Take Better Photos With Your Point and Shoot Camera

While I love my DSLR, there’s no reason you can’t take great photos with the average point and shoot camera. In fact, most SLR owners that I know also use a point and shoot camera because of their size and the fact that they can take great photos. “But don’t I need to know about all the different settings?” you ask. Helpful, but not as important as two things: using (or not using) the flash and improving your composition by using a very simple rule.

1. The Flash Is Not Always Your Friend

Your point and shoot probably has as good a lens as your friend’s SLR (if he hasn’t upgraded) and your photos can turn out even better than his if you use light and flash appropriately with your point and shoot. Whenever possible, turn off the flash – it creates harsh shadows as opposed to the natural looking shadows created by ambient light. Look for a button with a lightning bolt on your camera to turn off the flash.

While taking photos without a flash can give you much more natural looking photos, it can to lead to more blurry photos. Be careful to hold the your camera still when taking photos or use a tripod when convenient. It also helps to adjust the ISO on your camera to 400 or 800 for indoor, daytime photography.

2. The Rule of Thirds

Do you always center your subject? STOP! Your photos will be much more interesting if you use a compositional rule of thumb called the rule of thirds. To quote Wikipedia: “The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.”

Do you see how the tree in this photo is not centered, but is placed at the intersection of two of the lines? Also, the horizon falls on one of the horizontal lines.

When photographing a single object, say a tree or a person, it is often best to align the subject with the left vertical line. Also, for a person, align the eyes along the top vertical line.

Your photo album software (such as iPhoto) will probably allow you to superimpose this grid on your photos to help you crop them. With some practice, this will become second nature and you’ll be on your way to taking much better photos.

10 Great Photoshop Tutorials on YouTube

Looking to improve your Photoshop skills? Here are ten great YouTube tutorials (compiled by Mashable), including this one to get you started:

Today’s Photo is Fighting Breast Cancer

Stacey Axelrod, today’s featured photographer, is generously donating her commission from all sales today to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the global leader of the breast cancer movement. Stacey’s grandmother, a 50+ year breast cancer survivor passed away recently and Stacey will be making a personal memorial donation to fight breast cancer. Stacey’s grandmother was on a boat with her when she took today’s photograph. Wozofoto.com will match her donation. Click here if you would like to donate directly to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Point and Shoot vs. DSLR

Digital cameras have improved dramatically in quality and price over the past few years, but what kind of camera should you buy?

Point and shoot cameras are small, cheap, and easy to use. If you don’t want to carry a camera bag or be bothered with fancy settings, a point in shoot is the way to go. A compact camera that takes nice photos that you always have with you can be much better than a fancy DSLR that is always left at home. However, there are some drawbacks. Many point and shoots take 10 mega-pixel photos or better, but mega-pixels don’t tell the whole story. A DSLR with 10 MP will take better looking photos than a point and shoot with 10 MP. The image sensor won’t be nearly as good, which reduces the quality of the image no matter how high the resolution, giving you grainier images than you’d see with a DSLR.

Cnet.com rates the Canon PowerShot S90IS ($399) as the best point and shoot and the Kodak Easyshare Z915 ($120) as the best budget point and shoot.

If you are an aspiring photographer, a point and shoot will not be good enough. My favorite thing about my DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) is that there is no lag, it takes photos as I press the shutter button. It’s so much easier to capture the moment! The superior image sensor (up to 25 times better than that of a point and shoot) allows the camera to take photos at a higher shutter speed, reducing your chances for getting a grainy image. My second favorite thing about a DSLR is your ability to control depth of field. You know how professional photographs often have a blurry background? You can do that with a DSRL and impress your friends. As you develop as a photographer you will appreciate being able to adjust the settings for different situations and you can use different lenses (wide angle, long range, etc.) and different flashes.

Cnet.com rates Nikon D5000($665) as the best entry level DSLR, but you can’t go wrong with the Canon Digital Rebel ($559).

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