Composition

Many people comment on certain photographers having an eye for taking good pictures. In part, that is skill and experience you are seeing. Another part is the expression of art with an understanding of some basic rules. Of course, like any artist, you can take some great shots that 'break' all the rules, however, it is safe to say that taking into consideration the following six items will help improve the quality of your pictures and create more interesting images.

Keep it simple

Think to yourself, "What am I taking a picture of?" and keep that in mind. Identifying the subject of interest and avoiding distracting backgrounds will help to keep the picture clear. Zoom in to clear out irrelevant parts of the scene and capture just what you're looking for, avoiding objects like signs, buildings or people that take the viewer's eye away from the point of focus. An example of this is taking a picture of crowd of protestors - a busy image where the eye has trouble figuring out what should take its focus. Zooming in on one protestor in particular, though, makes it very clear what should command the viewer's attention.

Rule of thirds

Picture a tic tac toe board: two horizontal lines intersected by two vertical lines. This creates an easy formula - line up the horizon of the shot with either of the two horizontal lines, and line up the subject (either a person, building or the focus of your picture) with either of the vertical lines, ideally where the lines intersect. When viewing a scene, try to overlay this map into the viewfinder - with only a little adjustment, you can quickly create more visually interesting images by simply adjusting (or cropping after the fact) what you see to line up with these invisible markers. When dealing with a moving subject or a person, it's often preferable to have them looking or moving 'into' the picture from one of the two sides.

Lines and Shapes

We all remember our geometry classes, dominated by circles, triangles, and snake-like curves. Applying these simple shapes to your subject matter can help to simplify complex scenes and add visual interest. Consider trying to capture an image of a person walking down a long, straight street. Instead of shooting straight down the line, move yourself five or ten feet to the side and shoot that road at an angle - having that line crossing through the intersecting lines of the imaginary tic tac toe board from the rule of thirds can create the illusion of movement as they lead the eye through the picture. S-curves are even more dynamic, while repetitive lines can also create movement of the eye through the picture, like repeating waves of sand on a beach or parallel row houses along the side of a road.

Vantage Point

Most images taken by amateur photographers are taken at eye level - this means most of these pictures are taken from the narrow range of 5 to 6 feet in height. Taking a picture from a lower vantage point (for example crouching or even lying on the ground) can add grandeur and significance to the subject, while getting more height (from climbing up a tree, fence or steps) will reduce the significance of the subject in your scene. Examples of using this could be taking a picture of your children playing looking from the ground, or capturing a busy marketplace scene where no one person would stand out over another.

Balance

Most images taken by amateur photographers are taken at eye level - this means most of these pictures are taken from the narrow range of 5 to 6 feet in height. Taking a picture from a lower vantage point (for example crouching or even lying on the ground) can add grandeur and significance to the subject, while getting more height (from climbing up a tree, fence or steps) will reduce the significance of the subject in your scene. Examples of using this could be taking a picture of your children playing looking from the ground, or capturing a busy marketplace scene where no one person would stand out over another.

Framing

Framing, as it sounds, is a way of drawing attention to the subject in the picture by blocking off or framing parts of the scene using natural or artificial barriers, and however accomplished can add prominence to the subject, and will help add a sense of depth to the photo. Using this concept literally, you can try taking an outdoor scene from the inside through an open window to create interest, or capture a newly married couple kissing in a doorway or hallway to draw the eye to them. Other more natural ways of framing a shot are using trees (shooting through gaps in the branches and leaves), or viewing a beach from between craggy rocks.

Lighting

The most important thing to understand about photography, whether it’s digital or film, is that it’s all about capturing light. So by understanding how different light affects your picture, you can significantly change the way your pictures turn out. Ideally, whenever possible, ensure that there is enough ambient light - the light that is already available whether it’s natural sunlight outdoors or indoor light fixtures. The more that is available, the easier it will be to take a picture without having to be concerned with aperture, shutter speed, or flashes.

Indoor Photos

The most obvious area where this isn’t always possible is indoors. No ceiling light or table lamp can be as bright as the sun, so you will almost always have to add more light with a flash. Most professional photographers prefer to have more control over the lighting so they will use a variety of stronger lights to help them. By adding more light to an indoor scene, you can avoid the need for a camera flash, which can be distracting to the subject, particularly when you are trying to capture unposed or natural shots

Flash

When it isn't practical to add more light to an indoor or low-light scene, you can often rely on a flash to help add to the available light. A common mistake with a flash, however, is to misunderstand the reach of the resulting light. Most portable cameras can only light up a subject within an average of 10 to 15 feet – so, if the subject of the photo is further away than that, then either move closer, or look for an alternate light source or option. Professional photographers will often use an external flash, which can be synchronized with the camera like a built-in flash, but can be much brighter, as well as having the ability to position it separately from the camera itself.

