Digital photography offers an immense number of advantages over traditional film photography. That being said, it’s not necessarily easier to take great photos with digital gear. Film cameras required excellent photography skills on the shooting side, and excellent dark room skills on the production side. A digital-camera still requires excellent photography skills on the shooting end but, instead of dark room skills, good computer skills, software and equipment are most important for the production end.
There are several rules of thumb for shooting that all photographers should bear in mind. First, except for portraits, don’t centre the subject. When composing photos, imagine the viewfinder divided into three rows and three columns, like a tic-tac-toe grid. Place the primary subject on one of the intersection points. Second, in most cases, the photographer should be between the light source and the subject. If the light is behind the subject, the subject will be dark and the background will be too light.
For digital photographers in particular, there are some tricks to improve the shooting experience, but most of the benefits of digital photography come in processing. Experts often recommend shooting photos in “RAW” or uncompressed file formats. Don’t do it! The files are extremely large and difficult to manipulate. Set the camera to “super fine” compression for jpeg. Few hobbyists will notice the difference.
For production, don’t hesitate to spend on professional software. Middle market photographic software delivers middle market results. Top end programs aren’t essential, but they are a lot of fun. A good computer is also important. Working with photos isn’t much fun if it takes ten minutes for them to load. Top of the line machines aren’t essential, but low end machines usually don’t have the oomph for good graphics work.
In many respects, digital photography is similar to film photography. The big benefits from digital photography come on the production end.
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