People see photos like the one above and think Wow.. I wish I could take photos like that.

You can. It’s easier than you think. Follow my tips and you’ll be taking pro-look shots in no time.

First, some general info:

My camera is a very simplistic FujiFilm A820. This is considered to be a “basic” camera and runs on two plain ol’ AA batteries. It is a “nannied” camera and has no option for manual focus. Just about everything is automatic.

I like cameras that are small, run on AA’s and produce large (over 3000-pixel wide) images. The A820 does that easily as does many other basic digital cameras.

Now for my tips:

Tip 1. Use “sport” mode

Digital cameras in the $150+ range have predefined settings you can use, and one of them is a sport mode. It doesn’t matter who made the camera, they all have it. If you keep running into the situation where the camera absolutely will NOT focus in regular “automatic” mode, use sport. It will work.

About 99% of the time I use sport mode; the photo at the top was taken using it.

Tip 2. Place subject’s nose in the midpoint of the frame

Concerning taking a photo of a person: I have seen scores of photos where the picture-taker places the subject’s eyes directly in the center of the frame.

Wrong.

This puts way too much space above the subject’s head.

The nose is what should be at the midpoint.

If there are multiple people in the shot, place the tallest person’s nose at the midpoint of the frame.

Tip 3. Focus, then move

In the above photo (another shot I took), the rose on the left is in focus while the rose on the right is not.

How is this effect achieved since the rose on the left is not in the center of the frame?

1. Place what you want to shoot in the center of the frame.
2. Hold the shutter button down to focus on it.
3. Physically move to the right or left.
4. Shoot.

And yes it’s that simple.

This technique also works moving up or down.

I used the exact same process in the above photo, except I crouched down first, focused, moved up slightly, then took the shot. The bottom of the frame stayed in focus while the top wasn’t - just like I wanted it to be.

While it’s true more expensive digital cameras have what’s called “spot focus” where you can choose what to focus on in the frame, the technique above accomplishes the exact same thing.

Tip 4. Purposely block the flash bulb with your finger

If you’ve been taking digital photos for any amount of time you’ve probably run into the situation where the flash goes when you don’t want it to. To add insult to injury, the camera won’t focus correctly at all when you turn the flash off.

Solution: Place your finger over the bulb. The camera will focus properly and it won’t be ruined by the flash.

Note: You may sometimes encounter reds/pinks in your shot when doing this (because the flash is flashing through your finger), but it works most of the time.

Tip 5. Look what I can do

Wow! Did I use super-cool-awesome expensive software to do this?

Nah.

I used Picasa. It’s a free Google Pack download.

In Picasa:

• Click a photo
• Press and hold CTRL
• Click a few more photos (you are selecting multiple photos by doing this)
• Let go of CTRL
• Press the “Collage” button at the bottom
• Have fun