Camera Adjustments

Where lighting is less than optimum, you also have a number of options at your disposal if your camera provides more manual control over its functions. Many of these options simply allow for more light to enter the camera (more depth into these features is discussed on the next page covering advanced techniques). By adjusting the aperture, you can widen the lens opening to let more light in at one time into the camera, thereby taking more of the existing light in than you would otherwise. You can also adjust the shutter speed – by using a longer shutter speed, you allow more time for the available light to enter, however the disadvantage of doing this is that your shots are more prone to camera shake and blurring, so be aware and mount the camera on a flat surface or use a tripod. Many cameras also offer the ability to adjust the exposure which can help to compensate for having either too much or too little light available. A more dramatic example of these kinds of adjustments is with night shots, where photographers will often use a combination of all three, sometimes with shutter speeds of 20 seconds or longer, to effectively capture nighttime traffic, starry galaxies, or unique images of popular monuments.

Controlled Lighting

As you become more comfortable with lighting, you can change the feeling of a photo by controlling the way light hits different parts of the scene or subject. For example, having the light hit the side of a subject can add more contrast between facial features and shadows, making for a more dramatic pose. Having the light behind a subject can allow the background to be lit while the foreground is dark, which can completely change the mood of the photo. If you want to ensure that everything in your photo is visible, then try and ensure that the indoor or outdoor light is hitting from the front for the most even view of the scene. Many studio photographers will use a variety of techniques, including multiple light sources and bouncing a flash off of a ceiling or object, to further control the lighting of portraits and other staged scenes.

Advanced Stuff

If your camera provides manual control over its functions, you can get a lot more control over the resulting image. The types of advanced techniques will be different depending on the type of camera you have – smaller point-and-shoot cameras typically will have fewer options (or limit the options to common presets), where more advanced cameras will bring greater flexibility of how the picture is taken, and prosumer and DSL cameras have lenses that allow for further creative picture taking options.

Aperture

Controlling the aperture is an advanced technique which allows you to control the width of the lens opening (like the iris of an eye), allowing for more direct control over how much light enters the camera, and is normally referred to as an 'F-stop' or 'aperture number' such as F2.8 or F8 (a higher number refers to a smaller aperture opening, which means it is letting in less light, and a smaller number refers to a larger aperture opening - in this case, F refers to the focal length of the lens). A smaller aperture number allows you to use a shorter shutter speed (which makes it better for fast action shots), while a larger aperture allows you to use a longer shutter when there is bright light (for example, capturing the motion of a waterfall on a sunny day). Controlling the aperture also affects the depth of field within the photo (which refers to how much of the photo is in focus at the same time). For example, with landscape photography, you could use a small aperature to get a greater depth of field and have the whole scene in focus to see all the details, however with portrait or macro photography, you can use a larger aperture to get a shallow depth of field and isolate/highlight the subject by forcing the rest of the photo out of focus (DOF is also affected by focal length - the longer the focal length the less DOF, so because most smaller compact cameras have shorter focal lengths, it can be difficult for them to achieve a shallow DOF).

Shutter Speed

Controlling the shutter speed can also allow you to change the feel of a photo – for example, you may want a fast shutter speed to capture fast action, sports, or other areas where you’d want to 'freeze the scene' like a busy marketplace, or use a slower shutter speed to capture low light shots or introduce a sense of motion into the photo - for example, capturing the movement of water in a waterfall or traffic along a busy city street.

ISO / Exposure

In a parallel to the film camera world, digital cameras uses ISO to refer to the sensitivity of the digital sensor (in the same way that film ISO refers to the sensitivity of the film). ISO is referred to numerically, such as ISO 100 or ISO 800, with the higher value meaning more sensitive to exposure from light. Normally this is controlled automatically by the camera, but by manually changing the ISO value, you can make the camera sensor more sensitive to light, allowing you to take photos with a faster shutter speed (a shorter exposure), or with a longer exposure when working with low light. The trade-off of a higher ISO value is that it is similar to turning up the volume on a stereo when the recording is quiet - you hear the music louder, but you also hear more background noise. In the same way, using a higher ISO value will introduce more noise into the photo, although there are many noise-reduction software packages that will allow you to reduce or eliminate noise afterwards.

If you have a Digital SLR - Lenses

The use of filters or lenses can allow you to completely change how light hits the camera, for example, there are a number of add-on filters that can either soften the photo, provide slight blurring around the edges to capture a sensitive mood in portraits, add light flares for a touch of drama, or a polarizer which controls stray light and glare and provides richer, more vivid/saturated photos (if your camera doesn't support filters, one trick is to use a pair of polarizing sunglasses in front of the lens as a polarizing filter - for best results try shooting with the sun behind you). Additionally, more advanced cameras can allow you to add on lenses to the main fixed lens, or change the main lens out completely; in both cases, this can let you use a macro lens, which can help you to get closer to a subject than you otherwise would be able to, like an insect or flower, a wide angle lens for landscape shots and good for capturing landmarks or other large scenes, or a telephoto lens that can give you longer zooms than your camera allows to get closer to a distant object or subject, perfect for a safari trip.

