Take better digital pictures

Digital cameras are easier to use than ever -- but less-than perfect pictures are still a reality. If you've taken pictures that are fuzzy, under-lit, overexposed, or just don't seem to work well when you try to print them or share them electronically, this guide is for you.
Whether your digital photographs are headed for the printed page or electronic presentation via the Web or e-mail, this How-To guide will help you improve the result. The guide highlights techniques you can use to take great digital photos and offers some advice on how to make the most of your pictures once you capture them. It also introduces you to the important decisions you need to make before, during, and after the shot to ensure maximum results with minimum hassle.

Understand it
On the most basic level, digital cameras are easy to use. Generally, all you have to do to take a picture is point and shoot. It doesn't get much simpler than that. However, using a digital camera well is not quite so simple.
Even though today's digital cameras incorporate the most advanced image-capturing technology, they cannot magically create a good photograph. Considering the new wrinkles of the digital photo age -- file type, compression, file size, and media choice -- and it's no surprise that it takes a little know-how to make the most of your digital camera. It's up to you to combine technology with technique if you want to capture the best possible picture.

Instant results don't always mean instant success
Digital cameras deliver instant results. No more waiting on the film lab. Even one-hour turnaround is not quick enough for the speed of business in this new, networked world. However, this speed can be deceptive. You may dash through the entire digital photography process only to be less than satisfied when you see the results. These failures can be aggravating. If you have to take the same picture over and over again to be satisfied, where's the efficiency?
The key to obtaining excellent results lies in the choices you make. Careful composition and cropping draw the viewer's eye to the photograph's focus. When you choose the right resolution, you guarantee that the picture looks good in its final form and that it is portable enough to succeed in digital format. Take the time to manage your digital photographs properly and you can rest assured that they are more than a new take on an old medium. They become important business assets that serve you and your customers with ease.
In short, to take great digital photographs you have to start with a quality camera and easy-to use picture management software. Then, you have to:

• Make some well-informed decisions before you snap the shot.

• Properly manage your pictures from capture all the way to output.

• Think about investing in good photo editing software.

Plan it
To take a useful digital photograph, you have to portray the essence of the subject in a format that is suitable for the photo's final destination (printed material, Web sites, or electronic presentations for example). This is where the planning comes in. You'll need to do several things before you even press the shutter button.

Compose the picture in your mind
Before you shoot your first photograph, take a few seconds to compose the picture you want to take in your mind. Allow yourself to be creative and recompose your picture as many times as you'd like. One of the fantastic things about digital photography is that practice and creativity cost nothing more than time and effort.
For example, you should feel free to venture past the notion of the eternally centered subject by employing the rule of thirds. As you compose your picture with your camera's viewfinder or LCD screen, mentally divide the scene into thirds horizontally and vertically, yielding a 9 square grid, The intersections of the grid lines offer four potential points of placement for the primary subjects of your photograph. See how the picture changes as you move the subject from one point of placement to the next.

Choose the right resolution
A more technical choice you have to consider as you plan your image is what resolution to use. At the least, your camera has high and low resolution settings, although it may have more. The one you choose to use directly impacts the usefulness of your photo later on, as the following table shows.

___Image Destination__________Best Resolution_____
Web or electronic delivery ........................72 dpi

Print .......................................................300 dpi

Both electronic and print ...........................300 dpi
__________________________________________
Pictures headed for web sites or electronic presentations over a computer monitor can have a resolution as low as 72dpi because monitors can't display more than 72dpi. This low DPI makes for smaller file sizes, a necessity when you want to transmit pictures electronically. Alternately, for pictures intended for print, you should take the photograph at 300 dpi (dots per inch) or higher. The more dots there are, the better the photo will appear in print. Newer megapixel cameras support resolutions required by many commercial and offset printers, but these file sizes can be huge. All of this means you're generally better off carefully considering the destination of your photograph before you take it. However, sometimes that's not possible. A photograph that debuts on a Web site might someday end up in a brochure or catalog. Starting with a higher resolution photograph preserves the largest number of possible options for output.
Of course, taking pictures at a higher resolution means the file takes up more space in your camera's memory. If you're concerned about running out of space on your camera try one (or more) of these techniques:

• Purchase an extra couple of media cards for your camera. When you run out of room on one, you can quickly swap cards and take more pictures. Card swapping is the digital equivalent of carrying several rolls of film with you, and most media cards are smaller and lighter than film. For example, if you own an HP PhotoSmart 720 digital camera, you might purchase two 256 MB Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, each smaller than a credit card by half, so you have 512 MB of storage space in addition to the 16 MB of space built into the camera


• Make a habit of regularly transferring pictures from your camera's memory or media cards to your computer. Not only will your camera always be ready to hold more pictures, but you will also have better luck keeping track of your pictures if you catalog them regularly


• Take advantage of your camera's review and toss out pictures you don't want to keep before they even find their way to your camera's memory. Every iffy picture you toss out is one more you can take before running out of storage space

Properly zoom and focus your shot
When the subject of your photograph is extremely distant or extremely close, use your camera's auto-focus feature. On just about any digital camera, the auto-focus button is labeled with a flower/mountain graphic. When you press the button and a flower shows up on your camera's display, you're ready to take pictures in macro (or close-up) mode. When you press the picture and a mountain appears, you're ready to take pictures of distant subjects.
In macro-mode, most cameras can take clear pictures of objects that are as close as just four inches away. However, the optical viewfinder is not capable of seeing objects at this close range, so the LCD activates when you enter the macro-mode. Use it to accurately frame your close-up pictures. This feature is very handy when you do want a close-up shot that demonstrates some exceptional detail of a product. Alternately, if you want to take pictures of a subject that is far away, you can set the auto-focus to infinity. To activate this feature, press and holding the wide-angle/telephoto controller to zoom in to the maximum range allowed by the lens. If you press the wide-angle/telephoto controller again, it will extend the range of the lens and activate the digital-zoom capabilities of the camera. As with extreme close-up shots, this additional magnification will only be visible by looking at the picture displayed on the LCD. In most situations, auto-focus will do the job focus on the subject. However, there may still be situations where neither of the auto-focus options seems sufficient. The solution is to focus the camera manually. Manual focus should allow you to clearly capture the intended subject.

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