Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

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Photographic technology didn't change much for the first hundred years or so. Sure, cameras got smaller and easier to use, lenses grew more powerful, and film quality improved, but folks were still basically taking pictures with a box that focused an image on a light-sensitive piece of film. The world, apparently, was ready for a change.

Barely a decade after they first entered the average consumer's consciousness (and price range), digital cameras started outselling film cameras—a shift of culture-jarring proportions. By early 2006, a staggering 92 percent of cameras sold were digital cameras.

Film photography giants like Kodak, Canon, and Olympus are now major players on the digital market, and they've been joined by manufacturers coming from the electronics side, like Sony, HP, Casio, and Samsung. The makers compete for your dollars by offering dozens of digital camera models with a dizzying array of features. Fortunately, if you understand just a few important digital camera basics, you can evaluate—and take great photos with—almost any camera you pick up. If you're reading this book because you're one of the millions getting ready to take the digital plunge for the very first time, this chapter will familiarize you with digital photography terms like megapixel, flash memory, and burst mode. No camera salesman or newspaper circular will ever again seem quite so daunting.

On the other hand, if you're already the proud owner of a digicam, you've probably spent more time snapping pictures and eagerly showing them off than learning what all your camera's buttons do and what those tiny symbols on its screen mean. Of course, you could wade your way through the manual that came with your camera…and still wind up pretty confused. Or you could just read this chapter for the plain-English version of the features that appear on most digital cameras, and learn how they can enhance your picture-taking experience.

What type of photographer are you? Do you always have a camera in your pocket or purse so you can pull it out for quick shots at work or at the ball park? Or are you a photographer who loves toting around lots of gear and enjoys having the best tools for the job? Do tripods and macro-lenses sound like fun to you? Pro aspirations anyone? Answers to these questions point you toward the digital camera of your dreams. Your camera should become a natural extension of your vision. If you and your camera don't have that bond, your pictures reflect that—or, rather, your

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What type of photographer are you? Do you always have a camera in your pocket or purse so you can pull it out for quick shots at work or at the ball park? Or are you a photographer who loves toting around lots of gear and enjoys having the best tools for the job? Do tripods and macro-lenses sound like fun to you? Pro aspirations anyone? Answers to these questions point you toward the digital camera of your dreams. Your camera should become a natural extension of your vision. If you and your camera don't have that bond, your pictures reflect that—or, rather, your lack of pictures. Even if you do most of your researching and shopping on the Web, be sure to actually get your hands on your leading candidate, too.

Today's digital cameras fall into three categories:

Point-and-shoot cameras are small and usually cost around $200 to $400. With automatically retractable lens covers, they're designed to travel in your pocket, purse, or backpack. These cameras usually have simplified and automatic settings, so you can quickly catch your shot without fumbling at the controls. Because point-and-shooters keep getting smaller, thinner, and more jewelry-like, it's important nowadays to make sure the camera's not too small for your fingers. When you get your hands on a model you like, try answering these questions: Is it too small to hold comfortably? Does your index finger naturally align with the shutter release? Are your non-trigger fingers constantly slipping over the lens?
Advanced digital cameras are bigger than your average pocket-cam; prices range from $300 to $600. With a larger body and a more defined grip, it's easier to hold these cameras steady when you shoot. Sometimes they resemble the more expensive single lens reflex ( SLR) models (described next). But unlike SLRs, advanced digital cameras don't accept interchangeable lenses. Usually, they have a single zoom lens that can't be removed, but you do get the option to manually focus (just like in the old days, by turning the focus ring on the lens). With advanced digital cameras you'll get more choices compared to point-and-shoots for tasks like setting your exposure, choosing ISO speeds, and adjusting the color balance (read on for details about all those features).

