General Photography Tips
1) Using a sturdy tripod will force you to slow down and compose your shots resulting in sharper images without any unintentional blur.
2) A circular polarizing filter will reduce reflections and give blue skies and clouds extra contrast.
3) Never completely trust your LCD screen. It's usually brighter and sharper than the actual captured image.
4) Learn to do basic post processing with software such as Photoshop Elements or Microsoft Digital Image. This will optomize your pictures for best results.
5) More megapixels does not always mean better photographs. Factors such as lens quality and in camera processing play a more important role in creating superior images.
6) Setting a higher ISO (light sensitivity) allows you to use a faster shutter speed but beware of over saturation and camera noise.
7) Shooting RAW photos and converting them to TIFF or JPEG files on the computer should become second nature. Using RAW files will ultimately improve the quality of your digital images.
8) Landscape Basics: Include a foreground point of interest, lead in lines, use a small aperture (f/16) and remember the rule of thirds.
9) If you use a DSLR understand what's in your cameras viewfinder. Most models show around 95% of the captured image.
10) Keep it simple! Don't try to cram too much into a single image; the most successful pictures are often with the simplest compositions.
11) Raw files will usually look flat when they are opened on your computer but your RAW converter software will allow plenty of options to make them much better than standard JPEG's.
12) Don't be afraid to exclude the sky from your photo. At times it adds nothing to the composition any may even detract from it.
13) RAW format uses lossless compression which maintains all picture detail. JPEG compression discards important digital information causing the image quality to degrade.
14) Rule of thirds: Putting the main subject dead center of the frame will weaken the image. Compose your landscape pictures so that the horizon falls roughly onto a third.
15) Keep your lens clean; free of dust smears and moisture and it will perform to its full potential.
16) The most important aspect to any photograph is that the main subject is in sharp focus.
17) When taking pictures of people or pets compose your image so that they are looking into the frame and always focus on the eye.
18) The most dramatic conditions for landscape photography happen when the sun breaks through a stormy sky. The closer to sunrise or sunset this occurs the better the overall effect.
19) To improve outdoor portraits in bright sunlight use a fill flash to lighten dark shadows, especially when the sun is overhead or behind your subject.
20) The white balance setting tells the camera the type of light or color temperature you are photographing. When using the proper setting colors are adjusted so that white objects appear white in the final image.
21) Use a slow shutter speed, around 1sec., to capture fast moving water as a graceful blur. Make sure to use a tripod!
22) When cropping a photo square, place the main subject in the center of the frame to give the composition balance and simplicity.
23) Never hand-hold a camera at a shutter speed slower than the inverse of the focal length. For example, using a 125mm lens, you want a shutter speed of 1/125 sec. or faster to ensure a sharp picture.
24) Choosing a wide aperture (small f/#) and a fast shutter speed (1/125 sec. plus) will cause photos to have a shallow depth of field and motion will be frozen.
25) Choosing a small aperture (large f/#) and a slow shutter speed (1/30 sec. minus) will increase the depth of field but any motion will be shown as blurry.
26) Photographs should have a clear point of interest. The main subject should dominate the image and form the viewer's first impression. It is also helpful to have a non-distracting background.
27) No amount of digital sharpening will make truly out-of-focus images appear to be in focus.
28) Move in close and fill the frame with your subject to take pictures with impact. Use your cameras macro mode or flower setting to get sharp close-ups.
29) Pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be too dark. For many digital cameras the flash limit is around 10 feet.
30) Lock the focus: Center your subject; press the shutter button half way down and hold it there; re-frame your shot; continue pressing the shutter to finish taking the picture.[
31) Your camera's histogram will provide you with a clear graphical view of an images tonal distribution. A histogram bunched up to the left means underexposure while a histogram shifted to the right indicates overexposure.
32) Use color to give visual impact to your photographs. 'Active' colors such as red, orange and yellow leap out towards you while blue, green and purple are more 'passive' and recede into the background.
33) A neutral density filter (ND Filter) is helpful on bright sunny days when you want to use a wide aperture to limit the depth of field, or use a slow shutter speed to accenuate movement.
