Digital Photography For Dummies, 8th Edition

Chapter 7

Getting the Shot: How the Pros Do It

IN THIS CHAPTER

Taking better portraits

Capturing action with and without blur

Shooting memorable landscapes

Getting up close and personal

Discovering a few tricks to photographing challenging subjects

Earlier chapters in this book explain the fundamentals of good photo composition and describe the most common digital camera features, from settings that affect exposure to controls for manipulating focus and color. This chapter takes things a step further, sharing more tips for shooting specific types of pictures: portraits, landscapes, action shots, and close-ups.

One note before you dig in: Keep in mind that there are no hard-and-fast rules as to the right way to shoot a portrait, a landscape, or whatever. Feel free to wander off on your own, tweaking this exposure setting or adjusting that focus control, to discover your own creative vision. Experimentation is part of the fun of photography, after all — and thanks to your camera monitor and the option to delete images that don't work, it’s an easy, completely free proposition.

Capturing Captivating Portraits

The classic portraiture approach is to keep the subject sharply focused while throwing the background into soft focus, as shown in Figure 7-1. In other words, the picture features a shallow depth of field — only objects very close to the subject are within the zone of sharp ...