Get the best from your digicam

By A.S. Berman
Gannett News Service

Little touches bring photos alive

Whether you're headed for a walk along the beach or a trek through one of our nation's many parks, chances are you're going to want to bring along your digital camera.

Keeping these tips in mind, lifelong outdoor photographers say, can mean the difference between lackluster photos and once-in-a-lifetime images.

Photographing friends and family

Great photographic opportunities present themselves all the time and in unexpected places and moments, such as at local fairs and on those long, meandering family walks.

"Be fearless," Dennis Curtin advises digital camera users. Without film or development costs to worry about, digital users should experiment and "shoot like crazy," says the Marblehead, Mass., author and photographer.

In his 30-year career, Curtin has written instructional books on photography and, in an editing capacity, worked with legendary photographer Ansel Adams.

More recently, Curtin has created an online guide to digital photography (www.shortcourses.com).

When it comes to photographing people, Curtin offers these tips:

• Use a flash, even in sunlight. If half of your subject's face is bathed in sunlight, your camera's flash will fill in the shadows that remain. The technique is commonly known as "fill flash."
• Get close. Fill your camera's viewfinder with their faces, he advises. "That's where you get to see personality and emotion."
• Shade your camera from the sun. You can get some interesting results shooting toward the sun, but the glare on your lens is an image killer. Use a hat to shade the lens from direct sunlight.

Shooting nature

Paul Caldwell spends much of his time exploring the woods of his hometown, Little Rock, Ark., searching for natural wonders to photograph.

In more than 25 years in picture taking, he has developed some tips for getting the most out of outdoor excursions. One of his favorites: Use the sun for backlighting.

When shooting a tree, for instance, he suggests using the trunk to block the sun completely. "You get is this gorgeous backlit effect. No artificial lighting will equal that."

Photographing sunrises and sunsets can offer you beautiful images.

For best results, Caldwell has this advice:

• Shoot when there's a slight haze over the sun. Clouds, mist and other atmospheric conditions block the intensity of direct sunlight and lend your shots more color and a more even light-meter reading.
• Use your zoom. When a wide-angle lens is used, the sun often is reduced to a tiny "pinprick" in your photographs.

Troubleshooting

If you're new to digital cameras and can't figure out why some shots keep eluding you, Philip Tulin, creator of the digital photography site www.outdooreyes.com, suggests you may be suffering from:

• Digital delay. Unlike a film camera, a digital model must write an image to a storage device, which means there is a slight delay before it is ready to take the next picture.
• Camera shake. Consumer digital cameras tend to be lighter than film cameras that carry bulky lenses, making them harder to keep stationary. A light, collapsible monopod (think of it as a tripod with a single leg) can help steady your camera and prevent blurring of photos.
• Short battery life. Digital cameras use a lot more power than film models. Use your camera's sleep mode when possible, and check your user's manual for other battery-saving features. But remember, waking your camera from sleep mode, too, will delay your picture taking.
• "Speed bumps." Changing your camera's shutter speed will dramatically change your results. Remember that the faster your speed, the grainier your image will be.