You've heard this before: Digital cameras do all the
work. You just push the button and great pictures magically appear. The better
the camera, the better the photos. Isn't that right? Heck no!
The truth is that you can make great photos with a simple
consumer point-and-shoot camera, or take lousy shots with the most expensive
Nikon. It's not the camera that makes beautiful images; it's the photographer.
With a little knowledge and a willingness to make an adjustment here and there,
you can squeeze big time photos out of the smallest digicam.
To help you down the road to great image making, here are
ten tips that will enable you shoot like a pro (without maxing out your credit
card on all that expensive equipment).
#1. Warm Up Those Tones
Have you ever noticed that your shots sometimes have a cool,
clammy feel to them? If so, you're not alone. The default white balance setting
for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots, but tends
to be a bit on the "cool" side.
When shooting outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes, try
changing your white balance setting from auto to cloudy. That's
right, cloudy. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on
your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer
pictures.
If you don't believe me, then do a test. Take a few outdoor
shots with the white balance on auto, then take the same picture again
with the setting on cloudy. Upload the images to your computer and look at
them side by side. My guess is that you'll like the warmer image better.
#2: Sunglasses Polarizer
If you really want to add some punch to your images, then
get your hands on a polarizing filter. A polarizer is the one filter every
photographer should have handy for landscapes and general outdoor shooting. By
reducing glare and unwanted reflections, polarized shots have richer, more
saturated colors, especially in the sky.
What's that you say? Your digital camera can't accommodate
filters. Don't despair. I've been using this trick for years with my
point-and-shoot cameras. If you have a pair of quality sunglasses, then simply
take them off and use them as your polarizing filter. Place the glasses as
close to the camera lens as possible, then check their position in the LCD
viewfinder to make sure you don't have the rims in the shot.
For the best effect, position yourself so the sun is over
either your right or left shoulder. The polarizing effect is strongest when the
light source is at a 90-degree angle from the subject.
#3. Outdoor Portraits That Shine
One of the great hidden features on digital cameras is the fill
flash or flash onmode. By taking control of the flash so it goes on
when you want it to, not when the camera deems it appropriate, you've
just taken an important step toward capturing great outdoor portraits.
In flash on mode, the camera exposes for the
background first, then adds just enough flash to illuminate your portrait
subject. The result is a professional looking picture where everything in the
composition looks good. Wedding photographers have been using this technique
for years.
After you get the hang of using the flash outdoors, try a
couple variations on this theme by positioning the subject so the sun
illuminates the hair from the side or the back, often referred to as rim
lighting. Another good technique is to put the model in the shade under a tree,
then use the flash to illuminate the subject. This keeps the model comfortable
and cool with no squinty eyes from the harsh sun, and this often results in a
more relaxed looking portrait.
Remember, though, that most built-in camera flashes only
have a range of 10 feet (or even less!), so make sure you don't stand too far
away when using fill flash outdoors.
#4. Macro Mode Madness
Remember as a kid discovering the whole new world beneath
your feet while playing on the grass? When you got very close to the ground,
you could see an entire community of creatures that you never knew existed.
These days, you might not want to lie on your belly in the
backyard, but if you activate the close up mode on your digital
camera and begin to explore your world in finer detail, you'll be rewarded with
fresh new images unlike anything you've ever shot before.
Even the simplest object takes on new fascination in macro
mode. And the best part is that it's so easy to do with digital cameras.
Just look for the close up or macro mode icon,
which is usually a flower symbol, turn it on, and get as close to an object as
your camera will allow. Once you've found something to your liking, hold the
shutter button down halfway to allow the camera to focus. When the confirmation
light gives you the go ahead, press the shutter down the rest of the way to
record the image.
Keep in mind that you have very shallow depth of field when
using the close upmode, so focus on the part of the subject that's most
important to you, and let the rest of the image go soft.
#5. Horizon Line Mayhem
For some mysterious reason, most human beings have a hard
time holding the camera level when using the LCD monitors on their digicams.
The result can be cockeyed sunsets, lopsided landscapes, and tilted towers.
Part of the problem is that your camera's optics introduce
distortion when rendering broad panoramas on tiny, two-inch screens. Those
trees may be standing straight when you look at them with the naked eye, but
they seem to be bowing inward on your camera's monitor. No wonder photographers
become disoriented when lining up their shots.
What can you do? Well, there's no silver bullet to solve all
of your horizon line problems, but you can make improvements by keeping a few
things in mind.
First of all, be aware that it's important to capture your
images as level as possible. If you're having difficulty framing the scene to
your liking, then take your best shot at a straight picture, reposition the
camera slightly, take another picture, and then maybe one more with another
adjustment. Chances are very good that one of the images will "feel
right" when you review them on the computer. Simply discard the others
once you find the perfectly aligned image.
If you practice level framing of your shots, over time the
process will become more natural, and your percentage of level horizon lines
will increase dramatically.
#6: Massive Media Card
When you're figuring out the budget for your next digital
camera, make sure you factor in the purchase of an additional memory card. Why?