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The first number you see in a digital camera description is its megapixel rating. A pixel (short for picture element) is one tiny colored dot, one of the thousands or millions that compose a single digital photograph. (One megapixel equals one million pixels.) You can't escape learning this term, since pixels are everything in computer graphics. The number of megapixels your camera has determines the quality of your pictures' resolution (the amount of detail that appears). A 5-megapixel camera, for example, has better resolution than a 3-megapixel one. It also costs more. How many of those pixels you actually need depends on how you're going to display the images you shoot.

Many digital photos never get further than a computer screen. After you transfer them to your computer, you can distribute the images by email, post them on a Web page, or use them as desktop pictures or screen savers.

If such activities are the extent of your digital photography ambition, you can get by with very few megapixels. Even a $100, 2-megapixel camera produces a 1600 x 1200-pixel image, which is already too big to fit on the typical 1024 x 768–pixel laptop screen (without zooming or scrolling).

If you intend to print your photos, however, your megapixel needs are considerably greater. The typical computer screen is a fairly low-resolution device: most pack in somewhere between 72 and 96 pixels per inch. But for a printed digital photo to look as clear and smooth as a real photograph, the colored dots must be much closer together on the paper—150 pixels per inch or more.

Remember the 2-megapixel photo that would spill off the edges of a laptop screen? Its resolution (measured in dots per inch) is only adequate for a 5 x 7 print. Enlarge it any more, and the dots become visible specks. Your family and friends will look like they have some unfortunate skin disorder. If you want to make prints of your photos (as most folks do), keep the following table in mind:

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Compared to other 21st century electronic devices, digital cameras are near the top of their game. They're not like those cell phones that still drop calls, or wireless palmtops with their slow Internet connections. Digital cameras are reliable, high quality, and rewarding in almost every way.

Except for battery life.

Thanks to that LCD screen on the back, digital cameras go through batteries like Kleenex. The battery is likely to be the one limiting factor to your photo shoots. When the juice is gone, your session is over. Here's a guide to the various battery types for digital cameras:

Proprietary, built-in rechargeable. Many smaller cameras come with a "brick" battery: a dark gray, lithium-ion rechargeable battery, as shown at top in Figure 1-2. These subcompact cameras are simply too small to accommodate AA-style batteries.

The problem with proprietary batteries is that you can't replace them when you're on the road. If you're only three hours into your day at Disney World when the battery dies, you can't exactly duck into a drugstore to buy a new one. Like it or not, your shooting session is over.

Some cameras come with a separate, external battery charger. If you have an external charger, by all means buy a second battery (usually about $50) and keep one battery in the charger at all times. When the main battery gives up the ghost, swap it with the one in the charger, and go about your business. For a full day at the theme park, fully charge both batteries and take them with you.

All this recharging roulette is a pain, but it beats any system in which the camera is the battery charger, which is the case with some cameras. When the battery dies, so does your creative muse. You have no choice but to return home and plug in the camera, taking it out of commission for several hours as it recharges the battery. Even with a separate charger, though, proprietary batteries can't match the convenience of rechargeable AAs, described next.

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In digital camera ads (or even on the camera itself) you see announcements like: "3X/10X ZOOM!" The number before the slash tells you how many times the camera's lens can magnify a distant image, exactly like binoculars and telescopes. That measurement is called optical zoom.

Then there's the number after the slash—the digital zoom. Camera boxes often announce digital zoom stats in big, gaudy type, as though that's all their customers care about. Well, those are the same kind of people who buy into the notion that a higher megahertz rating always gets them a faster computer.

Truth is, digital zoom is nothing to write home about. When a camera's digital zoom kicks in, the camera's merely spreading out the individual pixels, in effect enlarging the picture. The image gets bigger, but the picture's quality deteriorates. In most cases, you're best off avoiding digital zoom altogether.

If you're used to traditional photography, you may need some help converting digicam optical zoom units (3X, 4X, and so on) into standard focal ranges. It breaks down like this: A typical 3X zoom goes from 6.5mm (wide angle) to 19.5mm (telephoto). That would be about the same as a 38mm to 105mm zoom lens on a 35mm film camera.

