One thing that both newcomers to digital photography and even more experienced photographers find most challenging is getting the correct exposure for their digital photos. One of the great things about digital photography is that we can use PhotoShop and other photo editing software to make corrections after the digital photo has already been taken, but it’s certainly better to get the exposure right to begin with.

Most people take their digital camera out of the box, make sure the exposure setting is on automatic and never change it. However, using all the settings on your camera is not really that complicated. It just takes a little information and some practice. Here are some tips for taking more control over your digital photos.

First, decide what you want to emphasize in your photo. That’s the object or area of the photo where you want the exposure most correct. Are you taking a digital photo of a child against a dark background? Do you want to be sure the child’s face or clothing is correctly exposed, or do you want to emphasize what’s in the background?

Second, choose whether you want the camera to decide on the exposure, or whether you want to make some or all of the decisions about exposure yourself. Most modern digital cameras give you a choice of exposure modes, including so-called programs. For example, there might be a stylized symbol of a mountain for landscape photographs or a profile of a runner for action photos.

If you select one of these modes, the camera can then use one of its internal programs to make decisions about shutter speed and camera lens aperture. The camera will select the settings the manufacturer has decided is best, on average, for these kinds of photos. The problem is, you may not be in an average situation for your landscape or action photo. If so, it’s time to get into a more lands-on mode, and take more control over how your digital photos will look.

In addition to auto exposure, nearly all digital cameras come with settings for aperture priority, shutter priority and manual modes. The aperture setting determines how large the opening is in the lens that lets the light through. The shutter speed is how long the lens stays open. The larger the aperture, the more light comes through, so if the aperture increases (more light), the shutter speed must also decrease (open a shorter period of time) to make a correct exposure. If you select the aperture priority mode and set the aperture you want, the camera will select the correct shutter speed. If you select the shutter priority mode and set the shutter speed you want, the camera will select the aperture to compensate.

Manual mode gives you total creative control. How to use manual mode is covered in another article in this series. Just remember the best part of digital photography is, if the photo didn’t come out like you wanted, you can always try again.

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

Photography is digital SLR photography, at least to any self-respecting photographer. Suggest otherwise, and he is sure to give you a piece of his mind and proceed to praise the virtues of digital SLR photography.

Digital SLR photography uses a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera that uses a movable mirror placed between the lens and the film to project the image on to a focusing screen.

Digital SLR photography churns out the most amazingly realistic photographs, in fact much better than the ones turned out by the conventional fixed lens cameras. But its prime appeal to photographers, both amateur and professional, is in the fact that he can work out a large amount of control over how his pictures end up as.

Digital SLR photography is all about customized photographs that are stunning to look at, to say the least. This is because the cameras come with extremely good lenses. This is why the discerning photographers are not miserly about getting a lens, frightfully expensive they may be.

However, digital SLR photography enthusiasts should never think that a swanky Nikon or a Canon is the passport to great photography. The apparatus notwithstanding, good photography depends a lot on the skills of the person brandishing the camera. The basics of digital SLR photography are not hard to pick up.

The first and foremost tip about digital SLR photography is to equip yourself with the nitty-gritty of lighting. If you are shooting outdoors during the day it is best to have the sun directly behind you. It is also essential that your subject also does not have to face the sun so that he has to squint. You should know that the best time to film landscapes, buildings and outdoor portraits is either dawn or the twilight hours.

If you want to impart the warmth of the rising or setting sun to your midday photo shoot, then a skylight or a warm filter is your key.

Tips to great digital SLR photography insist on maintaining control over the camera’s flash property. To be precise, don’t have your camera have the last word about where the flash should come on. Take the reins yourself and ensure that your photograph subjects are not lost in a maze of bright light.

Good photography, digital or analog, SLR or otherwise, is all about being able to use the filters right. You never know when that polarizer or the gradual filter or the skylight/UV filter might come to your rescue at times when the light situations are tricky.

The Macro Mode atop the camera just happens to be the most underrated and under-used feature. But unknown to many, this mode is great for taking enchanting close-ups of tiny objects. Realistic and stunning digital photography is actually the norm with plethora of controls that come with modern day digital SLR cameras. And photography tips harp on tinkering with the controls to get a hang of the controls and the outcomes they produce.

Experimenting for instance, with really slow (30 seconds) extremely fast (1000th-8000th/second) shutter speeds can produce dramatic results. The ISO setting is another area for experimentation. In fact, high ISO values come in quite handy when you cannot use a flash in low light situations.

Get well up on your digital SLR photography tips and tricks and shoot at sight willingly.

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

In this transition phase of analog to digital photography, everyone knows the difference on how each images is processed into a nice print. For analog photography, the negative (film) is developed into photos in small shops called developing studios, low-end or high end, available some walks away from a nearby establishment.

They come in cheap price for every piece of shot but they come expensive in rolls. This is the conventional way of accomplishing photography. Nowadays there is digital camera mania everywhere! Who would not want private photograph shots from a handy dandy digital camera, where printing is done at home at one’s convenience?

Convenience and privacy are the perfect words for digital photography. The question is how convenient is it to produce a copy? About privacy, there is no doubt, when you take a shot with a digital camera, it does not have to go out of the house.

All you need is a printer. When you need a printer, the array of other needs will start to fall in line one by one because it takes the following to create you own printing of digital photography. For a good digital photography printing, you will the following:

- A high-resolution digital camera with at least 2 mega-pixel resolution

- A stand-alone digital printer (no need for a computer)

- Fully loaded personal computer

It goes to show, processing digital printing at home is not cheap. The mania is only applicable to those who have PCs at home. Let’s say you have all the equipments for digital photography printing, the next requirements are quite complex than it seems.

Digital cameras are capable of deleting undesirable shots at once. There is no more worry for wasted film for bad shots. Now it is time to transfer or load your images to your PC.

At a subdirectory you will see the photos transferred into digital files commonly in JPEG or RAW format. In the future, this will change. The setting and configuration of your digital camera will greatly affect the output you expect.

The very important aspect to be understood when doing digital photography printing is having knowledge about RESOLUTION. What you see in the computer monitor is not what you will see in the printer. This is overwhelming for beginners. Dot representation or pixels comprise an image.

At minimal requirement, a setting of 300 dpi (dots per inch) will already make a good print. For better prints, resolution must be higher. Expect the computer to slow down, assign a realistic values.

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]