Important Notes for your Camera
Experiment with exposure Digital cameras usually work best in sunlight, just like film cameras. When you move indoors, or into dim light, things get much trickier — just like film cameras. So experiment.
One thing to try is to shoot your subject from different angles, using different lighting. Try turning off the flash, if your camera allows you to do so. If your camera allows “fill flash,” try that, too. Every now and then a perfectly exposed picture is made even better with fill flash. From time to time turning off the flash and leaving the subject somewhat underexposed can add drama to the shot.
One thing you should do on regular basis, if you are looking for the perfect shot, is take the same picture three different ways, with three different exposure options; you are guaranteed to get three radically different pictures — and all of them will look good. But you must experiment.
Try to bracket your shots, one shot somewhat underexposed, one slightly overexposed, and one “just right.” Some digital cameras will do this automatically, but even then you need to practice. If you are expecting the camera to shoot one frame and it ends up shooting three you camera is bracketing.
Special features Most digital cameras have a variety of built-in special features. Some will allow you to record sound, some allow you to take short QuickTime clips, and some allow you to experiment with special effects, such as shooting black and white or sepia-tone images. Until you learn the basics of your camera I recommend that you ignore the special features.
Keep in mind that some of these tricks, such as black and white or sepia-toned images, can be done without the camera. Just load up a normal color image in Photoshop and, in a few minutes, you can have perfect black and white or sepia-toned photos. In other words, if you can do it easily in Photoshop, you might be better off concentrating on taking a good color photo, and worrying about special effects later on at your leisure.
However, you should try out other special effects. For instance you can pan your camera to track a car moving at high speed; the car will be in sharp focus but the background will be blurred, making an interesting picture. Or you can do the opposite: focus on a particular stationary object — a child flying a kite, a freshly-painted fire hydrant — and allow a speeding car to enter the frame. You’ll then have a sharply focused center of attention with the added benefit of motion.
Another nice special effect you can try are silhouettes. Take a photo with your subject in shadow, eclipsing a brightly-exposed object in the background. The reverse — a brightly exposed subject against a dark background — can be just as interesting. Trying to do this with film cameras is expensive: you shoot a lot of frames with little or no reward. With a digital camera, however, the only cost is your time and patience, and your patience will be rewarded.
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