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The hot new feature for 2006–2007 is built-in image stabilization. This feature, available in a flood of new camera models, improves your photos' clarity by ironing out your little hand jiggles.

It's an enormous help in three situations: when you're zoomed in all the way (which magnifies jitters), in low light (meaning that the shutter stays open a long time, increasing the likelihood of blurring), and when your camera doesn't have an eyepiece viewfinder (forcing you to hold the camera at arm's length, decreasing stability).

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Every digital camera has an LCD screen, but on some specially endowed models, you can flip and swivel the screen around to gain multiple viewing angles (Figure 1-3). You can frame the shot any way you want—at your waist, above your head, even at your ankles—without contorting yourself into a pretzel.

A flip screen is a godsend when you're stuck in the middle of a crowd, but want a shot of the parade. Simply tilt the screen so you can raise the camera over your head and see what you're shooting. Flip screens let you get more creative, too. You can do low-angle Orson Welles shots for added drama, or capture the world from your baby's eye view (without crawling around on the carpet).

Early digital cameras made a splash with their sophisticated new electronics, but their lenses were hardly state of the art. If you've ever tried reading fine print through a cheap magnifying glass, you have some idea of how the world looks though bad optics—lousy.

These days, the scene is much sharper. Sony, Olympus, Canon, Leica, and Nikon all take pride in the lenses for their digital cameras, and they have solid reputations for great glass as a result. (Other camera makers often buy their lenses from Olympus, Canon, and Nikon.)

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to measure a lens's quality, and you can't judge for sure just by looking through it. The best way to learn about lenses (and which cameras have great ones) is to read photo magazines or consult photo review Web sites like Imaging-Resource (www.imaging-resource.com), Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com), or Digital Camera Resource (www.dcresource.com).

Of course, lenses of any quality need a cover to protect them from dirt, scratches, and damage.

Here's the most important lens cover advice you'll ever get: Use one. Digital cameras come with one of two types: detachable and built-in. Professional photographers (and amateurs who think like the pros) go for cameras that accept filters, telephoto lenses, and other attachments, which usually means a detachable cover.

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Every year, digital camera screens get bigger. That's a welcome trend, because framing your photos and, later, showing them off to other people is a heck of a lot more satisfying when they're bigger than a postage stamp.

These days, though, some screens fill the whole back of the camera—and leave no room for an optical viewfinder (the little glass hole you can peek through). Plenty of people are perfectly happy composing their shots on the screen, but remember that holding a camera up to your face helps to brace it, reducing the likelihood of little jiggles that blur the photo. Without an optical viewfinder, you're forced to hold out the camera nearly at arm's length.

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Cheapo digital cameras are often called point-and-shoot models with good reason: You point, you shoot.

Sometimes these cameras let you pick from a few pre-programmed settings like Night Snapshot or Kids & Pets, but for the most part your camera is doing all the thinking for you. More expensive cameras, on the other hand, let you take your camera off autopilot.

If you're a first-time buyer, you may think a point-and-shoot is a safe starting point. Before you decide, read Chapter 3 to learn about special situations—sports photography, nighttime shots, fireworks, indoor portraits, and so on—where you can get amazing results with the help of manual controls. If you're looking for a camera that you can grow with as your photo skills increase, manual controls are worth paying for.

On the other hand, you may have chosen your digital camera for its gorgeous flip screen or powerful zoom lens, but never use the manual modes that these models often include. If so, you need Chapter 3 even more. It will help you unleash your camera's potential—and your own creativity.

The following are the most popular manual features (see Chapter 3 for full coverage about when to use each setting).

In aperture-priority mode, you specify how wide the camera's shutter opens, and the camera takes care of the other settings (like shutter speed or flash). It's probably the most popular manual mode, because it puts you in control while ensuring proper exposure. Using aperture-priority mode you can create portraits with softly out-of-focus backgrounds, among other professional effects.

