Take Better Pictures with the Camera You Own

 I always tell people you can take great pictures with the camera you own. 

The majority of us walk around with a very sophisticated camera in our pocket or purse every day. It is called your cell or mobile phone.  Here is a picture I took with my mobile phone.

Mobile Phone Camera 

Personally, I have an iPhone, you may have an android.  It doesn’t matter.  Both have a very sophisticated camera built into their phones.  

With your phone, you can take great photographs and videos.  You have lots of capabilities built into the phone. Even with its small sensor, it provides high-quality photographs. I will use my iPhone as an example.

The camera built into the phone has the capability of taking wide-angle and telephoto photos.  It can take: 

• regular photos, 
• portrait-mode photos
• Night photos with the built-in flash 
• and panoramas. 

In addition, you can edit your photos with a built-in editing suite.  You can:

• crop, 
• rotate the image, 
• adjust brightness, 
• contrast, 
• shadows 
• and more.  

Your phone features a powerhouse of technology built right in.  

The Point-and-Shoot Camera

The next camera you may already own is a point and shoot camera.  These are small size cameras that are built with portability in mind.

I have a Fuji XP camera that is waterproof down to 50 feet.  I bought it for kayaking because I didn’t want to take my expensive camera with me in the kayak.

My little Fuji gives me the ability to take:

• wide-angle, 
• telephoto 
• and panorama photos.  

It is packed with features that amaze me considering its compact size.  The sensor in the point and shoot is larger than that found in camera phones.  

The camera has an assortment of shooting modes.  When you use these modes, the camera determines the best shooting configuration for the shooting mode you choose.  There are modes for:

• portraits, 
• night shooting, 
• landscape shots 
• underwater
• and more.  

You can also take videos with the camera.  Amazing!

The Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera (DSLR)

The Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera is a camera that accepts interchangeable lenses which gives you the most flexibility when it comes to photography. 

The sensor found in DSLRs is substantially larger than the sensors found in the iPhone and the point and shoot cameras.  The larger sensor enables you to make larger prints of the photographs you take.

The DSLRs on the market are also filled with a variety of shooting options such as shooting modes, fully manual shooting, and a semi-automated shooting mode of shutter priority and aperture priority.  

Mirrorless  Cameras

Mirrorless cameras are an emerging technology in photography.  I have never used one so I do not feel qualified to talk about them to any great extent. 

Read Your Owner's Manual!

My first suggestion on any camera is that you become friends with your owner's manual. You need to read it to get a full understanding of the capability of the camera. If you can’t find your camera manual, don’t worry.  You can probably find your camera manual on line.

I hope you have found this information useful.  Please leave me a comment with suggestions on what you would like to see discussed in this blog.

See you next week!  

If you wish to see examples of my photography, visit my website by clicking HERE.