All digital cameras capture light reflected from objects and record it digitally.
The scene your camera sees will be rendered to a number of individual picture elements (pixels).
 

 Keys To Taking Good Shots

•         Be ready to take the shot: Have camera, memory card & batteries.

•         Know your camera. Practice makes perfect (or at least better)

•        Take multiple shots of Everything! "The Shotgun Approach"
        –        Delete those you do not like

•         Stabilize the Shot.

•         Keep it Simple and Subject Focused!

–        Get Close!

–        If there are elements within the frame that don’t add to the picture, the chances are great that they are detracting from it.

–        Walk all around your subject. Look for the best angle & background.

–        Can you frame your subject to isolate it?

• Tell a Story – Evoke an emotional response along with narrating a story.

            – People 'doing things' often make the best photos.

•  Keep the eye of the viewer moving.

–        Rule of Thirds – subject off center.

–        Consider lines, pattern, & texture.

–        Consider background, color, & light.

•         Take some unusual shots to add interest.

 
  EDFAT                      
(Rule of Tumb for each event or place visited)
Entire – First shoot the entire scene, get it all (less than 10% of the shots)
Details – Shoot the detail shots (90% or more of the shots)
Frame– Frame the photo to highlight the subject.
Angle – Try different angles … high, low, left, right, behind, above, below…
Time – Take time to explore the subject. Morning, afternoon, dusk, sunrise?
 
 
 SAS
(Rule of Tumb for each photo)
Subject – What is the subject?
Attention – Draw attention to the subject, Get closer, Position the subject in frame.
Simplify – Simplify the shot, Exclude elements that do not add anything to the shot.

Now What?

Online Sharing with Flickr

 
    • Take the Flickr tour and see Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
    • Show everyone or just friends and family what you are doing.
    • Easy to upload and share digital photos and short video.
      Replaces emailing photos and cluttering up peoples inboxes.
    • Assign as private,  viewable by friends and family or viewable to the world.
    • Can be organized in sets or send to public/private groups.
    • Add metadata - titles, descriptions, tags , geotags, notes and comments can be added to photos.
    • Add links - Descriptions and notes can have hypertext links
    • Edit online- with Picnik.
    • Find Creative Commons images in Flickr
    • Can be used Free (limited) or upgrated to a $25/year (unlimited) account

  • Offline Sharing

    • Digital Frames

    • Purchase prints or specialized products - Local camera store, online vendor (eg www.shutterfly.com) or store with photo center (eg www.walmart.com). All sizes of photos, greeting cards, mugs, refrigerator magnet, calendar, posters, or create your own book 

 

  

  • Archiving - Move to PC or burn on an optical disk (CD or DVD)

  • Editing - Manipulate the image?

   

    • Installed software - Photoshop, Gimp, …

    • Online Tools – Picnik.com  

 

 
A sideshow of the BPL Tech Tuesday photography program that covers basic digital photography is available at http://www.slideshare.net/BirminghamPublicLIbrary/tech-tuesdays-digital-photography

Helpful Online Interactive Demos:  www.hp.com &  www.kodak.com
 
This document is available at http://tinyurl.com/5xdtqn (check back for updates)
 
Helpful videos on taking great photos:  http://www.youtube.com/v/ZwoB-cDX9wo  http://www.youtube.com/v/n0tMmIoFMPQ