Tips to improve your photography

Before you take off the lens cap:

* Think about the mood you want to capture. Some photos express emotions, others describe moods. Photography is a language of images and moods. Think about creating visual descriptive sentences.

* What are you trying to say? Photographs normally try to express a single idea or emotion. Think about what you want to get across before you start shooting.

Settings:

* Black & White: Black and white photos tries to show raw emotion, it attempts to create an empathic bond between the viewer and the photo. Black and white photos works well during situations of a single emotion i.e. A surprise birthday, child dropping an ice cream.

* Light and Shadow: Black and white photos also works well when shadows can be captured. Shadows add contrast to the photos, and visually adds new dimensions to the photo. Consider taking photos during the late afternoon when shadows extend further and the dying sunlight having a dimming effect on photos.

* Depth of Field: The depth of field refers to the distance between the closest and furtherest objects in the shot. You may need to adjust the distance between your camera and the items you are trying to capture. Otherwise the items may be out of focus.

* High Contrast: If you like to take photos of flowers, or shots that have lots of colour, use the high contrast setting on your camera, the camera will exaggerate the contrasting colours to create a strong distinction between the colours, even if its the same shade of colour.

*Shooting Tips:

* Avoid using the Camera's zoom feature: Try and take photos up close as opposed to zooming in as this generally reduces the quality of photos. Digital cameras operate with dots that represent a photo, if you have more dots covering the image you want to take, the better the quality.

* Find the focus of your photograph: Having other distractions in the shot would take away the look of the photo. This means back grounds, objects, and pretty much anything that draws attention and makes the eyes wander.

* Shot Types: Experiment with different shots from different angles with different shades of light. You will definitely notice the different tones.

* Expand your shot variety: Try a mixture of landscape and portrait shots. Again, much like lighting, the type of shot you take will also change the photo. Next time you get the opportunity, experiment.

* Take as many shots as your camera's memory allows: Next time you are taking some photos, don't hesitate at all to take the photo 3 or 4 times. You never know if that third shot would end up better than the first.

* Taking photos of people? look at the camera: Eye contact draws the attention of the viewer. Take photos where there is eye contact and that are on eye level. The combination will draw viewers to your photo like bees to honey.

* Use natural light when taking photos of people: Bright projector style lights will make people squint their eyes.

* Take photos from all angles: They will have an instant impact if you are trying to reflect a certain mood set by the photo. i.e. Shooting up at a authority figure will make the person appear more authoritative.

* Avoid red eye: Buy a removable flash. Red eye is caused by the reflection of the flash off the eyes. By purchasing a removable flash unit, you can angle the flash to give the lighting required, but avoiding the nasty red eye in the process.

* Finally. Practice! Practice! Practice! Experiment with different lighting, camera settings, and exposure time and you'll get the full range effects in your skill set in no time. And most importantly have fun!

Once you've captured that masterpiece, upload it to www.voeveo.com and make some money out of your new profession.