With these tips and a little practice (in fact, that’s the first and most important tip), you could be creating sharper, more appealing digital photos.

1. Use Manual Settings
Most digital cameras have a manual mode. Now that film and developing costs are no longer an issue, you can take as many photos as you want. That means you can spend hours testing how every shutter speed and aperture setting will impact your photos indoors, outdoors, in low light or bright situations, and even for high-speed action shots and portraits.All that the automatic presets on your camera do is change the aperture and shutter-speed settings for you, so take control.  You might like the results.
2. Learn to Compose Your Shots
Notice how the main subject and background objects are arranged in professional photos, posters, or even paintings.  This arrangement is known as the “composition” of the image, and it’s not an accident.

If you look at most people’s photos, especially snapshots, everything is by accident.

Some pictures are all about the random moment, but for many photos a little attention paid to composition can have a dramatic affect on your image. For instance, kneel when photographing children.  Get down on their level instead of always shooting downward.  Once you have your subject in the frame, take note of the surroundings.  You don’t want a post in the background to appear as if it is “growing” through the top of someone’s head.  Make sure there is something in the background of your photo to put your subject in context.  Let you picture tell a story.
3. Turn Off the LCD Viewer
Believe it or not, this is another composition tip.  It’s too easy to forget about image composition when you use the LCD because things in your peripheral vision will tend to distract you. Try using the viewfinder instead.  It’ll help you focus your mind on your subject and getting the composition just right.  You’ll also save loads of battery life, as the LCD viewer is one of the biggest drains on your camera battery.

If your camera doesn’t have a viewfinder, try using the “grid function” on your camera’s LCD (your manual should help you find this option).  That will superimpose a little tic-tac-toe grid over the image in the viewer.  Then just position your subject over one of the intersections for better composition.
4. Get Closer to Your Subject
Another great composition tip is to pose your subject no further from the camera than the total height of your subject.  It’s more intimate and pulls the viewer into your shot so they can better experience the moment.
5. Steady Does It
On a sunny day, you can often just point and shoot and still get a pretty clear shot.  But what about those cloudy days, or if you’re shooting indoors?  Your camera’s auto exposure will open the aperture wider and slow down the shutter speed.  Then, the least little movement as you click the shutter will cause your photo to be blurry.

Steadying your camera becomes much more imporant in these lower light conditions.

Practice holding the camera braced against your forehead with your upper arms and your elbows pressed against your chest. Stand with your feet firmly planted at shoulder width, and exhale.  Press the shutter slowly but surely, and hold it. Don’t remove your finger until the shutter has fired.

This gives your camera time to focus, adjust for red-eye, calculate exposure, and finally - shoot the picture.  Another option is to use a tripod and set the self-timer on your camera so that you aren’t even touching the camera when the shutter fires (this allows you to get in the shot, too).
6. Learn to Pan with the Action
You don’t have to set your shutter speed to 1/1000th second to stop action shots.  Instead, use a little slower shutter speed and pivot to follow the subject with the camera as you release the shutter.  With a little practice, this will keep your subject sharp and in focus - while the background will be a blurred streak.  This technique is excellent for conveying the impression of the subject in motion.
7. Flash Assist
The flash on most point-and-shoot, and even some more advanced digital cameras, are terribly inadequate for lighting a dim room.  In close-up shots, the flash blows out the details.  Stand too far away from your subject, and your shot is too dark.

One way to overcome this is to “push” the ISO settings on your camera. Raising the ISO setting on your camera changes the speed of your CCD (the “film” in a digital camera) and makes the pixels more obvious in your image.  Another option is to use the “night” photography preset on your camera.  This setting uses the flash, but holds the shutter open slightly longer than the normal 1/60th of a second typically used on the flash setting.

Luckily, there are some easy tips you can learn that will help you compose photographs like a pro.  By learning these tips and practicing the rules of good composition, you can learn how to create beautiful photographs.

