There is a
great degree of difference in the quality of digital
photos produced from different makes and models of digital
cameras. To go further, the degree of quality difference
is even greater between lower and higher priced digital
cameras. If you have not purchased your digital camera
yet, I highly recommend you buy the best quality camera
you can afford.
Even though this quality difference does exist, there are
a few simple things you can do to produce the best quality
photos from whatever digital camera you use. A few of the
pointers in this article are just common sense tips, and
some are more technical in nature. Using these simple tips
when shooting photos will help you produce the best images
possible from your particular digital camera.
To get down to the real basic and common sense advice for
photo taking, you first and foremost have to hold you
camera steady. I know this may sound silly, but you would
be surprised how many photos we get that have mild to
severe camera shake. This camera shake really becomes
obvious when the photo is enlarged.
A good tip is the same tip given for shooting firearms.
Slowly exhale while snapping the photo, and hold your arms
at a 45 degree angle from the vertical or horizontal
plane. This will help you have a steady hold on the
camera. Better yet, if you have problems with a steady
grip, the best thing to do is rest the camera against a
tree or other firm steady structure when shooting. Best of
all, use a tripod, especially in low light conditions.
Digital cameras are very light critical, more so than film
cameras. The amount and direction of the ambient light is
very important when using digital cameras. It is hard to
get a well balanced photo when shooting into the direction
of the source lighting.
This is where making specific white balance settings can
make a real difference in color and tonal qualities with
digital cameras. Even when shooting in an auto mode with
any digital camera you should be able to set different
white balance modes. Learn what the different setting
modes mean for your particular digital camera and use them
for different ambient lighting conditions. It will make a
big difference in the quality of your digital photos.
Probably the most important thing you can do to take
better digital photos is to always have your camera set on
the highest quality, or resolution setting. No matter what
the megapixel rating for your camera is, the higher the
image resolution the larger the amount of image data that
is collected. Image data translates into more and finer
gradation of color, finer image detail and more dynamic
image contrast. If you are worried about the amount of
pictures you can take for your storage card, get a larger
capacity card. This is by far the most important element
for higher quality digital photos.
The average person is usually using a digital camera
equipped with auto focus. The time it may take for a
camera to perform this auto focus is sometimes longer than
you may think. Also, the camera's ability to auto focus
accurately in lower light conditions may be an issue. I
would recommend reading your camera's operations manual to
get a working knowledge of these two focusing aspects.
After all, how good can a photograph be if it is not in
focus. Photo enlargements really make this problem
obvious.
Many digital cameras have the feature of capturing the
image with different file formats. The file format used
for taking digital photos can make a difference in the
quality of the photo. Most point and shoot cameras use the
JPG file format. The JPG format used in most of today's
digital cameras is better and just a few years ago. The
JPG format is a compressed file format which reduces file
size so more images can be captured in a smaller storage
space. You will get good photos using this format, but may
encounter slight issues like a chromatic hazing around
finer image details contrasted by the sky or something
lighter or brighter.
If you have a file format setting choice with your camera,
I would recommend using either the RAW or .tif format.
Either of these formats will capture more image data, and
most RAW format cameras capture with a higher color gamut,
or capture a wider range of color. Even if you convert a
12 or 16 bit color image to 8 bit for printing, the fact
that it was captured with a higher color bit, means you
still will have a wider range of color in the print. Once
again, you will need more storage card capacity using
these formats, but the increase in photo quality will be
worth it.
I would also like to say a couple things about digital
camera zooming. You see some makes and models boasting 8x
and 10x zooming capabilities these days. Well I really
question the quality produced with this type of zooming
and believe this to be just a marketing ploy. You may be
surprised at the cost of a high quality long distance lens.
I would suggest keeping your zooming more in the 2x to 3x
range with point and shoot cameras and never use the
digital zoom. This will create a resampled photo with much
lower quality.
These are just a few basic points you may want to keep in
mind when shooting digital photographs. To really get the
highest performance possible out of any digital camera I
would highly recommend reading and learning the details of
the camera outlined in the owners manual. There you will
find all the ins and outs of your particular make and
model which will give you the absolute knowledge for the
finest quality photos.
Happy Shooting! |
|
