Digital Photography for Beginners: 3 Never-Fail Tips

Are you looking for a new hobby? Digital photography, even for beginners, is easy and instantly rewarding. All you need is a camera and the entire world becomes your muse. Here are 3 great tips to help create awesome photos from the get-go.

In digital photography for beginners, it’s important to keep things simple if you want instant results. The simpler the background is, the easier it is to create a focused shot that gives the main subject the most importance.

You don’t have to worry about colours, because the background is plain! You don’t have to worry about textures, because the background is blank! You don’t have to worry about depth because the background is flat! All you need to do is focus on the subject and you should be good to go!

Most people taking up digital photography, especially beginners, might find themselves trying to take pictures indoors, where the light isn’t as bright. To compensate for low light, they tend to employ the camera’s flash, which is a serious mistake. The problem with flash is that the light is too bright and can, if the subject is close enough, hide all the textures and layers under the blinding glaze of the flash light.

The ideal way to take pictures indoors is to remove the flash and push the ISO or film speed up to between 800 and 1600. This will allow more light to pass through your camera’s shutter and, therefore, let more light reach the sensor. The wider the aperture is, the more blurred the background will be and the sharper your subject will appear. Add a tripod to your system and you have the perfect way to avoid Image Stabilisation (IS).

If there is one golden rule that you need to know about composition, it is the rule of thirds. All you need to do is look through the viewfinder and divide what you see into three equal segments, horizontally and vertically. That will create a 3 x 3 grid format or 9-squares, which then becomes your guideline for taking the picture. Depending on the subject and the type of image you are taking, a central or off-centre location might be perfect for it. The grid merely helps you compose an image that helps the eye look all across the picture, instead of only noticing the subject.

With these three simple rules of digital photography for beginners, every picture can be a winner!