How To Take Digital Photos - Low Light and Indoor Photography

Most indoor events that you attend have the potential of having that money shot that we are all on the lookout for. The only problem with that is it’s usually indoors which can bring you a problem with the lighting of your photo. Flash In indoor situations most people instinctively want to use their flash when there is not enough lighting. However, sometimes that may not be such a good idea. You may even experience that some establishments and event holders do not even allow the use of a flash. In these types of circumstances the flash will usually over-illuminate your scene, reducing the background and brightly lighting only a portion of your subject. This will leave you with poor results and lots of redeye. Not to mention if there are any glass windows or people wearing glasses. The resulting flash reflection will completely ruin even the most astonishing digital photo. Capture images in low light Today’s digital camera gives even the unskilled photographer a variety of techniques to choose from to create a beautiful digital photo in low light environment. If low light environments tend to give you problems the next time you are in a situation like that start with adjusting your digital cameras ISO setting. The ISO is determined by your physical film that you put in and determines what kind of images you capture. The most common standard film speed is 400 ISO, and 800 – 1200 ISO is mostly using for shooting subjects that are in motion. If you are a sports fan or like to photograph wildlife you may find yourself shooting most of your shots with your digital camera’s ISO speed turned up past normal. The old concept of film sensitivity does still apply to your modern day digital camera’s sensor. Considering ISO The downfall with the digital ISO is noise. If you are not familiar with the term noise when referring to a photo it only means that the finished digital photo is grainy do to the high ISO setting. But a plus for digital photos is that there are software programs that will eliminate the noise and sharpen your final image. It would be good for you to keep in mind that shooting in low light requires you to shoot photos with your shutter speed set slow, which in turn creates another photography problem. Camera shake. If you remember to do test shots before you take your real shot then you should be ok. Things to Consider Since you have found yourself in a low light environment you might do well to consider investing in a conventional tripod. While using those slow shutter speeds you may be glad you did. Tripods are also great for those all famous group shots. One last important tip. While your digital camera may have come equipped with all the bells and whistles to compensate for low light situations, it is always good practice for you to use your imagination and creativity to use any ambient light that may be around, or side lighting that may ‘fall’ into the frame. Reflected or diffused lighting is also photograph friendly.

How to take digital photos-Cropping

When we speak about cropping we have a farmers’ definition and a photographers’ definition. Both definitions would be correct in their own right. One might ask “corn” and the other may ask “how long you got” Because in the photography world a crop is the way in which the digital photo in question is framed. In other words the parts that were cut out and the parts that were left in to produce that final photo. There are a lot of people that leave too much in their digital photos, and at the same time a lot of people fail to include things in their shots that may have had a positive impact on the final finish. If you take anything from this make sure you also take in the fact that you are to use your crop to the fullest. The steps to follow when sharpening your cropping skills are quite simple. You as the professional that you are just decide in your own photographers eye what needs to be in your digital photo and what simply doesn’t add anything to your finished shot. Professional photographers use this very simple technique to help decide what should be left in a beautiful digital photo and what can go and I will share it with you here.

Take yourself a digital photo and then look at it. Take your hand or an object and cover part of the photo. Now look at your digital photo while still covered. Now the question is, does your imagination feel more comfortable with your digital photo without the missing section or with it? If you didn’t ‘miss’ anything while your photo was covered then it should be safe to crop that section out. Now lets take it to another level. You will need 2 ‘L’ shaped pieces of card. It could be from a cereal box, it doesn’t matter. Place them over your photo, with one of them being inverted. This makes a frame around your picture. Now what you do is slide them left to right and up and down and also rotate them allowing you to change the shape of your new frame. Please know that you are self- training your minds’ eye to view digital photos from different points of view. Brace yourself though you may be quite amazed at how dramatically your digital photo may improve by using this simple technique.

How To Take Digital Photos – DPI vs. PPI

Many people seem to get hung up on the DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (pixels per inch) setting within a digital photo as a measure of the quality of those photos. It seems as if there are some people who get hung up on rather dots per inch (DPI) has a better quality than pixels per inch (PPI). If you know of someone that is having this dilemma send them on over here so I can tell em, DPI & PPI have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of your digital photo. The resolution of a your digital photo is its pixels (usually expressed as megapixels). The PPI of a paper print is a measure of quality (the paper print, not the digital photo) - but it does not have anything to do with the DPI/PPI setting within the photo. These are factors you can use to determine the quality of your digital photos: The size of the digital image. (In pixels) The quality of your digital camera. (camera's optics and sensor, scanner's sensor). The digital format. (TIF , PNG, JPG, GIF) The photographer. (You) Use these four rules and you will be fine. The size of your digital photo is measured by its smallest component, the pixels. DPI which is dots per inch is the scale used in reference to printers meaning how many dots of color a printer can insert into a single inch on a piece of paper. Although these days the term pixels per inch is used. While DPI & PPI are 2 different things DPI is often used when PPI is what is meant. PPI measures how an image is printed on a piece of paper. While at the same time software programs call PPI a measure of resolution. This is not the resolution of the digital image but it is the resolution of the printed output. Confusing I know. If the pixels of the digital photo are not changed, then the digital resolution won’t change no matter the PPI/DPI setting.

Let’s say a print shop/graphics designer/magazine asks for a photo at 300 dpi. Then they want to print it out at 5" x 7". They have a beautiful digital photo with 2048p x 1536p. You notice the photo is set to 72 dpi. So, following orders, you type in 300 to reset the dpi to 300. Now the image is resampled and enlarged over 4 times to 8533p x 6400p. You send it. The print shop/graphics designer/magazine rejects it stating that it’s too grainy, color too blotched. Now you’re upset. The sad thing is you already had the perfect photo (2048p x 1536p @ 72 dpi) which would have printed out beautifully at 5" x 7" (at 292.6 PPI). The print shop/graphics designer/magazine didn't really have full knowledge of what they wanted – You really didn't know how to change the DPI without resizing the image to give the print shop what they mistakenly think they need. So - why DPI? Older photo programs may use DPI to set the the size of the printed output. With these programs you have to adjust the DPI to adjust the size of the printed output. This is starting to become outdated though. Most newer photo programs let you to set a size output for the image, regardless of the DPI setting. Congratulations you have now been a peacemaker in the war between PPI & DPI.