Shutter-priority mode lets you decide how fast the shutter opens and closes; the camera automatically sets the aperture width—and flash, if you're using it—accordingly. A fast shutter freezes sports action; slow speeds are handy for night photography. You can even use a slow shutter to turn a babbling brook into an abstract, fuzzy blur.

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Even though autofocus technology has been around for years, it's not a perfect science. There are plenty of lighting conditions, like dark interiors, where your camera struggles to focus correctly. Autofocus works by looking for patches of contrast between light and dark—and if there's no light, there's no focusing.

An autofocus assist light (or AF assist) neatly solves the problem (Figure 1-5). In dim light, the camera briefly beams a pattern of light onto the subject, so the camera has enough visual information to focus.

Figure 1-5: An AF assist light, like the one on the Canon PowerShot series, greatly improves your percentage of properly focused shots.

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Most digital camera owners don't see the need for external flashes, filters, tripods, and other fancy attachments. But if you have a hardcore film photography background, you probably can't imagine life without your beloved accessories. In general, digital cameras that look like full-size, traditional film cameras can accept all the traditional attachments. Most tiny, sliding-cover, subcompact pocket cameras can't.

Filters and accessory lenses often mean fitting your camera with a tubular lens adapter (Figure 1-6). Usually the smaller the adapter and the finer the threads, the more patience you'll need. Nothing is more frustrating than stripping the threads on your camera body because you couldn't screw in the adapter ring properly.

Figure 1-6: Some digital cameras can accommodate accessory lenses and filters using an optional adapter. You can extend the power of this Olympus, for example, by adding telephoto, wide angle, and macro lenses.

Even if you're not an accessory kind of person, check out your camera's tripod mount—a small, threaded hole in the camera base. Nobody likes lugging around a tripod, but there are moments when it's the only way to get a beautiful artistic shot, like streaking car lights across a bridge, or almost anything at night. Many of the professional techniques in the next two chapters require a tripod. (And if you don't have a tripod, see the box in Section 1.11 for some buying advice.)

Flip the camera over and find where the socket is located. A tripod mount near the center of the base is easier to work with than one way off to one side or another. A sturdy metal socket is better than a cheap plastic one. A camera's tripod mount may not be a deal breaker, but when you're buying a new camera, it's worth inspecting the socket before you head to the checkout counter.

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Shutter lag is the time it takes for the camera to calculate the correct focus and exposure before it captures the scene. In many camera models under $700 or so, this interval amounts to an infuriating half-second to one-second delay between your shutter press and the moment the picture is captured. Trouble is, that's more than enough time for you to miss the precise instant your daughter blows out the candles on her birthday cake, your son's first step, and that adorable expression on your iguana's face. In photography, fractions of a second are a lifetime (Figure 1-7).

Figure 1-7: "Did you get my head spin?" says the break dancer. "Did you get it? Tell me you got that shot! Tell me you got it." Every digital photographer has a collection of these missed shots, thanks to shutter lag.

You can reduce or minimize shutter lag in a couple ways. First, you can set the camera's focus and exposure manually, as you'll learn in the next two chapters. That way, the camera has no thinking to do when you squeeze the shutter. Most people, though, eventually learn instead to prefocus. This trick involves squeezing the shutter button halfway, ahead of time, forcing the camera to do its calculations. To prefocus, simply keep your finger halfway down until the moment of truth. Then, when you finally press it down all the way, you get the shot you wanted with very little delay.

Unfortunately, neither of these techniques works in all situations. Manually focusing and prefocusing both take time and eliminate spontaneity. Until the electronics of digital cameras improve, the best you can do is to buy a model with the smallest shutter lag possible. Most brochures don't mention shutter lag, so your best bet is to visit one of the camera-review Web sites mentioned in the box in Section 1.7. Many of them list the shutter-lag timings for popular cameras.

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When you press the shutter button on a typical digital camera, the image begins a long tour through the camera's guts. First, the lens projects the image onto an electronic sensor—a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). Second, the sensor dumps the image temporarily into the camera's built-in memory (a memory buffer). Finally, the camera's circuitry feeds the image from its memory buffer onto the memory card.

