A lot of folks take the easy way out and use only the “Auto†setting when taking photos with their digital cameras. While this will generally produce good photos, there will be times when faded colors, shadows and reflections, among other things can ruin what would otherwise be a great picture. There are times when taking control of the camera makes sense and here are a few basic digital photography techniques that will help you to over some common problems.
The white balance of a digital camera, as its name suggests, balance out the colors in a photo. When the white balance is on auto the camera automatically adjusts the color balance to create what the software installed in it says are the best color tones and when taking pictures in bright sunlight this can mean that the camera thinks that rich colors are over saturation and compensates. Try changing the setting from auto to “cloudy†as this will program the camera to accept deeper tones, especially for oranges, yellows and reds and give more life to your photos.
Those who do a lot of landscape photography will benefit from the use of a polarizing filter that will increase the contrast resulting in sharper images – most digital camera accept a filter and make any adjustments that may be required automatically. Try using a polarizing filter and you will find that the color definition is sharper and there is more saturation in the colors – take the same image with and without the filter and see the difference. Polarizing filter work best when the sunlight is falling directly on the subject so try and take photos with the sun over your shoulder.
Dark shadows entering an otherwise bright outdoor photo are another common problem and a solution to this is to use the flash. Advanced digital camera will calculate the background exposure and will then add only enough flash to compensate for the difference light caused by the shadows. Most cameras will not allow the flash to fire if there is adequate light over the whole metering area, so the problem of overexposure is not something you need worry about. And if your camera does not have automatic flash compensation, you should still try to use the flash outdoors as an experiment and once you see where it can be used to reduce the effect of dark shadows, you will find yourself using it more and more.