Happier Snaps: A Simple Guide on How to Take Better Photos

.....is an easy-to-follow guide on how to get the best out of compact cameras.

Copyright 2014 Duncan Wherrett.

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

Put Depth into the Picture

Include the Environment

Have a Central Point of Interest

Move in Closely, then Closer

Look at the Light

Use Colour, Shape and Texture

People

Small Subjects

Night-Time

Far Away

And Fast Moving

Summary of Tips

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to help people in general take better and more satisfying photographs. It is aimed at those who have little knowledge of, or little interest in, photography as a hobby or business.

Every family seems to have one or more cameras, but so often people feel disappointed with their photographs without really knowing the reason why; the landscape pictures do not have the impact of the original scene or photos of friends and places seem to be lacking something.

No attention will be paid in this book to the elaborate, sophisticated cameras, lenses, filters and gadgets of professionals and keen amateurs.

It puts forward simple principles which can be used by anyone owning the simplest of cameras.

Firstly, some general information about equipment.

Most people want an easy-to-use camera where they are not required to understand and become involved in a wealth of photographic technicalities. Any new technological advance will appear first on the more expensive cameras, mainly used by professionals. In due course, these functions work their way down to the cheaper cameras on the market. As a result, even the cheapest compact cameras have a multitude of functions, all designed to make the task of picture taking as effortless as possible.

Just about everyone uses only digital cameras these days. There is no film, no processing and you can see the results immediately. Film cameras are a rarity now and most companies have stopped making them altogether.

If you are travelling, image file storage can still be a problem, however. You'll need to carry enough memory cards to hold all the photographs you might take and ideally transfer them to CD as a precaution. A roll of film holds a lot of photographic information and film cameras can sometimes still be more convenient than a digital camera, if you can get the stuff processed. Anyway, high street processors now offer print services for digital files so the user ends up with prints as with film. Anyone with a computer, printer, photo-imaging software and an ability to use it, can produce their own results from the digital files.

The facilities a standard modern compact camera is likely to contain are:

A fixed lens with an equivalent focal length of 35mm, which in fact is slightly wide angle, giving a field of view a little wider than that seen by the human eye. It will focus automatically when pointed at the subject.

Many cameras have a zoom lens ranging from slightly wide angle to moderate telephoto. It's likely to be equivalent to a