You may be wondering about that second step. Why don't digital cameras record the image directly to the memory card?

The answer is simple: Unless your camera has state-of-the-art electronics, it would take forever. You'd only be able to take a new picture every few seconds or so. By stashing shots into a memory buffer as a temporary holding tank (a very fast process) before recording the image on the memory card (a much slower process), the camera frees up its attention so that you can take another photo quickly. The camera catches up later, when you've released the shutter button. (This is one reason why digital cameras aren't as responsive as film cameras, which transfer images directly from lens to film.)

The size of your camera's memory buffer affects your life in a couple of different ways. First, it permits certain cameras to have a burst mode, which lets you fire off several shots per second. That's a great feature when you're trying to capture an extremely fleeting scene, such as a great soccer goal, a three-year-old's smile, or Microsoft being humble. Second, a big memory buffer permits movie mode, described later. It can even help fight shutter lag, because the ability to fire off a burst of five or six frames improves your odds of capturing that perfect moment. Your camera's documentation probably doesn't specify how much RAM it has, but you can check out how many frames per second it can capture in burst mode. The more frames, the bigger the buffer.

A few expensive cameras can bypass the buffer and save photos directly on the memory card, so that you can keep shooting until the card fills up. This trick usually requires a special high-speed memory card—preferably a big one.

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How many times have you showed a travel picture to a friend and remarked, "It looked a lot bigger in real life"? That's because it was bigger, and your camera couldn't capture it all. Capturing a vast landscape with a digital camera is like looking at the Grand Canyon through a paper-towel tube.

Digital camera makers have created an ingenious solution to widen this narrow view of life: panorama mode (Figure 1-8). With it, you can stitch together a series of individual images to create a single, beautiful vista, similar to what you saw when you were standing there in real life. The camera's onscreen display helps align the edge of the last shot with the beginning of the next one. See Chapter 13 for more about how to create panoramas. Panoramas are a great reason to buy that tripod you've been eyeing (preferably one with a bubble level in the head to keep your pictures straight).

Figure 1-8: This image is actually four pictures stitched together using the camera's panorama mode.

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Along with an instruction booklet, carrying strap, and battery, digital cameras always come with a software CD nestled in their box. That software isn't for the camera—it goes on your computer. Manufacturers give you these programs to help you pull pictures from the camera's memory card and deposit them on your hard drive. But here's a word of advice: These programs are generally about as useful and friendly as phone-based tech support. The good news is that you can usually get by without ever installing this software. Thanks to the built-in photo importing tools you get with Windows XP (it's called the Camera and Scanner Wizard), you can plug most cameras into your PC's USB port and Windows guides you the rest of the way (Chapter 4 has full details about how to do this import dance).

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The longer the exposure to record a scene, the more important noise reduction becomes. When you shoot nighttime shots, what should be a jet-black sky may exhibit tiny colored specks— artifacts—that put a considerable damper on your photo's impact. (The longer the shutter stays open, the more artifacts you'll get, as the camera's sensor gradually heats up.)

A noise reduction feature usually works like this: When you press the shutter, the camera takes two shots—the one that you think you're getting, and a second shot with the shutter completely closed. Since the camera's electronics produce the visual noise, both shots theoretically contain the same colored speckles in the same spots. The camera compares the two shots, concludes that all of the colored specks it finds in the closed-shutter shot must be unwanted, and deletes them from the real shot.

Chances are you'll have to dig through the literature or the specs on the manufacturer's Web site to find out whether the camera you've got or are considering has this feature. But it's worth investigating if you're a nighttime shooter.

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Almost every digital camera nowadays captures video; some do it better than others. Cheaper cameras produce movies that are tiny, low-resolution flicks. These mini-movies have their novelty value, and are better than nothing when your intention is to email your newborn baby's first cry to eager relatives across the globe.

