Digital cameras are so clever now that they can automatically eliminate a lot of the problems that the traditional film photographer had to face. The pitfalls of poor focusing, zoom, and the dreaded red-eye can now be sidestepped without any thought on behalf of the user. Technology, however, can prevent shutterbugs from properly appreciating some of the fundamentals of photography, and they won’t be getting the most out of their digital cameras.

It’s worthwhile remembering that the principles of digital photography are the same as film photography. There might not be any exposure to film in digital cameras but light is still the fundamental component in taking a stunning picture. The photographer’s control of light will ultimately decide how good or bad a photograph is.

Most digital cameras have a fully automatic adjustment of aperture and shutter speed. The shutter speed will determine how long the shutter stays open on the camera. The longer the shutter is open, the more light will be captured. Generally speaking, you want the shutter speed to be as low as possible to capture the sharpest image, particularly with moving objects to avoid blurring. If you don’t have a particularly steady hand, manually reducing the shutter speed will also reduce the blur from your hand movement when taking a picture.

The aperture on digital cameras measures how wide the shutter will open. Aperture is measured in f-stops (or f-numbers), with a wide aperture (low f-stops) allowing lots of light in. A narrow aperture (high f-stops) will let in less light. Adjusting the f-stops manually will change the depth of field in your picture and alter the parts of your photo that are in focus. If you want the object in the foreground to exclusively be in focus then use low f-stops. If, however, you want your background to also be in focus, then adjust your f-stops to be higher.

You will have far sharper images by using an optical zoom rather than a digital zoom. Optical zoom manually changes the distance between the lens and the sensor on digital cameras, which in effect is “real zoom”. Digital zoom takes the pixels from your photo and simply enlarges them, which will give the effect of bringing you closer to the object, but will also blur and distort the image.

Taking control of your pictures by manually manipulating the functions of your camera will provide much better results. Digital cameras give you the option to make life easy but making the choices yourself will really enable you to take much better photos.