Taking Professional Looking Pictures With Your Digital Camera

Nowadays you do not have to be professional photographer to capture beautiful pictures. It is also not necessary to own an expensive camera. Regardless of whether you are using a point and shoot digital camera, or a digital semi-professional camera, to get the most out of your effort it is imperative that you at least know some photography basics.
Composition is Key
Ever wondered why some pictures are more visually appealing than others? The more visually appealing photos are taken with composition in mind. How the picture is composed, or put together, will determine how the picture is interpreted by the viewer.
One of the main rules of composition is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds entails breaking your viewer window into nine boxes, two horizontal lines and two vertical lines, with the middle box in the very center of the shot. Instead of centering your subject, use these boxes to align the subject along a line or intersection of lines. Many point and shoot camera's have a setting on the screen to view what look like "gridlines".
Another basic composition rule is to keep the horizon level. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Using a tripod can stabilize the camera for you, making a horizontally balanced picture easier to obtain.
The Photo Subject
It is also important to select the right way to shoot the subject. Once you know the key focus of the picture, check along the borders of your viewfinder to see if anything unruly stands out. For example, you may start to take a portrait of someone and see a poster on the wall behind the subject that you do not want in the picture. If this happens you can:

1. reposition the subject
2. change the angle of the shot
3. zoom in to avoid the obstruction

Many digital camera have settings that will also shorten the depth of field, which creates a blurred background effect. This could also help to avoid unwanted objects.
Whichever method you employ, be selective with the background for your images. If you are taking a portrait, a simple and plain background works best.
The Light and Dark Of It
Light, or lack of light, plays a huge role in the way a picture turns out. Light can also determine where and how to take a picture.
Exposure
Exposure is the amount of light that hits the subject or area of a photo. With the automatic settings on a digital camera, the exposure is usually adjusted at the camera's will. With most cameras you can play with the scene settings or make manual adjustments.
If you take a picture and find that it is too dark or too light, you can change the settings and try again. If your camera has the ability to make manual adjustments, it may be indicated by a +/- symbol. If the photo is too dark move the scale up (+) to increase the amount of light exposure. If too light move exposure down (-) to decrease the amount of light exposure.
Lighting
Unless you want a silhouette effect, avoid taking pictures with direct light behind the subject. If you are not able to adjust the angle to avoid light, using the flash can bring some light to the foreground. Pay attention to the light and shadows before you shoot and make sure that they don't obscure the subject or make your subject squint. Shadows, angles and side lighting can create dramatic effects, but often yield dark prints. In most cases, the ideal solution is to use natural, indirect light wherever possible.
White balance
Different light sources create different colors in photographs. Most digital cameras adjust on their own, but still give you the ability to adjust yourself. Use this setting to ensure the whites in your subject are truly white in the photo, unless intentionally going for a different effect. For example, the cloudy setting on a digital camera will warm things up, thus casting warmer hues on an otherwise cool object.
Flash
If your objects look too white after using a flash you may be standing too close. If you do not have a camera that allows manual flash adjustments (just a little flash or a lot of flash), you can use a homemade or store bought flash diffuser. To make your own diffuser, tape a piece of wax paper over the flash. This will soften the focus of the flash while still allowing for an increase in overall light.
Play with Camera Settings
Most point and shoot cameras have modes, or scenes, to quickly change the settings for the picture. Adjust the mode to appropriately fit the needs of each shot.
For sports and fast action, increase the shutter speed. A good rule of thumb for action shots is choosing a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second or higher. Also, if you're using a 100mm lens for non-action shots, then your shutter speed should be 1/100th of a second or faster.
For low light conditions, adjust the aperture priority. This allows as much light as possible to enter the lense. Lowering the aperture will help keep both the foreground and background sharp. The disadvantage to this is it also slows down the shutter speed, so use a tripod to keep the camera steady and the photo from blurring. When photographing landscapes, close the lens' iris to increase depth and maintain sharp focus within the entire photo. Using the landscape mode on a point and shoot will achieve the same effect.
The Finished Product
Once you have taken all of your photos, it is important to look at them on a computer and chose the best ones. It is hard to see detail on a small LCD screen. Once you have the best photos, you may choose to do some basic editing such as cropping and adjusting exposure or tint. Picasa and iPhoto are both great software options for beginners. Most professionals use Adobe Photoshop to retouch their photos.

Finished photos are best when shared! One of the most impactful ways to share them is by creating a photobook. Photobook publishers, such as blurb, give you the creative freedom to combine your images with text, borders, backgrounds and graphics, then publish them in a bound book or album. Photobooks are printed out on high quality paper that is designed to last.So nice to capture good pictures.