But more expensive cameras these days can capture video at a decent size (320 x 240 pixels, or even full-frame 640 x 480 pixels) and smoothness (15, 30, or even more frames per second), usually complete with soundtrack. Better cameras place no limit on the length of your captured movies (except when you run out of memory card space). More on this topic in Chapter 3.

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If your eyes are bleeding from the technical underbrush of Chapter 1, switch on your right brain. This chapter has little to do with electronics and everything to do with the more artful side of photography—composition.

What follows are techniques that photographers have been using for years to create good pictures regardless of the camera type. These time-honored secrets do wonderful things for digital imaging too. Good composition is essential whether you're using a $200 pocket digicam or a $3,000 professional camera. When you apply the deceptively simple suggestions in this chapter, you'll take better pictures (and enjoy taking them even more).

First, a few words about composition.

Composition is the arrangement of your picture: the interplay between foreground and background, the way the subject fills the frame, the way the parts of the picture relate to each other, and so on. Before pressing the shutter, veteran photographers compose pictures by asking themselves a few questions:

Will the shot be clearer, better, or more interesting if you move closer? What about walking around to the other side of the action, or zooming in slightly, or letting tall grass fill the foreground? Would the picture be more interesting if it were framed by horizontal, vertical, or diagonal structures (such as branches, pillars, or a road stretching away)?

It's easy to think, "Hey, it's a picture, not a painting—I have to shoot what's there." Maybe so, but you have more control over the composition than you realize. Photography is every bit as creative as painting.

If your photographic ambition is to take casual vacation pictures, some of the following suggestions for professional composition may strike you as overkill. But read them anyway. If some of these tips rub off on you, you can apply them even in everyday snapshot situations. There's no law against casual vacation pictures being good casual vacation pictures.

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Composition is the arrangement of your picture: the interplay between foreground and background, the way the subject fills the frame, the way the parts of the picture relate to each other, and so on. Before pressing the shutter, veteran photographers compose pictures by asking themselves a few questions:

Will the shot be clearer, better, or more interesting if you move closer? What about walking around to the other side of the action, or zooming in slightly, or letting tall grass fill the foreground? Would the picture be more interesting if it were framed by horizontal, vertical, or diagonal structures (such as branches, pillars, or a road stretching away)?

It's easy to think, "Hey, it's a picture, not a painting—I have to shoot what's there." Maybe so, but you have more control over the composition than you realize. Photography is every bit as creative as painting.

If your photographic ambition is to take casual vacation pictures, some of the following suggestions for professional composition may strike you as overkill. But read them anyway. If some of these tips rub off on you, you can apply them even in everyday snapshot situations. There's no law against casual vacation pictures being good casual vacation pictures.

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Most people assume that the center of the frame should contain the most important element of your shot. In fact, 98 percent of all amateur photos feature the subject of the shot in dead center. For the most visually interesting shots, however, dead center is actually the least compelling location for the subject. Rather, artists and psychologists have found that the rule of thirds (Figure 2-1) ensures better visual balance.

Figure 2-1: Top: When shooting a head and shoulder portrait, frame the shot so that her eyes fall on the upper imaginary line a third of the way down the frame.
Bottom: When shooting a landscape, put the horizon on the bottom-third line if you want to emphasize the sky or tall objects like mountains, trees, and buildings. Put the horizon on the upper-third line to emphasize what's on the ground, such as the people in the shot.

Imagine that the photo frame is divided into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. The rule of thirds contends that the intersections of these lines are the strongest parts of the frame: They're where the viewer's eye naturally goes. For good composition, strive to put the most interesting parts of the picture at these four points. In general, save the center square of the frame for tight closeups. (Even then, aim for having the subject's eyes on the upper-third line.)

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You can always tell a professional photograph from a beginner's snapshot…but you might not be able to put your finger on what's different. Here's a clue: Every amateurish photo includes lots of wasted space. Try this experiment with a nearby subject—like your dog. Take a picture standing where you normally would (probably about five feet away and above Rover's head).

