Mastering the Basics of Digital Photography

Digital photography can be a great hobby or a lucrative profession. Some people take pictures mainly to capture memories of family and friends while others are avid shooters of sunsets and landscapes. Whatever your reasons for taking pictures, knowing a little about digital photography can make a huge difference in the quality of your photos.

Reading the Manual

For the most part, no one likes pouring over a long manual to learn what their electronics can do. People often just attempt to learn through practice and figure things out on their own. With your digital camera, you could be overlooking a lot of features that come with it and some of these settings will make quite a difference in how your pictures turn out. You don’t need to adjust every setting manually, but for times when you’re in extreme lighting conditions or unusual weather it can be handy to know which setting will correct the inconveniences of your environment.

Experiment and Play

A lot of new digital camera users are afraid to change any settings on their camera in fear that they won’t be able to change things back. Again, reading your manual can give you the knowledge to restore settings. When a photo doesn’t look exactly how you’d like it to, take the same picture over and over with every different setting you can think of. With time and practice, you’ll know what each setting can do and you’ll barely have to think when it comes to deciding which mode to use for every situation.

Using different lighting, angles, and composition can also have quite an effect on your photo’s outcome. Trying different things with backlighting, object placement, and subject centering could turn your plain old photo into something incredibly pleasing to the eye with highlighting and shadowing you wouldn’t have expected.

Editing Software

Your digital photography self education shouldn’t stop at your camera. Once you get your photos uploaded to your computer, use the software provided to fix any little flaws, colour issues, or unwanted noise. Experimenting with these settings will introduce you to new effects and editing techniques you may have never thought of trying before.

Digital photography has a unique advantage over film by allowing you to view your photo immediately and delete what you don’t like. This makes experimenting with settings and lighting much easier because you can see right away what kind of effect you’ll be getting. With time, practice, and familiarity with your camera, deciding which settings or angle to use will become more and more natural and you’re increasing skills will be reflected in your work.