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 are blurry. Blurry digital photos look out of focus or have objects that are not clear and appear to be smudged. Most of the blurry digital photos are the result of camera shakings. When the shutter is open and the scene is captured on the digital camera sensor (also known as CCD) any shakings or movements of the digital camera will result in the objects moving around the CCD while the photo capturing process is executed. The result of such movements is a blurry photo since the object seems to be ?captured? by a few areas on the CCD in different intensities.

Learn how to hold your digital camera to minimize shakings: it should be held firmly with two hands and it should ?touch? your face. Camera shakings and movements are more problematic when shooting in extreme conditions such as slow shutter speeds or very high zoom values. With slow shutter speed the camera has more time to ?move? and blur the photo. With high zoom value even very small camera movements that would otherwise not be noticeable are enlarged and blur the digital photo. If you are shooting photos using slow shutter speeds or high zoom values you should use a sturdy tripod to prevent shaking. If you can not guarantee that the camera will be stable ? for example if you are shooting while you're moving ? set the camera to shutter priority and choose a fast shutter speed (assuming of course that the light conditions allow such setting) ? for example setting the shutter speed to anything faster than 1/250 of a second will most likely guarantee a non blurry photo even if the camera shakes a bit. If you

have to take high zoom value digital photos without a tripod or a sturdy surface you can also consider using high end lenses that include built-in image stabilizers.

The best way to learn how to avoid blurry digital photos is by experimenting and practicing. Try to find scenes that will confuse the digital camera into taking blurry digital photos. 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 blurry digital photos problem is gone. Practicing in a controlled environment will help you be prepared to quickly and efficiently handle such scenes in real time photo shooting.