Now take a second picture—but first crouch down so that you see the world at dog level. Get close enough that your pet can almost lick your camera lens. (But don't let him do it; dog slobber is very bad for optics.) Then snap the picture. Compare the two photos on your camera's view screen, or better yet, on your computer screen. The first shot probably looks pretty boring compared to the second one.

Clearly, you weren't thinking about composition the first time. You were taking a picture of your dog. Taking a picture is usually a mindless act that doesn't result in the most memorable photos. Getting closer to fill the frame with your subject creates a compelling composition.

So remember: Move your feet toward your subject, and don't stop moving them until the subject fills the frame (Figure 2-2). Of course, the zoom lens on your camera can help quite a bit.

Figure 2-2: Top: This otter shot looked great in the camera's viewfinder. Onscreen, however, it's a bit disappointing. It looks bland, because the otters are too far away and at an uninteresting angle.
Bottom: By getting (or zooming) closer, however, you get far more interesting results. In this case, the photographer applied the time-honored skill of patience, waiting for the sea otters to drift within better range. Sometimes getting closer means waiting for the action to come to you.

Filling the frame with your subject also means that you'll have less uninteresting background to crop out before making prints. As a result, you'll get a higher resolution, better quality print.

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Busy backgrounds destroy photographs. Just look at the top photo in Figure 2-3. Of course, sometimes your intention is to confuse and irritate the viewer's eye. But unless you're shooting a headbanger music CD cover, eliminate distracting elements from your picture as much as you can. Make it easy for the viewer to locate—and appreciate—the key elements of your composition.

Figure 2-3: Top: What's this picture about? The people? The boats? Linear elements in the background usually spell doom for people shots.
Bottom: Avoid clutter and opt for a more subtle background, like water or sky. Your subjects—and audience—will thank you.

In other words, don't become so engrossed in your subject that you don't notice the telephone wires that seem to run through her skull. Train your eye to examine the subject first, and then survey the surrounding scene.

Problems to avoid in your composition's background include:

All forms of poles. Telephone poles, fence posts, street signs, and malnourished trees can creep into your photos and ruin them.
Linear patterns. Avoid busy background elements, such as bricks, paneling, fences, and zebra skins.
Incomplete, cut-off objects. When people see a part of something in your picture—a tractor grille, a few ladder rungs, a camel's rear end—they can't help but wonder what the rest of it looks like, instead of focusing on your subject.

Get in the habit of scanning all four corners of your frame before clicking the shutter. That way, you'll catch those telephone poles and street signs that you wouldn't normally see until it's too late. Look for backgrounds that have subtle tones, soft edges, and nondescript elements. Moving your subject forward, away from the background, can help soften the backdrop even more.

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Change your camera angle often. Look at your subject from a few different points of view before choosing the best place to shoot it from. For example, put the camera on the ground and study the composition. Raise it over your head and see how the world looks from that angle (Figure 2-4). If possible, walk around the subject and examine it from left to right.

When you first approach an interesting subject, snap a quick picture. Once you've got a "safe" shot in the camera, you can relax. Move in closer and take a few more shots from a variety of angles. Experiment as long as time permits. More often than not, the safe shot will be your least favorite of the series. You'll probably find the latter frames far more compelling.

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Finally, one last suggestion: Consider the pointers in this chapter as guidelines only. There is no one right way to take a photograph. When you come down to it, the best photos are the ones you like.

Figure 2-4: Top: To really capture the feel of this breakfast nook, raise the angle of the camera, even if it means standing on a chair to do so.
Bottom: Try going low, too. "Getting to the bottom of things" provides you with dramatic angles and impressive images. (A flip screen comes in handy, as described in the previous chapter.)

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There you sit, surveying your boxes of old photos. Snapshots of your family. Vacation snapshots. Snapshots of tourist attractions. But they're all snapshots. Then you think of professional photos you've seen in magazines and newspapers. There's the extreme close-up of a ladybug on a leaf, with the bushes in the background gently out of focus. There's that amazing shot of the soccer player butting the ball with his head, frozen in action so you can see individual flecks of sweat flying from his hair. And how about that incredible shot of the city lights at night, with car taillights drawing colorful firefly tracks across the frame. "How do they do that?" you wonder. "And why can't I do it, too?"

