As with traditional film-based photography, the most fundamental skills to master in taking good photographs include composition and achieving proper exposure. Some of the basic principles of regular photography apply also to digital photography, but some of the methods you'll use will be different.
Composition Using the LCD Screen
If you photograph with the LCD screen on your digital camera activated, you can use the screen to preview your shot -- showing exactly what is included in the frame when you engage the shutter-release. This will allow you to compose your shot more accurately (although it will also wear your batteries down faster.)
Once you've taken a shot, the LCD screen allows you to immediately check your picture to make sure you got exactly the shot you wanted. If the image is not to your liking, you can take additional ones and then delete the ones you're not happy with.
Most digital cameras also have a magnification feature (figure A) in the preview mode. With this useful function, not only can you check your shot to make sure you're happy with the composition, but you can magnify, or "zoom in" on, particular spots in the picture, and scroll around within the frame, to check whether the image is perfectly in focus.
Tip : When photographing people or animals, it's important that the subject's eye(s) be perfectly in focus to ensure a good image. Pictures in which the subject's eye is out of focus will immediately draw the viewer's attention to the focus problem.
Auto-Exposure and Exposure Adjustment
Digital cameras calculate and set exposure automatically to achieve an acceptable image in most lighting situations. This is known as automatic exposure setting. For best results, however, the automatic exposure should not be relied upon in all situations.
Digital cameras typically offer exposure compensation adjustments, allowing the photographer to "play with" the exposure for different results in a given lighting situation.
In our example, professional photographer Rick Sammon photographs a white-colored bridge against a dark background and under a light sky (figure B) in Venice, California. With the camera setting on normal autoexposure, the camera will set exposure based on the dark area surrounding the main image, since the dark grassy areas fill most of the frame. The result will be overexposure, causing the white bridge and sky to appear washed out (figure C).
In order to get a better exposure, the photographer sets the exposure compensation setting to a minus-1 setting to reduce the amount of light getting into the camera when the shutter-release is pressed. With some cameras, the adjustment is made with an actual dial on the outside of the camera body. In others, the adjustment is made through an exposure menu, accessed internally through the various menus available on the LCD screen (figure D).
The exposure-compensation setting of -1 results in a better image, with the exposure balanced to provide saturated colors, show detail in the bridge and well as the surroundings and give a realistic blue color to the sky (figure E).
The advantage of digital photography is that it allows the photographer to take several shots of the same subject, with different exposure adjustments, and see the results immediately to find the best exposure setting for the situation at hand.
Similarly, the exposure adjustment can be used in portrait-shooting situations. In our example, Rick Sammons takes a portrait shot with the camera's automatic setting activated and his subject shaded against a light sky. The camera selects exposure based on the light sky that fills most of the frame, resulting in underexposure. The subject appears far too dark (figure F).
To compensate, the photographer selects a +1 1/2 setting on the exposure compensation dial (figure G) and reshoots. The adjusted exposure results in a much better picture (figure H).
With some practice, you'll learn to gauge the lighting situations to make adjustments to your autoexposure and ensure high-quality, detailed images.
RESOURCES :
Rick Sammon, professional photographer
Web site: www.ricksammon.com
Learn more about photography with Rick Sammon's new e-book on CD. More than 100 tips and photographs from Rick's travels around the world.
And check out Rick's column on Kodak's site:
Web site: www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/magazine/tips/2001_10
Rick Sammon
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520
Email: RickSammon@aol.com
Website: www.ricksammon.com
Special Thanks for DIY's Digital Photography workshop, episodes 101-105
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