Learn Digital Photography...Inside Your Digital Camera

Likewise, slow your exposure speed to 1/10 of a second or thereabouts. Be sure to hold your digital camera steady, or use a tripod, to avoid camera shake. That waterfall will now look like a stream of water flowing down. Try adjusting your digital camera's exposure time when recording pool balls, automobiles, or other fast-moving subjects for interesting effects.

If the histogram is balanced towards the middle, your exposure settings should be correct. Your photo should have a normal exposure. Exceptions can occur, so even if the histogram 'looks' right you should visually verify how the image will look with your viewfinder or LCD. If the histogram is weighted towards the sides, chances are your image contains a complex combination of brightness and darkness. Waterfall photos or other areas of dark foliage next to a bright sky may exhibit this trait. In this case, you should experiment and bracket your photos, then pick out which one looks the best to you.

If you are out and about in everday life with your camera and there is a picture that you absolutely cannot miss but you don't have a tripod, what do you do? Obviously you can't carry your tripod everywhere you go: Change the ISO film sensitivity to allow your digital camera to take pictures with shorter exposure times. This can result in grainier images, so you'll need to experiment. Refer to your camera manual for details. Use your digital camera's portrait mode to reduce camera shake. Set your camera to take a picture 2 or 10 seconds after holding and releasing the shutter button, and you'll eliminate camera shake that would have normally resulted. Just remember to keep the camera as still as possible while waiting for the picture to be taken.

If your digital camera has an optical viewfinder and not an electronic one, you should never, never use this when pointing your digital camera towards the sun, especially for sunrise and sunset photos! As your digital camera's optical viewfinder is not tinted, it's almost as bad as just pointing your head and looking straight at the sun. This could cause serious eye damage. Looking through a viewfinder versus the LCD helps you hold the camera sturdier and closer to your eyes, thus reducing camera shake. However, in this instance, you should use your digital camera's LCD. If you're worried about camera shake, use a tripod. However, especially with the sunrise, due to the brightness of the sky, your digital camera should normally be able to take very fast photos, minimizing any camera shake.

If you have a good optical zoom, here is an experiment you can do while taking digital camera photographs. When taking pictures of homes, skyscrapers, cabins, etc., zoom in on individual pieces of architecture. Take a minute to really look at your subject, and you may be able to find individual engravings, sections of paneling, or dents and scars in the wood of a cabin that may result in interesting pictures. The trick to taking better photos is to really observe a subject and see it from all angles. Go downtown, find some office buildings, and really take a minute or two to study them. You may find engravings or sculptures on or around the buildings that you have never noticed before.

Looking for ways to take 'aerial' photography of a large city without taking a helicopter ride or paying to stand in a skyscraper's observation deck? One place you may have not thought about is a garage. A large parking garage with a high vantage point can provide great locations from which to take photos from high above street level. However, don't trespass, and don't arouse suspicion! Bringing along a tripod or taking too long to frame a photo might raise the ire of security guards. Some places don't allow you to take photos altogether, and even if you pay for a parking spot, you might be considered a trespasser or possibly a security threat. So just take a few quick hand-held photos and move on as to not attract attention.

If you are just starting out taking photos at night, check to see if your digital camera has a special night program or scene mode - read your camera manual. This mode will adjust your camera settings, tuning it to low-light conditions and possibly allowing you to take better night photos than if you were fumbling through other options. If you're not sure about adjusting exposure times and have no idea what ISO means, a one-touch setting may be all you need.