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Point and click. The new life of digital cameras gives us all
the opportunity to capture images as we go. Whether you simply
hit the shutter button to take pictures of your friends and
family or if you want to have your camera with you at all times
in order to capture the beauty of life wherever you find it,
getting the most out of your digital camera can be easy.
Let's imagine ourselves with the perfect set up of digital
camera and a few accessories to make things just right. My personal
and professional recommendation is that we start with memory.
Get more today. If you only have one memory card for your camera
it is time to add to the collection. If you have more than one
then good job! The more memory you have for your digital camera
the less likely it will be that you get stuck wanting to take
more pictures and have no more room on the storage. Memory is
relatively cheap, takes up no space in your kit and gives you
total control over creativity.
Your camera comes with a variety of quality settings to work
with when taking images. Don't use TIFF, leave it on one of
the medium quality level settings and your camera will take
fine images for you and not eat up all your memory. If you use
the highest setting you will get very few images onto your card.
They will for the most part be of very high quality but you
would only want to shoot at that level of quality if you are
intending to make high quality large format prints of your images.
Now if that child of yours is just so incredibly cute and your
wall is aching for a portrait of his or her shining face then
by all means do it on the highest quality. The key will be to
use good software to process the image and then a printer that
can make a large format, high quality print of your image. They
exist and for not unreasonable prices I might add.
I was stunned at a recent art show in my neighborhood to be
looking at a photographer's exhibit of large size prints (18x24
and up in size) to find out that he shoots exclusively in digital
now. He was a former film photographer who switched over in
recent years and now makes stunning prints from his digital
images. His landscape images were simply amazing and to find
out that he shot them on a good digital camera made me very
curious about the process, but that is fodder for another article.
Juice is the answer to your next question. Always have more
juice. I spent 20 years in the TV news business and my mantra
was always have extra batteries ready to go and an extra tape
under the back seat in case of emergency. For TV cameras the
batteries were always big and heavy rechargeable NiCads. Lithium
batteries are the rage nowadays as they are lighter in weight,
have no memory problems, and run longer. Digital still cameras
can take advantage of Lithium batteries but the cost is often
slightly prohibitive for most of us. Some camera systems use
proprietary battery systems. I would recommend not buying into
that sort of system. Try to buy a camera that uses universal
types of batteries such as AA's. I use a camera that takes AA's
and I have three sets of rechargeable batteries so I can rotate
through them and never be caught short. Total cost for three
sets of batteries is about $30, and they will last you several
years if you treat them right. If you just buy regular AA batteries
and shoot a lot of images your battery cost might triple that
over a like period of time.
Edison did it and now we consider him a genius. Experimentation
is the name of the game. Digital images cost you nothing but
time and a little battery life. Play around and take lots of
shots of things, people, events, you name it. Look at magazines,
newspapers and notice what images look cool to you. Try to take
shots like that yourself so you can see how it is done. This
will get you thinking about how to make your everyday shots
better. Look for new and different ways to frame things, take
both a vertical and a horizontal shot of the same thing and
see how it changes perspective. Get closer to your subject,
or get farther away to see which looks better. Find something
unique about your subject and look for a way to exploit that
for a better image. Here is and example, say for instance you
have a great looking car you want a picture of, well don't stand
across the street from it and zoom in on the car, get right
up close with the sun behind you so the car is sparkling shiny
and fills the whole frame of the image. Find it's best feature
and center that in the shot say the awesome lines of front of
the car or snazzy wheels.
Print something from your camera every week to remind you of
the beauty of everyday things. Take shots all the time, pick
one and print it out and then put it in front of you for a day
or a week. Live life as though you want beauty around you all
the time. If you are madly in love then surround yourself with
pictures of that love. If you live in a beautiful place then
take pictures of it all the time to make sure you never forget
how special it is to be there in your life. Don't let those
images hide away and not be seen. Wallpaper on your computer
can be another place to put your weekly image, change it regularly
with images from your family, work, life, hobby and you will
get more smiles and more joy out of your camera than you know
what to do with. My current wallpaper takes me back to a wonderful
day on a mountain lake this past summer paddling kayaks in the
afternoon breeze. What about yours?
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About The Author
Kevin Rockwell worked as a network TV cameraman for 20
years shooting news. Now a devoted fan of digital photography
and video he works to gather information and news for
digital camera users. Free reports ->http://great-digital-cameras.com/gdcj.html
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This article was posted on September 14, 2005
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