Actually, you can. You can get most of these brilliant effects with little or no special gear. All you need are a few practical shooting techniques and the willingness to get out there and experiment. With a little practice, you can take pictures that are just as compelling, colorful, and intimate as the shots you see in magazines. This chapter lays bare professional photographers' trusty secrets. You'll never take a dull snapshot again.

Everybody's seen those incredible high-speed action photos of athletes frozen in mid-leap. Without these shots (and the swimsuit photos), Sports Illustrated would be no thicker than a pamphlet. Through a combination of careful positioning, focusing, lighting, and shutter-speed adjustments, you can take the very same stop action shots. Even if you never take sports photos, knowing how to freeze action lets you capture water splashes, birds in flight, and fleeting childhood moments.

While some of the techniques you'll read about in this section work with any camera, for best results, try to get your hands on a camera that has:

A telephoto or zoom lens. Action shots look more dramatic when your moving subject fills the frame.

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Everybody's seen those incredible high-speed action photos of athletes frozen in mid-leap. Without these shots (and the swimsuit photos), Sports Illustrated would be no thicker than a pamphlet. Through a combination of careful positioning, focusing, lighting, and shutter-speed adjustments, you can take the very same stop action shots. Even if you never take sports photos, knowing how to freeze action lets you capture water splashes, birds in flight, and fleeting childhood moments.

While some of the techniques you'll read about in this section work with any camera, for best results, try to get your hands on a camera that has:

A telephoto or zoom lens. Action shots look more dramatic when your moving subject fills the frame.
Manual or shutter-priority mode. To freeze movement without blur, your camera has to grab the shot in a fraction of a second. Both these shooting modes help that happen.
Prefocus. A great shot can pass right by while your camera focuses. Many digital cameras let you focus in advance by pressing the shutter button halfway before you're ready to shoot. (Check the manual to see if your camera has this feature.)
Burst mode. If your camera lets you fire off a few pictures in rapid succession, chances are greater that you'll get the shot with one of them.
Spot metering. While not critical, this feature helps ensure that your focus of interest (not the background) is properly lit, and not obscured by a shadow or the sun's glare.

You don't need all these features for sports pictures, and you won't use each of them in every shot. But knowing how these tools work and when to summon them helps expand your shooting repertoire.

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Most snapshots feature two, three, or even more people vying for attention with something in the background, like a waterfall or someone's minivan. But as you know from the previous chapter, the best pictures don't show everything—they show a single thing really well. If you want your photos to stand out from the crowd, it's time to explore the art of portrait photography. After all, how would you rather remember your son's third birthday: by a snapshot of him standing across the room awkwardly modeling his new outfit, or by a closeup that conveys his personality? Only a portrait can capture the mischievous arch of an eyebrow, or the little dimple he gets when he's thinking of something funny.

Taking good portraits isn't difficult, but it requires a few new skills. You have to examine all the details in the frame more closely than ever, and pay more attention to how light works. In the end, it's worth it. The portraits you take are likely to be your most treasured photos.

In professional portrait photographs, everyone looks great. Surely photographers use some kind of tricks—ancient, carefully guarded trade secrets—to make Uncle Ernie look so distinguished and handsome. On the contrary, there are no fancy secrets to great headshots. You can make any subject (or any uncle) look his best by applying the simple principles in this section whenever you shoot someone from the shoulders up.

You can take good portraits even if you have the cheapest camera on the planet. But a few additional features, like the following, go a long, long way:

Manual or aperture-priority mode. When you take a portrait, you want clear focus on your subject and a softer background. The lenses in point-and-shoot cameras generally put everything in the frame in the same sharp focus. Manual settings, especially aperture-priority mode (Section 3.2.1.3), give you greater control over the focal depth.

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