Take Better Photos With Your Point and Shoot Camera
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
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.
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