Were you surprised with a digital camera over Christmas? Have you been trying to take award-winning photos with it? Or at least figure out how the whole photography thing works? Do you need some tips to get started but don't want to pay for costly classes?
We can't promise to make you an award-winning photographer, but we can offer a few tips! In general, here are a few things to remember:
* Photography is best accomplished during daylight hours. Dawn and dusk are the ideal time because that is when the lighting is best, but if you aren't able to during those hours, using a shaded area or anytime on a cloudy day will also work. The key is to use indirect lighting. If you take a photo with light directly overhead, you will notice harsh shadows. If you can't find indirect light or a shaded area, the best thing to do is use your flash. It will help to subdue the intensity of the shadows.
* Move your camera rather than use the zoom, if you are able. If you do have to use the zoom, try not to zoom as high as the camera will let you. Most standard digital cameras have 3-6x optical zoom. Anything above that is digital zoom, which is the same as cropping a photo with photo editing software. Most images taken using the digital zoom will be grainy and blurry.
* Hold your shutter button down halfway for a second or two before taking the photo. This allows the camera to automatically adjust the exposure, focus, and white balance settings. If you notice on your camera's screen that the image is still blurry, you may be too close to the object to take a clear photograph. Most cameras can handle and detect focus up to 3" away from an object. If you are closer than 3", then the photo may turn out blurry.
Photographing people:
* Frame in the head and shoulders or a full body.
* Using a flash in a dark room will cause redeye. Use the redeye setting on your camera's flash, if it has one, to help combat this problem. Otherwise, try to avoid taking photos in a dark room or after dusk outside.
Photographing places:
* Try to remember the rule of thirds. This will help the composition of your photos. Imagine a grid of four lines, making nine squares on your viewfinder. Important elements in your photo should be placed along one of the lines or an intersection of two lines.
* Use a tripod when you can. This will allow for straighter photos and less blur in low-light situations.
Photographing things:
* Use a plain background, especially if you are wanting the main focus of the photo to be on the item you are photographing. For dark objects, a lighter background is ideal. For lighter objects, a darker background is ideal.
* Use good lighting. Try to take the photo during daylight hours and without a flash, if possible.
Mozilla Firefox (or just Firefox) is probably the most popular alternative to Internet Explorer. It has a very large user base, most likely because it is one of a few open-source web browsers (This means that the software is created and updated by the community, not a corporation. Anyone can alter the source code, or functionality of the browser). Firefox has many features that make it a worthwhile alternative, some of them being tabbed browsing, themes and add-on extensions. This last one, add-on extensions is probably the most appreciated feature. Firefox add-ons are user created utilities that extend the way that Firefox works. They add functionality that was not there before, and basically make the browsing experience either more personal, more productive or more enjoyable. To try out Mozilla Firefox, download it from the Mozilla website here: http://mozilla.com
Google Chrome is a relatively new browser on the scene, but is gaining a lot of popularity and showing real potential. Created by the web company, Google, known for it's famous search engine, the browser boasts a few features not available in the other contenders that really make it stand out. Chrome introduces dynamic tabbed browsing, which means if a page locks up, it will just close the tab, not the entire browser. Another feature is the searchable address bar. This allows the user to type not only a webpage address into the address bar, but perform a keyword search as well, just like you would do on a search engine. Finally, the web browser has a special "Incognito Mode." This is a function that, when invoked, will not save any history, web cache, passwords or an personal data at all when browsing. This is especially appealing to those users who guard their privacy very dearly. Google Chrome is availible only for Windows XP or Vista at the present and can be downloaded here: http://google.com/chrome
