Digital Photography Tips

Hi! If you are serious about mastering digital photography like me, let's share some of the tips so that we can learn faster. I found this article by Gary Bunn on 5 Simple, But Crucial Digital Photography Tips which I thought is good for sharing!

5 Simple, But Crucial Digital Photography Tips
by: Gary Bunn

Digital Photography is a highly complex activity, with a steep learning curve and many advanced techniques that take years to master! However, we all have to start somewhere. So, here’s a list of 5 Great Tips that will ultimately help you improve your digital photography, and set you off on the right foot. 1. Use a Tripod or Bean-Bag. Yes, these can be such a pain to carry around, but they’re definitely worth the time. Using a Tripod or alternative such as a bean-bag will add stability to your camera, meaning you have greater control over exposure times and composition. You’ll also never see that annoying camera shake ruin a picture again whilst using a tripod! 2. Get a High Capacity Memory Card. Have you ever had one of those photography days which is going perfect? The light was great, your subjects look fantastic, the weather is holding off, your capturing the shots you only dreamed of…Then it happens.. Your Memory Card is full and you don’t have a spare! You could manually sort through and delete, but it’d take hours. It’s a much better idea to spend a bit more and invest in a high capacity memory card. They’re now available up to 8GB!! 3. Use a UV Filter. Using a UV filter on your camera lens is a great idea. They’re small circular pieces of glass that screw over the end of your lens, and offer great protection from scratches, dust, finger prints and also filter out UV rays, improving the color of your images. Best of all they’re dirt cheap!! 4. Add Warmth To Your Tones. The White-Balance settings on your digital SLR control the tonal effects of your images, so try experimenting with them. Don’t think that just because a setting is called ‘cloudy’ that you can only use it when it is cloudy! In fact, using the ‘cloudy’ setting when taking pictures adds warmth. Perfect for a sunset or evening landscape shot. 5. Shoot, Shoot, Shoot! This will obviously depend on your memory card size as discussed in point 2, but is still very important in trying to get those great shots. Simply put, do not rely on a single shot to capture a great image. Imagine taking time finding a fantastic composition, only to find later that the shot you took has a lens flare or dark shadow in it! Its very frustrating indeed! Take several shots for each composition, try slightly changing the angle each time. This way you can compare and choose the best one later. Remember you can always delete the images you don’t want, that’s the beauty of Digital Photography! About The Author Courtesy of Gary Bunn and http://www.Your-Digital-Photography.com

What Is Digital Photography

Hi All,
Recently I read this article by Deborah Kilgaron and decided to share it with you, especially those who are thinking about or have just started into the 'world' of digital photography. Here it is...

Introduction to Digital Photography
by: Deborah Kilgaron

Digital Photography 101 If you own a personal computer you are already on the way to becoming an expert in digital photography. (Actually, you can dabble in digital photography even if you don't have a computer, but that would make it a bit harder.) You will definitely need a digital camera, of course. Pick one that suits your needs and sensibilities--they come in all shapes and sizes! When buying, remember that the cheaper cameras are usually like cheap traditional cameras - okay for snaps but not much else. But you can get really good results with reasonably priced cameras, particularly if you want to show them on a screen or the Internet. In general you want a reasonably high number of pixels in a new camera - 3 Megapixels should be enough for beginners. More pixels is not always better, since the quality of the lens and so on still matters. Generally speaking the well known brands make good digital cameras, but the market changes so fast you need to look at a few online reviews. There is no doubt that digital photography is big. People who tried traditional photography and gave up are finding digital photography really rewarding. There are a few reasons for this, the main ones being cost, creativity and freedom 1) Cost. In the long run, digital photography is cheaper than the analog equivalent. Of course, you'll need to consider the camera itself, as well as the price of ink and paper if you wish to make prints. Also, you'll need to have a computer, or at least access to a computer. But the cost of getting prints professionally developed is so sky-high--and so many snaps turn out badly--that digital is cheaper. And before printing you can check on your monitor to see which pics are good--and which should get deleted. No more paying for rubbish snaps! Moreover, many digital camera users post their pics or show them to friends via email without ever printing them out. 2) Digital cameras give us a great amount of creativity. Traditional photography took away our own control--we had to pay professionals to crop, enlarge or reduce. But with digital camera software we can take care of all of those things for ourselves. You can crop, change colors, and much more. Software makes it easy to do all these things. 3) Digital photography frees us from the constraints of traditional photography because we aren't using up rolls of film. Instead of having to change the roll every 24 or 36 shots, we can shoot away with abandon, and without worrying about the cost to develop all these shots. And we don't have to wait until the film is developed to see if we got good pictures. We can simply look at the screen! Now that you know the above, consider the following: Be willing to experiment a bit. Once you spend money on a good digital camera you can stop worrying about all the cash you're wasting on film--so give yourself the freedom to experiment and just feel things out. Lay on the floor, take pictures at crazy angles, shoot from far away, zoom in incredibly close, and so on. Take pictures of anything and everything that interests you, as this is the best way to stumble across fantastic pictures. It's not just the camera you'll need to experiment with, however. Learn how to utilize the accompanying software, too. Reading through the manual or taking the computerized tutorial is well worth it--you'll see an improvement in your pictures as well as an increase in your ability to fix them after the fact. The people you show your snaps to will certainly be impressed! About The Author Professional photographer Deborah Kilgaron helps other people follow her path through her website Raising Profile Photography. Become one of Deborah's students - visit the Raising Profile Photography online community at http://www.rpphotography.com.