Tips on Digital Photography
These days, it's come to be expected that most mobile devices come with a camera. Everything from laptops to smartphones have a camera built-in. And that's given rise to the amateur photographer. Whether posting snaps to Flickr or 4chan, reporting the news on the scene for a blog, or taking personal photos to share with friends, digital photography has seeped into Internet culture, and its here to stay.
But we've noticed, judging from the quality of pictures we've seen online anyway, that some of you seem to need a few pointers. So, in the interest of a more beautiful Internet for everyone, here's our list of general tips for taking the best digital photos.
Rule of thumb: Natural daylight is best. If indoors, light from a window is second best. Lacking that, use either incandescent light bulbs, or flame - such as from a fireplace or candles. Fluorescent lighting, such as what you find in an office, is the absolute worst for digital photographs, especially when photographing a person. It makes the subject look like a washed-out zombie. You have every gray hair and wrinkle coming out in bold lines, and the skin color always comes out looking dead.
Zooming: Optical zooms are the best, but they're rare on mobile devices. Digital zooming is available everywhere, but actually it's the same thing as taking a regular picture and blowing it up in Photoshop. Which, as you know, will hurt your resolution - eventually you get to having blotchy pixels in the image. So use zoom with care; you can always post-process it later.
Megapixels: The more, the better. This relates to the point about zooming; cameras with a high megapixel rating will be able to capture images at a higher resolution. This isn't something you can adjust; it's a feature of your camera at the time you bought it, so look for the highest rating you can find. You should look for a rating between 2 and 4 MP. You can go higher - up to 6 or so - but unless you're wanting to make blown-up, poster-size prints to hang on the wall, it won't be necessary. Wikipedia has an excellent write-up about pixels.
ISO: On cameras, this rates how sensitive the camera is to light. The higher the ISO setting, the better your photographs will turn out in low-light conditions. You want the ISO to be 100 or above. Under 100, and you'll have a tough time getting a decent image in anything but broad daylight.
Personal portraits: Online dating is no longer a curiosity; it's now the most common way to meet people. Every online personals site will have a way for you to upload a photo. Just because it doesn't seem to go without saying, we'll say it here: Dress nice, be in a clean room, don't have the brightest light to your back, and try to smile if you could. And try to get someone else to take the picture. A photo of yourself posing in the bathroom mirror holding the camera tells the whole world that you couldn't even scrounge up one single real-life friend to take the picture for you, and that just reeks of loneliness and desperation. The same goes for holding the camera pointed at yourself without a mirror - now we have a picture of you with your arms out, and probably with the top of your head cut off, too.
Some "gotchas": Look out for reflective surfaces in the image frame, which will bounce the light around in unexpected ways, particularly if you're using flash. Try to hold the camera still - either use a solid object to steady the camera, or at least cut back on the caffeine before you go photographing. Look out for people in the background - you've seen those pictures on the social web where somebody took a wedding-day photo on the beach and there, behind the lovebirds, some college fratboy had to jump up and moon the camera. Look out for jokers like that.
Filed Under: Digital Photography