Cropping

Cropping can be another powerful editing tool, especially with newer cameras that have greater resolution (giving you a larger source image to work from). Cropping trims off unwanted parts of the photo leaving you with the parts you want to keep. This can have a significant effect on the photo, since you can change the balance, composition and drama of a photo, for example, in a photo where a subject was centered, you can crop off more on one side to align objects with the rule of thirds, or remove portions of the background, like a building, tree or stray person. You can also crop a photo to change it from landscape to portrait, leading to a more interesting picture than the one you originally took.

Sharing Photos

One of the greatest conveniences of digital cameras is being able to easily share photographs after you’ve taken them. Your options are almost as varied as the kinds of cameras you can choose, so you can be sure your favorite memories are seen. A tip on how to have the greatest impact with your photo albums is to resist the tendency to show every picture you’ve taken. With digital cameras having fewer space limitations, you often end up with several similar shots, so trimming out the duplicates will ensure that your friends and family will only see the best and most memorable shots. When you want to email pictures to friends, you can hand over the top few pictures that you really like, and archive the larger collection on your computer.

Digital Albums

After a big trip, you can collect all your pictures and group them all in one directory or folder on your computer’s hard drive – one folder for each trip will keep your pictures nicely organized. There are also a variety of software packages available (such as Google's Picasa, Apple's iPhoto or LView) to help you organize your photos, enter captions, search through the stored photos by date or caption, and do a number of simple editing adjustments - this allows you to use your computer as a digital photo album.

Megapixel

Buying by only the megapixel rating will mean you will miss out on the other features of the camera – portability, accessories, a good quality flash, but it is one of the most important considerations. Less than 3 megapixel cameras are suitable for basic snapshots; the camera will be small and good enough to take basic 'I was there' shots, but the images won’t be as clear if you want anything larger than standard 4x6 prints. Between 3 and 5 megapixels, you will find the best range of everyday use and vacation cameras – you can fill your photo albums with shots from cameras in this range or use them as desktop images, as you will generally find the images are good enough that you don’t need any more and will be able to make good quality prints at a variety of sizes. From 5 to 7 megapixels, you will find serious cameras for hobbyists that want to explore photography as an art or those that are looking to stay ahead of the curve – the images will take up more hard drive space but will be perfect for manipulation and printing out in larger sizes. Choose a camera of 7 megapixels or more if you are a professional and expect to be paid for the work you produce, as these cameras are overkill for casual everyday use, but ideal for professionals who need the highest resolution for larger prints, and more flexible cropping options.

Zoom

Zooming is another important consideration with digital cameras - there are two kinds of zoom: optical zoom and digital zoom. An optical zoom factor is one that relies on the lens itself magnifying the light coming in, so that what is distant appears larger and closer in the resulting image. A digital zoom factor is one that takes the resulting image and magnifies it after the fact. Needless to say, an optical zoom factor is much more important than a digital zoom factor (and produces better quality results).

Storage Media

The way the images themselves are stored can be a factor in your decision, as some camera makers have proprietary storage systems that are incompatible with the cameras of other makes. Some common formats are Compact Flash (a fairly common format across both compact and professional cameras), Sony Memory Stick (unique to Sony cameras, but also supported by Sony computers, televisions, and other devices), and SmartMedia. Storage sizes can range from the smallest 64K card/stick, which can hold about three dozen three megapixel images, to the larger 1G cards/sticks, which can hold more than 500 of the same images. Prices have come down on most of the memory cards/sticks making selection of the larger sizes more affordable and a smarter choice. Choose the largest size you are comfortable with, and ideally select a second smaller stick as a backup in case the first one becomes full – a combination of a 1gig with a 512K card/stick is good enough if you move all your images onto your computer on a regular basis.  If your a more aggressive photographer shooting 6-10 megapixel images, 2-4 gig would be a better choice.

Archiving

Taking that one step further, there is no worse feeling than seeing the perfect kiss, smile or sunset, reaching for your camera and clicking the button, only to realize that your storage is full and you’ve missed your chance. It’s happened to everyone, but still, you can prevent it by clearing off your old pictures monthly (or more frequently if you are a shutterbug). Bring a second memory card/stick with you when you go on a trip, even if your primary card/stick is large, just in case you need the extra space. There are also portable storage products available that allow you to offload and archive your photos to keep your main storage free, ranging from iPod adapters to portable drives/CD burners.