Taking Better Pictures with your Digital Camera

How to take better pictures
Taken from Kodak.com

Look your subject in the eye

• Stoop down to children's eye level (or your cat's eye level or dog's eye level, etc.)

Use a plain background

• Study the background before taking your pictures
• Try to avoid pictures where objects stick up from behind your subjects head, cars stick out of your subjects ear, etc

Use flash outdoors

• Bright sunlight can create odd facial shadows
• Use your camera as a "fill flash" to fill in some of the shadows
• Not sure? Take the picture twice. One with the flash, and one without.

Move in close If your object is smaller than a car, take a step closer and zoom in on your subject Your goal is to fill the picture area with the subject you are photographing

Move it from the middle

• Avoid placing all of your subjects in the middle of your picture
• You may need to use Focus Lock to make this work (see below)

Lock the focus

• Center the subject in your view finder, then press the Shutter button half way down
• Now move your camera so the subject is off -center (keep holding the button half way)
• Press the button all the way down

Know your flash's range

• Do NOT take pictures outside of your flash range (most cameras have a flash range of 8 - 12 feet)

Watch the light

• Bright sunlight may expose more than you want to see
• Cloudy days may soften your images in just the right way
• Try taking pictures early or late in the day

Take some vertical pictures

• Variety is a good thing

Be a picture director

• Take control of your subjects