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You can also improve many of your older photos by using the rule of thirds. Simply visualize the grid when viewing your images with photo editing software, and crop them to position the horizon and your subject according to the rule of thirds.

We have a full set of audio tips to teach you how to get the best results from your digital camera. Getting our tips is easy. Just Sign up to get all of our Digital Camera Audio Tips and every few days we’ll send you a new tip.

Even with a mini-tripod, I still find myself forgetting to bring it along on canoeing trips and backpacking trips. Hopefully these tips will give you some creative ideas about how to steady your camera when you forget your tripod.

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Here are a few tips to avoid damaging your lens as you clean it. If you’re careful, you shouldn’t have any problems with damage.

The right lens cleaning supplies can be purchased in any photo shop, or on the internet. It doesn’t require much and lens cleaning supplies are inexpensive, so make sure to keep them handy in your camera bag.

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The eight models span the entire range of features needed to appeal to amateur and professional photographer alike.  All of the new cameras feature electrical image stabilization, red-eye removal, and a minimum ISO-1600 sensitivity for shooting in low-light conditions.

The entry-level A-series models offer 7+ megapixels, 3X optical zoom, 2.5-inch displays, and run on two AA batteries.

The E-series cameras (aimed at “serious amateur” photographers) offer at least 2.7-inch LCDs, operate on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, have a 5X optical zoom lens, and at least 8-megapixels.  Most of the E-series have a larger 3-inch display, and the top models in this range (the E1040 and E1240) offer 10- and 12-megapixel quality.

Developed for the professional, the X1 is an 8-megapixel model and is the only model in the line to provide optical image stabilization.  The X1 only has a 2.5-inch display, but comes with 12X optical zoom, and face-detection technology.

Better known for refrigerators and washing machines, GE is facing an uphill battle to wrestle market share away from the industry leaders Kodak, Nikon, and Canon - in a market that is predicted to be leveling off after years of fantastic growth.  Even so, at roughly $18 Billion per year - there should be enough to go around.

There are two main kinds of photo albums you can use.  Traditional albums are convenient, but you want to make sure you purchase quality albums.  Another great option is to create scrapbooks for your most treasured photos, but you still need to make sure that the scrapbooks are suitable for the storage and protection of your photographs.

There are pros and cons to Photo Albums or Scrapbooks.  A scrapbook provides a much more personal way to show off your pictures, but the supplies you’ll need are more expensive and it will take more time and effort.

We have a full set of audio tips to teach you how to get the best results from your digital camera. Getting them is easy. Just Sign up to get all of our Digital Photography Audio Tips and every few days we’ll send you a new tip.

Photo Albums, scrapbooks, and framed prints all make as much sense for digital photos as they do for prints made from film.  This audio will help you understand the options for digital prints.

So your computer doesn’t have to replace prints for your digital photographs.  Think of the computer and the internet as extra options for your digital photos. 

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If you just want to share your photos with family and friends, there are sites on the internet that let you build simple online “photo albums” for free.  There are also sites that share your photos with anyone on the internet, but a professional photographer might want to brand their work by building their own web site to display samples of their work.

From simple online photo albums for photo sharing, to dedicated web sites for the professional photographer - there are easy options available for displaying your photos on the internet. 

We have a full set of audio tips to teach you how to get the best results from your digital camera.  Getting them is easy.  Just Sign up to get all of our Digital Photography Audio Tips and every few days we’ll send you a new tip.

So why do you need both?  Aperture also changes the depth of field.  By changing the aperture, you can make everything in the viewfinder be in focus for very realistic shots, but you can also narrow the depth of field so that the subject is in sharp focus while objects in front of the subject and objects behind the subject appear fuzzy.

The aperture rules are simple enough and with just a little practice you will be able to combine your knowledge of shutter speed and aperture controls  to get very unique, and professional, results. 

We have a full set of audio tips to teach you how to get the best results from your digital camera.  Getting them is easy.  Just Sign up to get all of our Digital Photography Audio Tips and every few days we’ll send you a new tip.