Saw a photograph of a very pretty and petite young lady, it was posted on a forum discussing Asian food and recipes. It was a nice candid outdoor shot, good light and good focus. Digital cameras make it all so easy these days. The young lady was standing against a wall and there was an arrow shaped sign to her left at about ear height. The sign read 'TOILET'! The sign did not detract from her beauty, but a slight angle shift of the young lady or the person shooting the image could have avoided this unwanted sign plate!
This sort of thing happens to all of us, with millions of digital cameras sold each year, the number of budding photographers is rapidly mounting. Digital photographs has made any things easier for you and cheaper too, putting a little thought before clicking the shutter can give you amazing results.
A huge 3 to 4 storey high statue of a famous Hindu god, photorgraphed on location in Thailand. Notice how the clouds in the background help to keep the entire top edge of the statue clear and distinct. A blank sky with heavy sunlight would have not given such an impressive atmosphere to the image.
We once had an outing on an ancient temple site in Thailand, the place was a few hundred years old. Amazing place to shoot photographs, you could actually feel the sanctity of the temple running through you. There was a very old rock engraving near one of the pillars, the engraving was more than 2 feet wide. We had at least 5 digital camera holders in the group who together shot not less than, 50 images of the same object. When going through the images back at the hotel, we saw something in the all the photographs, an old plastic chair thrown at the far end of the engraved rock.
An intricately carved wooden structure being built. The angle at which this digital photograph was taken helped show that the entire house was made from carved wood. There was not enough space to walk back directly in front of the wooden house and take the photograph. Standing at a slight angle helped get the entire wooden house in the photorgaph.
Talk to some people and they tell you not to sweat over such issues. Editing the image in expensive photo softwares like Photoshop can do wonders. An expert Photoshop user could take the TOILET sign off the wall, he could also take off the old plastic chair from the temple photograph. Cropping the image portion could be one solution. It is true that these photo editors can do magic but, why give them the credit of the final photograph. It is better to train yourself to see the scene as seen by your digital camera.
A spectacular digital photograph, a natural flower splattered with water droplets. This is an unedited digital picture no enhancement or modification has been done through photo-editing. The image size has however been reduced to reduce the file size.
You visit a hill station, awesome scenery. You learn that morning sunrise is something that you should not miss. So you wake up early morning and pack yourself in thick clothes to keep off the cold. Pick your camera and walk to the location, dozens of people have got their before you and all are eagerly awaiting sunrise. The sun starts to rise and you click away, no worry about the people in front of you. Just zoom in towards the sun and keep that digital camera rolling. With a few dozen images safely stored in the memory card, you walk back to the hotel. A few hours later you load the card on your laptop and start viewing the images, nice picture of the fireball entering the sky. No hills, people or trees obstructing the view all looks wonderful.
A front flash light would have ruined this spectacular photograph. An intricate carving on a temple door is shown with breathtaking beauty in the above digital photograph. Shut the flash, and make arrangements with natural light where possible. In this case, the door was angled slightly to let the natural daylight strike the door. This helped bring out clear details, a beautiful image of a beautiful door.
Now unless you are an astronomer imaging the sun, you should be quite unhappy or at least unimpressed with the photographs. Just the sun photographed from anywhere would appear the same, you need not have woken up early and dared the freezing cold weather! Remember you were at a hill station, the shot should have included the surroundings in a nice pretty composition. You could have pulled back a bit and got the people silhoutted against the sun just as the sky started to glow. The aim should have been to record the mood and the atmosphere. If you plan to stay another day at the place, make another trip the next morning and capture the vibrance of the moment on your digital camera !
They say that photography is an art, some people debate that the kind of instant photography encouraged by digital photography is killing the art. These discussions are academic and not relevant to our article. The best thing is to know your digital camera well and be as creative as possible when using it.
Here is a neat suggestion, when you take a photograph just forget what wonders a photo editor could do for you. Try to make the best composition of the subject being photographed, work on the best light condition, the best angle. See if you can position yourself to frame the image with only the details that you really want to appear in the photograph. We have nothing against Photoshop or any other photo editing software, it is best to use them as mere tools for some finishing efforts.
In this case, the digital image was taken to show a product. The important details were in the product, the model number and overall appearance of this label printer. The image does the job well, no creativity and interesting angles or lighting are required or used.
There was a time when a good photograph was one that came out good from the camera, the definition will not change for the next few decades at least. Email us at easyrambler@rocketmail.com with your comments or suggestions, we look forward to them.
Related resources: Understand digital cameras. Digital photograph size Caring for your digital camera