Digital cameras are becoming more and more sophisticated. On one hand they allow high quality automatic point and shoot. On the other hand they allow full manual control of their settings. Regardless of the mode you use there are some scenes that require special care. Without such care your digital photos will be of poor quality regardless of how sophisticated and automatic your camera is.



New digital cameras include sophisticated hardware and software that allow a simple point a shoot usage and result in high quality digital photos. Such high quality digital photos are achieved in most scenarios but in some scenarios solely relying on the cameras automatic feature is not enough. In such scenes the camera hardware and software will make the wrong decision as to the optimal camera setting for the best digital photo. The result will be a poor quality photo.

Being aware of such scenarios can help in avoiding such poor quality digital photos. When you identify such a scenario you can use some simple techniques, by manually setting the camera, by changing the photo shooting angle or by manipulating the scene.

One of the common problems with automatic digital camera photo shooting is digital photos that have objects with red eyes in them. Red eyed objects in digital photos is a very common phenomenon. It is usually common when taking digital photos of people or animals and using a flash in a dark environment. The eyes of objects in such digital photos have some red glow in them. The reason for the redness in their eyes is light that is reflected from the blood rich back of the eye. There are a few things that you can do to prevent red-eyes: some cameras support a ?red eye reduction? mode. In that mode the camera fires the flash a few times before taking the photo. Although this can help reducing red-eye it can also result in photos of people with their eyes closed (as they are blinded by the pre-flash their reflex is to close their eyes). Other ways to prevent red-eye is to use bounce flash (you can do that with special equipment or for example by pointing the flash to a white wall) and using more ambient light if possible (for example by turning on all the lights in the room). Some cameras include built-in image processing software that automatically removes red-eye from the photos or alternatively you can use many software packages on your home computer to accomplish the same.

The best way to learn how to avoid red eyed objects in digital photos is by experimenting and practicing. Try to find scenes that will confuse the digital camera into taking digital photos with red eyed objects. Take a few digital photos using the camera automatic mode and review the results confirming the expected poor quality. Now correct the problem and take a few more photos. Review the new digital photos and make sure that indeed the red eyed objects are in the digital photos. Practicing in a controlled environment will help you be prepared to quickly and efficiently handle such scenes in real time photo shooting.