Photography Tips and Tricks

If you’ve been using a digital camera for a while, you know how fast they can go through batteries. Stopping to change batteries can ruin some good shots and good digital camera batteries can be expensive! Here are some tips to make those batteries last longer, giving you more shots per set.

LCD

Your digital camera’s LCD screen can be one of the biggest drainers of battery life.  Whenever possible, press the LCD button and switch to using the view finder. Most cameras will still let you preview photos and change settings through the view finder, but it uses much less energy than the LCD screen.

Flash

Flash is another huge drain on the life of your digital camera’s batteries. Only use the flash when it is really needed. The flash can be turned off by pressing the button with the lightning icon.

Try to use low light settings and modes to make up for lower light conditions, or move to a spot that is brighter.  Even natural light through windows can be enough to make up for not using a flash.

Another option is to use a separate flash that runs on its own batteries. At least you will use up the batteries on the flash and not the camera, which may save you a missed shot down the road.

Video

Rounding out the top three battery zappers is video mode. Video mode takes a large amount of energy. Try to only take videos when they are really going to be something you treasure. Silly videos may be fun, but videos that you are going to delete right away should be avoided as much as possible.

Standby

How long your camera stays on standby is another thing to consider to save battery life. You can easily shorten this amount of time by going to your menu and selecting Auto Power Off. On the other hand, if you know you are going to be taking a lot of pictures, leaving your camera on will actually save more energy than turning it off and on.

Using all of these tips will extend your digital camera’s battery life by at least an hour. Who couldn’t use at least another hour?

Choosing your first digital camera can be incredibly confusing. Fortunately, there are some surefire tactics you can use to make the selection of a digital camera much easier.

Uses
First, you need to decide what you will use your digital camera for. Are you just going to take pictures of your kids, or do you want high-quality images that can be used in magazines? Do you want to get creative with the picture taking process or do you want to be able to just point and click?

Your answer to these questions can cut your list of cameras down dramatically. For example, if you simply want to take great photos of your family without a lot of fuss that cuts out most of the high grade digital cameras such as the Canon Rebel and the Nikon D40. These cameras are nice, but they have a lot of bells and whistles that the average Joe photographer won’t need.

Features
Let’s take a closer look at what makes a great digital camera great.

First, you will need to know the minimum amount of megapixels that your camera needs to be functional for you. Megapixels are the tiny dots that make up a digital image. The more dots you have, the higher quality the picture will be. Also, pictures taken by a camera with a high count of megapixels can be blown up without the image becoming grainy.

Here is a list of what to expect from different megapixel counts:

1 to 2 Megapixels
A digital camera with 2 megapixels is not worth most people’s time. This camera is only good for those with very limited money who want to post pictures on the internet. Think camera phone quality when choosing one of these low quality cameras.

3 to 5 Megapixels
These digital cameras are for the casual photographers who want to take great photos. These are a little more expensive than the lower megapixel cameras, but you will get great quality for your buck.

6 Megapixels and Higher
These cameras are fantastic for someone who wants to get into professional photography. Anything 7 megapixels and over will easily work for major glossy magazines and high-end websites. These cameras are quite a bit more expensive than the lower megapixel cameras, but remember, you get what you pay for.

Other features that you should look for are zoom, auto shoot, and ISO settings. Zoom will let you take pictures of things that are farther away. Pros and novice photographers love this feature, but most people won’t need a digital camera that zooms farther than 10x. Auto shoot allows you to just point and click. It is a great feature for those who don’t want to fool around with settings. ISO settings let you control how much light is used when creating a photo. These settings are great for taking action shots and low light shots.

It is important to take all of these things into consideration when buying a digital camera for the first time. You will end up getting what you need, and won’t need to upgrade as soon.