I start with a "firework":

The definitive guide, full of tips for taking digital photography and to learn about digital imaging is this one. Full stop.

I read many tutorials but this is definetely the best around. It's so good and smartly done that even Nikon Canada picked it up as a gift for their clients!

Now personally, in my opinion the best suggestion among tips for taking digital photography is to understand what is a good mindset which predispone for a good shot.

Basically, a good snapshot has these 3 carachteristics:

1. The subject is clearly defined
2. There is a way to draw attention to it
3. Simplicity. No extra elements, everything distracting and non-essential is eliminated
   
   So again, in keywords: subject, focus, simplicity.

Well, easier said than done, but this is the main secret. To achieve that you can use some techniques pertaining exquisitely to photography and optics. I rarely manage to get some really good picture, also because very often I think of just "memorizing" an event. So it's not an artistic picture what I do but a "time-stop". Then at home I simply recognize the poor quality of most of the pictures and try fixing them in Abobe Lightroom.

I think that my biggest obstacle is the nervousness and agitation of trying not to loose any important scene or moment. I should rather be relaxed and let my "feeling" go and decide when to click without much of technique in mind perhaps...It's maybe not the best of the tips for taking digital photography, but it's a honest insight.

Here are other "quick notes" that come to my mind, in random listing (that I shall further expand).

Tips for taking digital photography

• use a tripod
• play with depth of field
• use flash in sunshine
• buy good lenses (also non-Nikon - or Canon - lesser expensive but good ones)
• clean lenses
• do not use lense protection filters (you gain in sharpness; profis don't use them)
• buy a good flash
• carry two camera, a better SRL camera and small pocket-size digital (to keep,...yes, in my pocket)
• photography is expensive. don't play with gadgets, stick with your camera and do what you can with what you have.
  

Tips for taking digital photography 2

Basic Tools

LIGHTROOM!

I work exclusively with Lightroom and Photoshop for editing pictures. Lightroom in particular is a real blessing. At the beginning I found it not so intuitive but after a few tips (like the one above) I got really up to speed. Namely, renaming pictures (both one by one or in a batch), organizing, editing, retouching, even publishing on the web and making slideshow, not to mention printing, well, it's ridiculous what you can do!

These are the digital imaging tools for professional (but I would say for the serious hobbist, too) : Photoshop and Lightroom. They are expensive but really worth the money.

If you are on a budget try to get Lightroom at least!

***********************

Alternatively, there is also a cheaper but good solution.

When you take so many pictures (and this is very easy with digital photography) , an excellent way to organize, edit, and be creative with them in a very intuitive way that I found is ACDSee Pro 2.5 Photo Manager! which allows you to View, process, edit, organize, catalog, publish and archive with full RAW processing. (ACD see Photomanager 2009 is a light edition which comes at a much more reduced price)

This software is by far what any serious hobby photographer should have. And this is really one of the wisest tips for taking digital photography.

What I like is also the possibility to create slideshows easily.

You can also make scrapbooking with a collateral and quite unexpensive software called Photo Editor.

Buy ACDSee Pro 2.5 Photo Manager today!

ACDsee is a wonderful photographic software programms which come at a bargain price.

Think like that, use ACDsee for faster automated retouching, editing and especially ORGANIZING of pictures.

Use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom for manually working on each individual photos for special effects and deeper understanding of digital photography. Nobody can beat lightroom 2 and Photoshop, yet the navigation features in lightroom 2.5 I find a little complicated and not as self-intuitive as in ACDSee.

ACDSee products free trial

Tips for taking digital photography 2: Cleaning the Nikon D70 sensor

Eventually, I finished up with some dust on my Nikon D70 sensor resulting in some permament spots on my pictures.

So I looked for an easy solution (without sending the camera to a Nikon service, which is a quite expensive thing to do) and found out this simple method from a nice guy:

• Use a little air pump with filter (I found one without filter and it worked fine for me, too)
• Go to the "Menu"
• Go to the bottom symbol (a spanner) and select it
• Go to " Mirror Lock-up" and select yes with YOUR CAMERA FACING DOWN AND LENSE OFF (just the camera body)
• Use the pump air to clean the sensor (which is now exposed! Warning, don't touch it, simply pump air without touchinh anything)
• When you are finished, shut the camera OFF (the mirror will reposition)
• Finished!

It worked perfectly and quickly for me!

Here is the youtube video

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