Digital SLR Cameras & Photography For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 14. Ten Ways to Improve Your dSLR Photography

In This Chapter

• Improving your lighting and angle

• Choosing your resolution, aperture, focus, and lenses

• Shuttering with anticipation

• Working with noise

• Understanding image editing, retouching, and compositing

• Reading the manual

Each chapter in this book is chock-full of tips that can help you improve the quality of your dSLR photos. Add them all to your shooting repertoire to put you well on the way to technical excellence and photo perfection. However, if you're looking for the top ten techniques that can provide you with instant results, you can't beat the collection of quality-enhancing approaches that I outline in this chapter.

Does Lighting Ever Strike Twice?

Yes, you can re-create good lighting if you know what you're doing. And nothing can destroy a photo faster than bad lighting. You can make a lot of improvements to a challenging subject simply by using good lighting techniques.

Your uncle's bald head, a teenager's less-than-perfect complexion, a harshly lit beach scene, a drop of falling water — you can portray all these subjects attractively by using effective lighting techniques. In your uncle's case, throwing the top of his head in shadow and avoiding shiny lights on his upper hemisphere can minimize the glare from his bare pate. The teenager might benefit from diffuse lighting that softens the texture of his or her face. You ...