Because the cards included with your new high-tech wonder toy are about as
satisfying as an airline bag of peanuts when you're dying of hunger.
If you have a 3 megapixel camera, get at least a 256MB card,
512MBs for 4 megapixel models, and 1GB for for 6 megapixels and up.
That way you'll never miss another shot because your memory
card is full.
#7: High Rez All the Way
One of the most important reasons for packing a massive
memory card is to enable you to shoot at your camera's highest resolution. If
you paid a premium price for a 6 megapixel digicam, then get your money's worth
and shoot at 6 megapixels. And while you're at it, shoot at your camera's
highest quality compression setting too.
Why not squeeze more images on your memory card by shooting
a lower resolution and low quality compression settings? Because you never know
when you're going to capture the next great image of the 21st century. And if
you take a beautiful picture at the low 640 x 480 resolution, that means you
can only make a print about the size of a credit card, not exactly the right
dimensions for hanging in the museum.
On the other hand, if you recorded the image at 2272 x 1704
(4 megapixels) or larger, then you can make a lovely 8- x 10-inch photo-quality
print suitable for framing or even for gracing the cover of Time magazine.
And just in case you were able to get as close to the action as you had liked,
having those extra pixels enables you to crop your image and still have enough
resolution to make a decent sized print.
The point is, if you have enough memory (and you know you
should), then there's no reason to shoot at lower resolution and risk missing
the opportunity to show off your work in a big way.
#8: Tolerable Tripod
I once overheard someone say, "He must be areal photographer
because he's using a tripod." Well, whether or not you use a tripod has
nothing to do with you being a true photographer. For certain types of shots
though, these three-legged supports can be very useful.
The problem is tripods are a pain in the butt to carry
around. They are bulky, unwieldily, and sometimes downright frustrating. Does
the phrase "necessary evil" come to mind?
For digital shooters there's good news: the
UltraPod II by Pedco.
This compact, versatile, ingenious device fits in your back pocket and enables
you to steady your camera in a variety of situations. You can open the legs and
set it on any reasonable flat surface such as a tabletop or a boulder in the
middle of nowhere. But you can also employ its Velcro strap and attach your
camera to an available pole or tree limb.
You might not need a tripod that often, but when you do,
nothing else will work. Save yourself the pain and money of a big heavy lug of
a pod, and check out the svelte UltraPod. Yes, then you too can be a real photographer.
#9: Self Timer Fun
Now that you have your UltraPod in hand, you can explore
another under-used feature found on almost every digital camera: the self
timer. This function delays the firing of the shutter (after the button has
been pushed) for up to 10 seconds, fixing one of the age old problems in
photography: the missing photographer.
Hey, just because you've been donned as the creative
historian in your clan, that doesn't mean that your shining face should be
absent from every frame of the family's pictorial accounting. You could hand
your trusty digicam over to strangers while you jump in the shot, but then you
take the chance of them dropping, or even worse, running off with your camera.
Instead, attach your UltraPod, line up the shot, activate
the self timer, and get in the picture. This is usually a good time to
turn on the flash to ensure even exposure of everyone in the composition (but
remember that 10 foot flash range limit!). Also, make sure the focusing sensor
is aimed at a person in the group and not the distant background, or you'll get
very sharp trees and fuzzy family members.
Self timers are good for other situations, too. Are you
interested in making long exposures of cars driving over the Golden Gate Bridge
at dusk? Once again, secure your camera on a tripod, then trip the shutter
using the self timer. By doing so, you prevent accidental jarring of the camera
as you initiate the exposure.
#10. Slow Motion Water
I come from a family where it's darn hard to impress them
with my artsy pictures. One of the few exceptions happened recently when my
sister commented that a series of water shots I had shown her looked like
paintings. That was close enough to a compliment for me.
What she was responding to was one of my favorite types of
photographs: slow motion water. These images are created by finding a nice
composition with running water, then forcing the camera's shutter to stay open
for a second or two, creating a soft, flowing effect of the water while all the
other elements in the scene stay nice and sharp.
You'll need a tripod to steady the camera during the long
exposure, and you probably should use the self timer to trip the shutter. If
you camera has an aperture priority setting, use it and set the aperture to
f-8, f-11, or f-16 if possible. This will give you greater depth of field and
cause the shutter to slow down.
Ideally, you'll want an exposure of one second or longer to
create the flowing effect of the water. That means you probably will want to
look for streams and waterfalls that are in the shade instead of the bright
sunlight.
Another trick is to use your sunglasses over the lens to
darken the scene and create even a longer exposure. Plus you get the added
bonus of eliminating distracting reflections from your composition.
Final Thoughts
Most digital cameras, even the consumer point-and-shoot
models, have a tremendous amount of functionality built into them. By applying
a little ingenuity and creativity, you can take shots that will make viewers
ask, "So what kind of camera do you have?"
You can tell them the answer, but inside, you'll know it's
not the camera responsible for those great pictures. It's the photographer.
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