Digital Photography Tips for Beginners

Here are digital SLR photography tips that will help to give you a foundation upon which you can build as a new photographer. When you first get that shiny new digital SLR, it's easy to become overwhelmed by all of the features available that you may not understand as a new photographer. It doesn't really matter which model SLR you purchased, the fundamentals will be the same. As a novice, don't burden yourself with the technical aspects that absorb more seasoned photographers. Keep it simple and you will be more likely to have a less frustrating and positive experience with your new gadget.

In the beginning it is best to use your digital SLR's automatic settings. This removes the guess work related to metering, shutter speed, and aperture. Most digital SLR's offer both automatic settings as well as creative zone settings that help you to transition to more advanced techniques as you learn. The majority of standard digital SLR's on the market today have sub-categories within the automatic settings to help you further refine the settings to help you get the best shot possible. The standard green square that you see on the dial is sort of the all purpose setting and it will work for most general purpose shots that you are taking. This setting allows you to point and shoot and essentially capture most scenes or objects. You may also notice what looks like a human face on the dial, a mountain, a flower, a person running, a star with a human figure, and a lightning bolt with a line drawn through it. To break the dial down into easily understood terms, these sub-categories will help you get a better photo as a novice. The setting that looks like a face is best used when photographing people, the mountain is best for shooting a landscape scene, the flower is actually for macro shots (super close-ups of isolated objects), the person running is for high speed or action scenes, the star with the human is for night shots of people, and the lightning bolt with the slash through it is for flash-free photos.

As a new photographer, you should shoot whatever catches your eye. The more photographs you take, the more you will learn. If you are taking photographs outdoors of landscape scenes, you will quickly learn that the most appealing shots are taken in the morning hours or the late afternoon hours when the sun is at a lower angle in the sky and the light is better. Shots taken under the harsh midday sun tend to produce glare as well as harsh shadows, so you may want to avoid those conditions if you are able.

If you are shooting isolated objects and hoping for a nice blurred background, pay attention to the scene as you view it through you viewfinder. Are there other distracting objects in the background that draw your attention away from your subject? If so, move around your object or change the angle to see if you can eliminate other distractions in your shot. Sometimes changing from one side of an object to another improves the image tenfold. If you like what you see through your viewfinder, shoot it and see how it turns out. In general, if you are hoping for those nice blurred backgrounds in your images, you will want to zoom in as much as possible and use the setting that looks like a flower to help give you a wider aperture to aid in achieving the background blur effect.

One mistake that new photographers make relates to the angle of your shots. If you are taking a photograph of your dog, cat, child, or just about anything else, shooting down at your subject will not produce as pleasing of an image as one in which you drop down to your subject's level. If you are photographing an animal or child, lower yourself so that you are able to shoot at eye level if possible. You will find out quickly that much more of your subject's personality is conveyed in an image taken at eye level. This rule holds true for anything that has eyes from a bird to your girlfriend!

Get familiar with your menus. Look for the menu button on your digital SLR and push it. You will find many useful features located here from the quality setting of your images to red-eye reduction. The quality setting generally refers to image size. You will probably see L, M, and S and you may see a second L, M, and S that looks like steps. If you have a CF card that holds less than 1MB of data, you may want to set this to S or M so that each image takes up less space on your card. While this will give you a smaller image in the end, it will also allow you to take more photos. In general, it is best to shoot large because it gives you more flexibility with cropping and framing when editing your photos on your computer. In other words, you have more to work with once you download the image onto your computer. If you don't want to have to re-size photos for email, the small or medium setting is a better place for you to start. Remember, you can change these settings during each outing with your camera, or even multiple times from one shot to the next. The S, M, and L that look like they have steps are for lower quality images that will save space on your memory storage card. It's highly recommended that you get a storage card for your camera that will allow you to avoid these lower quality settings. CF and SD cards are reasonably priced these days, so get the most memory available to you for the price. The more your photography skills increase, and they will, the more memory you are going to want. Give yourself room to grow.

Keep your lens cap on when you are not using your camera. This seems like a no brainer, but many new photographers fail to realize how important this truly is. You do not want scratches on your lens because they will show up in your photographs. The same holds true for dust or smudges-if it's on the lens, it's in the shot. Take a peek at your lens before you take your camera out. Is it clean? If not, use a lens cleaning cloth and put the lens cap on until you are ready to use the camera.

Don't use harsh chemicals to clean your lens. Your lens isn't like a window or a mirror. Many of them have a special coating that will be degraded or destroyed by harsh chemicals. A lens cleaning cloth and lens cleaner are generally a safe bet.

Have fun. Learning photography is a journey and you have to start somewhere. Don't worry about perfection and don't compare yourself to the pros when you are just starting out. If it isn't fun for you, it's unlikely that you will stick with it and grow into your full potential. All great photographers started somewhere, and it wasn't at the top!

Source: Author is a published photographer.