How To Take Great Digital Photographs

When taking digital photos, think of what you want to say with them. Photos are memories that tell a story about your life. The story can be about your family events, random moments of every day life and great places you visit. When you look through your viewfinder you should imagine what others will see and feel when they later view the photo. It might be “that’s your first step," or “what a great fish,” or “you won/lost your football game.”

  Capture the moment with varied shots. Sometimes the subjects are posing—aware of being photographed but sometimes they are not posing—totally unaware of being photographed. 

  Fill your frame with your subject so that there is no question about what you are emphasizing. Use the zoom feature on your camera to move your subject in closer and/or move closer to your subject. You can still leave room around the edges for clues to the scene as this adds the setting to your story. However, watch out for unwanted objects that might clutter an otherwise perfect shot. Try to create contrast between your subject and the background so that the subject stands out—the grass, water and plain backgrounds are good backgrounds. You want to know exactly what the subject of the photo is. Try to take pictures from different angles to eliminate or minimize unwanted objects. Walk around your subject until you capture the right lighting.

  Experiment with varied placement of your main subject within your frame to add interest—people tend to center most photos. Take pictures from different heights and perspectives. Stand on a staircase or a ladder to shoot downward.  Shoot from the bottom of the bleachers for a shot of people sitting higher up or at the bottom of your staircase for people coming down. Move your camera up and down and left and right to capture different scenes. If your subject is vertical, like an urban building, point your camera up to capture the height and shape of the building. When taking a photo of a child try crouching down, take shots with the camera at the same level as the child.

  To add further interest to your photo try to “frame” your shot with objects in the foreground or background.  Shoot photographs through arched doorways, tunnels, windows or anything that you can peek through to view your subject. Some objects that you can use to frame your photo are: an overhanging tree branch, a window frame, a door, arches, a fence, railings, rows of trees, buildings on either side of you, mountains or anything that surrounds your object in a pleasing way.

  Get to know what features your camera has. Most manufacturers have online manuals that you can easily search through. The feature I love on my digital camera is the option to shoot in black and white. I took some beautiful retro-looking shots at a football game. It also has a panorama feature that allows me to take three pictures of a scene at different sections and then join them together to make a poster.

  Get out and take lots of digital photos. With digital photography you can take hundreds of photos and chose the most effective ones without spending a lot of extra money. When you choose the photos you like best, try analyzing what made it a great photo. Then, the next time a similar shot presents itself try using some of the features or tricks that made that photo great!