2 Outdoor Digital Photo Techniques

By MJ Johnston

If you love to take digital pictures outdoors, then you've probably already experimented with a variety of up a notch, and you may even start to prefer taking your photos to a lab for printing, or doing your digital photo printing through another professional service, like your favorite online photo sharing service, for the best results. However you do your digital photo printing, try these two techniques for outdoor photos and you'll end up with some of the best digital pictures possible.

If you love nature and the outdoors, then you already know that it's amazingly beautiful, from the impossibly vast sights like the Grand Canyon, to the tiniest stamen on a flower. And while shots of things like the Grand Canyon can be stunning, there's nothing quite like a close up of an intricate spider web, or an extremely close shot of the inside of a flower. Zooming into nature opens up a whole new interesting world that we take for granted every day and never really examine.

Flowers, especially, can look even more stunning when you can see the texture of the stamen, or the dots of pollen or dew resting on the petals. Some of the most beautiful pictures ever taken of flowers were extreme close-up shots. So look for the setting on your digital camera that allows these extreme close-ups. It's often called "macro mode" and sometimes is even represented by a flower symbol. When you've found your photo subject, focus on the part that moves you. Up close shots have a more shallow depth of field, so everything but the most focused part will soften a little into the background. Hold the button halfway down to give the camera a moment to focus, before depressing the button all the way.

Another gorgeous technique for stunning outdoor digital photo printing is that of photographing moving water. Find your waterfall, stream or other water source where water turns to "white" water by going over a fall or even just small rocks in the path of the stream. A shaded water source is best. You'll also want to use a tripod to keep the camera steady. Set the self-timer on your digital camera, and set the aperture to f-8, f-11 or f-16, if your camera has an aperture priority setting. This slows the shutter down for a longer exposure each time. If you can get each exposure to last a second or two, the water in your photo won't look captured or frozen in time, it looks as if its flowing. different ways to get the best shots possible, especially if you do your digital photo printing yourself. But there are a couple of techniques for outdoors shots that can make your photography time even more rewarding and fun, and make digital photo printing even better because the photos you'll be producing will be even more impressive than usual.

If you usually do your digital photo printing yourself, practicing these techniques could take your photography skills.

MJ Johnston writes for a variety of websites, including Digitalphotoalbumsite, a photo site that offers advice on easy ways to enjoy digital photo printing, as well as free online photo storage.