7 Tips for Better Digital Photos

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.