PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS
To Get The Most
From Your New Camera

Although these tips are geared primarily for beginners (especially those who have just purchased a new digital camera), some of the advice will also be useful to those who've been taking pictures for years and want to improve their photography skills.

A photography tip doesn't need to be monumental, it just has to be something that you weren't previously aware of.

The Top Photography Tips

Although your camera’s manual may not suggest this, the very first thing to do is to locate the battery and the re-charger. Check your manual for how to properly charge your battery, and then immediately start charging it!

Most owners manuals don't discuss rechargeable batteries, which are perfectly safe for just about all cameras and photographic accessories (always check your product's specs, to be sure).

Are rechargeable batteries right for everybody? No. Most people will benefit from them. However, if you take less than a 100 pictures per year, you're probably better off sticking with non-rechargeable batteries.

On the other hand, if you take more than 100 pictures/year, you will find that rechargeable batteries will easily pay for themselves in money and convenience.

I've been using and reusing different types of batteries from all-battery.com for the last three years on a continual basis, and have found them reliable and extremely cost effective.

Back to the owner’s manual, which most people rarely open. Most of us want to immediately begin playing with our new camera and take some pictures. Unfortunately, most digital cameras won't allow this because the camera doesn’t have any power and generally requires its own battery to be charged up.

This forces us to wait, so we might as well use this time to go over the basics of how the camera operates (as well as the other photography tips noted here). If your camera has an AC adapter, although impractical for taking pictures on the go, you can at least get familiar with your camera while its battery is charging.

As you go through the manual, make sure you understand where each control is and how to use it.

One huge advantage a digital camera has over its film equivalent is the ability to merrily take as many photographs as you want while learning how to use the camera. At the end of the process, you can simply delete the unwanted images without costing a cent.

Filed under "lesser known photography tips," the two items you will probably want to quickly purchase are more memory (digital "film") and at least one spare battery.

It pays to go through the entire manual, if only to familiarize yourself with where everything is. Until you are familiar with all the controls, you will be referring to the manual frequently. If you don’t know how to find anything, it’s going to get pretty frustrating very quickly.



Basic Photography Tip #2:  Glossary - The Most Basic of Help

If you are new to photography, you will probably find some words that are unfamiliar. The "Glossary" or "Terms" page of your manual is full of photography tips in as much as it explains what things are.

Another good basic page is the one showing where everything is located on your camera. After all, it’s important to know what the shutter priority is, but it’s also critical to be able to find it!

For some more complicated cameras, it’s not uncommon for the manufacturer to include a short reference sheet including important camera details/features that you can carry with you. As an alternative, you may want to construct your own card with what you think are the most important details.

Do you have a photo tip?

Basic Photography Tip #3:  Know Your Controls

There is a big difference between knowing what your camera controls do and being able to use them quickly and effectively. This example will illustrate the point.

Let’s say you are watching a parade that contains several floats. On one of the floats is your child. When that float is close, you want to get some shots of your child on it. If your camera is set to auto-focus, and there are many objects on the float, your camera doesn’t know which object to focus on.

You know that you want to photograph your child, but to the camera, the large fire engine seems like a more logical point of focus.

One quick solution is to switch from auto focus to manual focus and focus on your child to insure he/she is in perfect focus.

But, if you have to refer to the manual to figure out how to do this, your child and the float will be out of view by the time you figure it out.

Your goal is to be at least familiar enough with your camera that you can quickly change settings and still capture the photograph. Even with static subjects like architecture or landscapes, you will sometimes have to work fast to catch a particular lighting effect.

Time spent getting to know your camera, and what all of the buttons and menus do will pay dividends when you need it for that once-in-a-lifetime photograph.



Basic Photography Tip #4:
How You Hold Your Camera DOES Make a Difference

I’ll wager that if you bought your camera at a camera store, nobody took the time to explain how to properly hold it. This is one of those things that professionals do unconsciously, and beginners may never do until somebody points it out to them (or they learn the hard way).

If you observe others taking photographs, this photography tip would not be necessary. Why? Because you would have already noticed that people often hold cameras with their fingers partially blocking the lens.

The second thing you would notice is fingers getting in the way of the flash or red-eye reduction light. Bottom line, you want to hold your camera so that it is comfortable, secure, and able to take unobstructed photographs.

The other photography tip concerning how your camera is held involves movement. Your objective is ALWAYS to hold the camera as still as possible.

Although not obvious, holding your camera absolutely still does not come naturally. And the longer the exposure time, the more likely the photograph will lose sharpness… that is, unless you use a tripod.

Tests have shown that almost all pictures taken at normal shutter speeds are not as sharp as the picture would have been had the camera been on a tripod.

For example, the butterfly above is not very sharp because the shot was taken with a hand-held camera not mounted on a tripod. By the way, if you HAVE TO take this type of shot without a tripod, use the fastest shutter speed possible. The less time the shutter is open, the less opportunity for camera shake to impact the shot.

If the camera is large enough, grasp the camera firmly in both hands, the right one on the camera body with your first finger poised on the shutter button; and your left hand either under and around the lens, or on the bottom of the camera body.

With small cameras, the fingers of your left hand will probably go over those of your right. (Not too many cameras are built for lefties.)

Just as in shooting a rifle, remember to relax your breathing and to squeeze the shutter button (not jerk it) just before firing. I recommend NOT using the LCD screen, because you cannot steady the camera against your head.

We are all looking for good photo tips. I can only present so many on this site, but there are thousands more. And I'm betting that you have a few favorites you use all the time.

By submitting your best photo tips here, you will be helping others, plus yourself. How? Because after your tip is approved, it will be featured on YOUR OWN WEB PAGE.

Since only ONE tip per page is allowed, each tip receives its own web page. In addition, every month, one photo tip will be featured as the "Best of the Month" on this web page.

Bottom line... you get to view photo tips of other visitors; get ideas to use for your own future photos, and supply comments. So what does it cost? Zip. Nada. Not a cent.

So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to...

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After your tip is accepted, it will become a "live" page on this site. You may upload as many tips as you want, using a new submission page for each one.

Click below to see the tips offered by other visitors...

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