Find the features and shooting modes of your digital camera by reading the instruction manual.
You don't need a closet filled with expensive camera equipment to take good-quality pictures. A photographer can get beautiful images from point-and-shoot digital cameras. Composition matters more than equipment. The trick to effect digital photography is reading the camera's instruction manual thoroughly, experimenting with techniques and keeping your camera with you at all times. A point-and-shoot camera is lightweight and can often fit in a jacket pocket, so you will be ready to get spontaneous images.
Instructions
1. Set the camera to shoot the maximum image size. The setting is typically located in the "Set Up" menu, and the option may be called "Fine." The larger the image size, the more ability you will have to crop the picture to the best composition. Also, larger image sizes produce higher-quality prints.
2. Avoid using the zoom lens. The more you zoom, the less sharp your image will appear. You are better off cropping the picture in a photo-editing program. Don't use the camera's digital zoom, either. Instead of using the lens to get closer to the subject, the digital zoom enlarges the image, often making it fuzzy and bit-mapped.
3. Use the flash as recommended. Most flashes on compact digital cameras will light up an area 10 to 12 feet away from the photographer. If you are too close, the image will be overexposed. If you are too far away, the image will be underexposed.
4. Experiment with composition. Try different angles, such as shooting at eye level with the subject or using the rule of thirds, which states that pictures are more interesting to look at if the subject is not in the middle, but in the upper, lower, right or left third of the image.
5. Edit your images on a computer. Learn to touch up the color and the exposure with photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom or Corel PaintShop. This will also give you options to crop and resize images.
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