Taking better Photos

Using your Digital Camera

This page is aimed primarily at anyone who runs a picture gallery on a website, but the information may also be helpful to others. If you can imagine your website as your online business store, then your picture gallery is your storefront. It's the one single thing you can do to influence your visitors before you yourself get an opportunity to make any direct contact with them. Therefore, it is imperative to present your 'storefront' in the best light possible. Let's say for saying's sake that your gallery content is good, I'm talking here about the actual content, the items that you are photographing. Are the photographs reflecting the fact that your products are excellent? Alternatively, because your pictures are too blurred or grainy, too large or too small, are your photos 'saying' to your visitors that you really have nothing special to offer them? These are important questions that each site owner needs to answer..... and needs to answer honestly! Failure to do so could be driving hundreds of prospective visitors away. It doesnt have to be that way. If you find yourself in this position, the following hints and tips may be of benefit to you.

Camera Hints & Tips

• Read The Manual: I really cannot emphasise this strongly enough, and I know you guys probably dont want to hear it, but the first and most important thing to do is Read the Manual The manufacturers have made your digital camera, naturally enough they are going to know the best way to use it. Listen to what they have to say. :-)



• Practice: Like the old saying goes, "if at first you dont succeed, try, try, try again." Trust me on this, once you get the camera working at its best, you'll agree that the practice was time well spent.



• Close-up: Remember when shooting digital images close up that you need to have the camera macro facility enabled. This is done normally through the setup menus, look for the Macro symbol which is usually a small flower. It is important that you capture the subject properly to show off any details that needs to be displayed as opposed to capturing too much of the background.



• Steady On: One of the biggest problems most people have when shooting up close is blurred pictures due to the camera being moved whilst capturing the image. A rock steady hand is required. A tripod is always a welcome accessory, can your camera use one? If not, can you improvise using some books as a platform?



• Lights, camera, action! Make the best use of all available natural light. Try taking your digital pictures at various times of the day. When shooting close-up, try and avoid using the flash as it places too much glare on the finished image.



• Backgrounds: Photograph the same object several times using various different background materials and/or colours. Notice which background or colour best compliments the subject. perhaps make some notes for future use.



• Picture Sizes: Digital photos coming straight from your camera can be over 1 megabyte in size, this is far too big to be displayed in a picture gallery and so needs to be optimised for web purposes. Picture sizes and Optimisation are discussed and explained in detail in the Web Help section. I would strongly advise a good read through it if you really want to Optimise Those Pictures