Digital photography tips –Using a digital camera

Tip 1:
Compact digital cameras have a  shutter delay. To reduce this, take some practice shots. Here’s a tip to help you find out how much of a delay you’re dealing with:

• stand in the middle of the room, camera at the ready.
• turn slowly, and while looking at the screen, press the shutter when you see a “marker” in the room (the “marker” could be a lamp, perhaps). Keep turning until the shutter fires.
• When the camera has taken the shot, compare where it took the shot, with where you pressed the shutter – the difference is the shutter delay.

Once you have found out how much delay there is, you can plan for it. For example, when taking a group photo; “ready? Three, two . . . press shutter button! . . . one, smile! . . . camera takes the shot!”

Tip 2:
If you’re taking photographs outside, a good digital photography tip is to make use of “the golden hour” if possible.

There are two golden hours per day (so you have two chances every day to use this digital photography tip!). The first golden hour is one hour after sunrise, and the second golden hour is one hour before sunset.

The light is less harsh than during the middle of the day and the result is photos with nice saturated colours. The golden hour works especially well for landscapes.

Tip 3:
Don’t waste time or battery power analysing your photos “in the field”. Better to make sure you have a big memory card, and just keep on snapping away!

When you are back home, download your photos to your computer, and then separate the wheat from the chaff.

Tip 4:
A digital photography tip for those seeking the best quality photos – switch off the digital zoom.

Digital cameras have both an optical zoom (which is good), but also a digital zoom (which is not so good!). The digital zoom just makes things appear larger by adding in extra pixels to your photo.

As a consequence of this addition, photos will appear blocky or blurry. Best to turn it off in your settings menu.

Tip 5:
Don’t be afraid to use the flash when taking photos of people in daylight. If your subjects have harsh shadows on them, the flash will lighten these shadows, and the result will be much more appealing.

Look through your camera settings for either a “fill in” flash mode, or an “on” mode (not “auto”).

Tip 6:
Never use the black and white mode! These days cameras have modes such as black and white, sepia, solarise . . . the list grows. But don’t use them.

Once you have captured the image in black and white (or sepia, or solarise, or . . . ) you will never be able to put the colour back. Always take your photos in colour, and convert them when you get back home.

Even the most basic editing software will be able to this for you. For example, Google’s Picasa can perform all of these effects, and a whole lot more. And it’s free. You can click here to