cast. At noon, colours will appear the most natural, although it might be too bright. Just before sunset, pictures will take a lovely warm, orangey tone.

For those who are doing their first landscape shot, you may be disappointed when the prints don't look as professional as other photographers. You will want to wonder what is going wrong, however, you will find that all photographers ask themselves the same question at some point in time. You can't redo a lot of changing when it comes to the scenery. You will also find that there is little research on landscape photography, but it also remains a mystery to many. It could be up to the chance of luck.

However, although it helps to have a breathtaking view to start with, landscape photography is an art just like setting up a portrait or still life is. However, you have to learn to use what you got when it comes to making a landscape work for you and the pictures that you desire. First, remember the basics. Always think with a photographer's mind. You may not be able to move the scenery, but you can learn how to pick a good scenery to work with and also where you can apply many of the rules and techniques that you will learn about when studying photography. The scenery cannot move, but you can, so look for the perfect host to employ composition techniques such as the rule of thirds. Be conscious of where your horizon line falls, and look at how the elements of the frame work together to create diagonal lines. Although, if the shot isn't so perfect, you will want to learn to move on and find other places to capture it's essential beauty.

You will also want to keep in mind the time of day and the season. Night shots can be beautiful, but it is very disappointing when you want to shoot a sunset and you arrive just as the last rays disappear behind the mountains. When you aren't familiar with the location, you will want to listen to local weather stations so that you can steer clear of the rain and other bad weather and capture the perfect sky in the background. The weather station can also be helpful in predicting storms and giving you information about the changing seasons. Gardeners familiar to the area are useful for this as well. They can tell you what weekend the autumn leaves will be the most brilliant or which month certain flowers bloom on the hillside.

You will also want to think about color and tones. Most people look for spectacular colors of nature to make their photograph beautiful. You will want to use color to give the pictures added sparkle, however you will also want to learn to use the colors to enhance and not distract you from the lines of the pictures. In fact, if they are too intense, try simplifying things but cutting out color completely-shoot in black and white.

Nature is one of the best snapshots that you can capture. You will find that the run light is perfect and the animals might even give you an added surprise. You will want to prepare to make the most out of your time in a specific location. You will want to have the film loaded and the camera ready to go, so that you can get a surprise shot and capture the beauty of the moment. You will be able to get mystifying shots when you keep in mind some of the basic rules for photography. You will want to learn how to use the rules and landscapes to make some magical pictures come to life.

When it comes to being a photographer, you will find that the weather can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You will find that it is impossible to control the weather to have idea conditions all the time for your shootings, however, you can make the most of what you got. When it comes to a sunny, rainy, or even cloudy day, you can still use the landscape to create beautiful shots.

The golden hours are two hours in a day that are very good for photographers. These two hours occur right after sunrise and right before sunset and are generally longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. You, may be wondering why these two hours are known as the best for great shots, however, during the early morning and late afternoon, the sun is positioned for dramatic lighting, but will not create harsh shadows or blazes of light, especially when shooting with people.

You may have noticed that if you take a subject outside to shoot a little bit before noon one of the three possibilities. First, your subject trying not to squint into the sun could ruin your picture. Second, your subject is too dark because they are standing with their back to the sun, creating a silhouette effect.

Lastly, your subject's face and features look distorted because standing with the sun at one side creates awkward shadows. None of the options can product a good produce a good photograph. During the noontime hour, all the shadows will totally disappear, giving the picture a flat appearance. Sunrise and sunset provide just the right kind of lighting and shadows, and also a beautiful photographic opportunity in many cases, since the colors are so beautiful in the sky.

When it comes to a cloudy day or overcast, you can still get some great pictures. The clouds in the sky diffuse the light so that the subject is illuminated with natural light, but the harsh shadows are gone. You will want to use a flash if the pictures look to flat, but you may also want to shoot in black and white, instead of color. Black and white photography works very well on overcast days when the colors would look washed out.

For all those rainy days you may not realize, but you can still get some shots. Rain will add an interesting element to the image and you will still be able get to a good picture. However, you will find that the wet ground will make you want to protect your equipment from water. You will also want to consider bringing some other people to hold the umbrellas or carry the bags so that they do not have to be placed on the ground. You will also want to consider getting all your shots and use the rain to make a great and stunning effect on the pictures. However, you will want to make sure that you try your hardest to keep an positive attitude so that you can get some great shots

Many professional photographers will choose not to do their work in color, but just black and white. The black and white pictures will give them a classic look, but it also shows a lot of class and techniques that are used and help save on film. Black and white photography is something that is easy for beginners, but also you will be able to learn the techniques easier in black and white. You will also be able to focus more on light and composition and character, rather than color.

For black and white pictures, you will find that they are more rewarding some times than getting the pictures in color. You don't always have to have a perfect shot and the perfect conditions for the shoot either when you go with black and white. What may look excellent in black and white can often make a washed out, mediocre color photograph. Consider black and white photography especially when shooting outside on overcast days. If you don't have a lot of lighting you can still get a great shot in various colors when you use the colors that fade in and out of the picture to make some wonderful prints. On the other hand, you won't be able to see this effect in black and white, so your picture will be focused more on the actual subject matter. Whether you're exploring a new area on vacation or simply want some prints of your hometown, if the day isn't bright and sunny, consider black and white.

You will find that black and white is a good choice to have for portraits. Skin tone is a tricky thing in many color photographs-people tend to dislike close-up shots because they can clearly see blemishes in coloring. Also, with black and white pictures you will be able to conceal the blemishes. Black and white photography can also get rid of the stark contrast between someone's bright face and the dull background. Black and white photography will help you to see things in a classy look and also it will add some whimsical romance to set the mood. That's why it is perfect for a wedding. A good professional wedding photographer will offer some of the portraits in black and white, and they can be stunningly lovely.

Black and white pictures will be scary in some instances, but you will be able to use it like you would color. You will learn how to use black and white film to help others pay attention to the finer details like the shapes and lines. You will find that some of the best black and white pictures will help you to contrast very dark areas. When it comes to the rolls of film, you will be able to feel the wonderful pride that you will get from black and white photography. The photographer will be proud of their accomplishments you will be able to print all of the pictures that mean something to you.