Photography Digital Camera

If Only I Had A Better Camera

by Andrew Goodall

"If only I had a better camera, I could take great photos like these!" That is something I hear every day in my gallery, and I am sure many photographers hear the same thing. People walk around a display of professional photography, and think that it is the camera, not the photographer, who is responsible for the great photos.

Pride makes it hard to admit that we are just not very good at something. Photography is no exception: much easier to blame the camera. The trouble is, if we want to take better photos, will buying a better camera make that happen?

Of course not.

The truth is, you can take better photos no matter what sort of camera you have. Digital cameras have become so advanced that almost all cameras now have aperture and shutter speed settings, not to mention amazingly powerful optical zoom lenses. These are features that, until very recently, were only available on SLR cameras. So if you want to take better photos, the features are right there in front of you. All you have to do is take the time to learn how to use them.

To take better photos, start with the manual that came with your camera. It will tell you how to operate the major settings, although it may not be so good at explaining what they are for. Then find the information you need to understand how those settings will help you take better photos. There are courses, workshops, books and ebooks that will tell you what you need to know.

Make sure the course or ebook you choose is about how to take better photos. These days, a lot of the information out there is about fixing your photos on a computer, and not about taking better photos.

A lot of what you can learn has nothing to do with the camera. That's right; you can improve your photography without changing one thing about your camera. My experience in nature photography has taught me that the way you use the light to capture your subject makes a huge difference. The weather and the time of day can affect the light, so your timing and patience can be the difference between a snapshot and a great photo.

Developing a good eye for visual balance and composition is another aspect to taking better photos that has nothing to do with what sort of camera you have. You can go a long way towards better photography by learning to think like an artist, not like a tourist. A good guide to photography should teach you this important element of photography as well.

Here are a few simple examples. If you are photographing a waterfall, try looking at the scene creatively. Perhaps you can stand back and take a photo that follows the flow of water upstream, with the waterfall in the background. Or you could try looking through the branches of a tree, to frame the subject, rather than just snapping the first and most obvious angle.

When photographing people and animals, think about the best way to position them to make a stronger composition. Instead of putting them in the middle of the photo looking straight at the camera, try positioning them to one side, looking in towards the centre of the picture.

These are just a couple of simple ideas to get you thinking. The point is this: you can take great strides to becoming a better photographer by concentrating on the artistic aspects of the craft, rather than just the technical.

Of course, many things you can do with a compact camera, you can do even better if you have an SLR camera. However, buying a better camera is not going to help you take better photos if you just switch it to automatic and keep taking snapshots. So here's my tip. Buy the camera you can afford, then learn how to use it. It's as simple as that. No matter which camera you have, you can take better photos with a bit of knowledge, and a bit of practice. If you decide to upgrade later, so be it, but learning the basics of good photography will get you a lot further than succumbing to the "If only I had a better camera" mindset.

Now, if only I had better golf clubs...