Secret tips for budding photographers

Low light photo by Putu Agung Wijaputera.

If you already have a digital camera, then you should get out of the house, and bring your camera. Feel free to take picture what you find anywhere. Make sure camera you already contain memory card and the battery is full. 

If you have plans to buy a digital camera, then do not be dazzled by the amount of megapixels on the camera. Megapixels are not the most important feature of a camera; the sensor size is the most important features.

For the novice photographer, I wanted to share some tips that may be able to use according to your needs. Please select the issue you want to do, which is as mentioned below:

1.    Before leaving photographing, check your camera settings, you should not use these incorrect settings (landscape shooting with ISO 1000 for example). According to the pro photographer, good order is the following checks: check White Balance - Highlights activate warning - check the ISO setting - check the size of your image resolution.

2.    To practice your panning skills, shoot objects that are moving at normal speeds (people riding motorcycles for instance), use the shutter priority mode and set the shutter speed up to 1/30 sec, slower is better. Pay attention to your background.

3.    For photographing macro (super close range), activate the Live View feature on your digital camera in order to more easily examine depht of field and you can get the right focus.

4.    To make a face photo outdoors, try when the weather is overcast. If not, look for areas that are not exposed to dim and direct sunlight. Sunlight makes harsh shadows on the face.

5.    CPL Filter (polarization) are very useful to eliminate reflection of sunlight on water and glass, and also work to improve the color of the sky. 

Singapore by night. Image: Putu Agung WP.

6.    When you take pictures in low light conditions or difficult to use autofocus mode, then switch to manual focus. Autofocus on the camera is usually long enough to find a focal point in low light conditions.

7.    To create a silhouette image, make sure you turn off the flash and use the sunset mode (for a pocket camera). If you use a Digital SLR camera, then use manual mode and measure exposure in bright areas behind the object.

8.    If you like landscape photography, then you will get a good picture from 5 pm to 8 am, and from 4 to 7 pm. In the afternoon you can photograph the sunset on the beach or the sunset behind the mountains.

9.     Remember to download the pdf version of the manual for your camera, so you easily do a quick search for the information you want to know than have to flip through pages of paper.

10.  When you are photographing babies or children, make sure you focus on the eyes. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the eyes of children. Do not use the flash when you take pictures of children so that you get a more natural picture.

11.  Format the memory card in the camera only, never format the memory card in the computer. In addition to much faster and easier also much safer if you do it in camera, memory card so you do not have a virus. 

Singapore blue sky. Image: Putu Agung WP

12.   If you have the excess capacity of the hard disk in the computer and loves to do photo editing, use when shooting RAW format, if not just use JPG.

13.  When taking pictures, look at the brightest area that goes into your viewfinder. If the light is too flashy compared to other areas, change the shooting angle.

14.  If you want to shoot HDR, use auto bracket mode. One more thing: for landscape HDR photos are terrible, just wait until a little cloudy, and then start shooting.

15.  If you buy a used lens or camera, make sure you do the transacetion with the seller to meet in person. You must examine the goods, hold and try the camera.

16.  The extent possible, use the lowest possible ISO setting. Although noise reduction can reduce the noise generated by the high ISO, but it will reduce the overall image detail.

17.  If the color makes your photo is too "busy" and crowded, turn your photos into black and white photos. You can use photo editing features in the camera or take advantage of software like Photoshop and other software that you can download for free on the Internet. 

18.  To produce a good black and white photo, note the contrast in your photo. The more contrast (dark and light areas are diverse), then the better your black and white photo you can make.

19.  Bring a camera wherever you go or when you are on vacation. This is the fastest way of improving your photography skills is by extending the hours of flying, there is no better.

20.  My advice, join a photography club in your city. Nikon and Canon have fans so much, there must be a Canon and Nikon club in your city, even manual cameras Pentax has a fanatical community known as Pentaxian. Are you a Pentaxian?

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In bookstores you can buy books and magazines to review photography, so please take your time to read some of the aspects of photography that you want to know. If you're too lazy to read the book, so you can surf the Internet to gain knowledge about photography.