[danuthu]

Hello everyone,

Here's a small and basic tip for beginner photographers:

On the small display of your digital camera, it's more useful to look at the Histogram rather than at the Picture Preview in order to see if you got the capture right.

When you're taking on digital photography, you're always very eager to check the preview on the DSLR camera display after every picture taken. It's absolutely normal to be excited about the image you just captured. But it's also of little real use and rather disruptive.

The camera display is inherently too small to be able to truly tell whether the picture is in focus or whether you over or under exposed parts of it. You will only be able to tell this with certainty when you see it on your much larger computer screen.

Also, capturing the story you want to convey with your picture is easier when you keep your camera pointed at the subject waiting for the right moment or taking multiple pictures without interruptions. Checking the display after each picture can be disruptive and can result in you missing the right moment.

On the other hand, the Histogram that all DSLR cameras display (when set to) can show you at a short glance if your exposure was correct. The Histogram has all the info you need about exposure in a very concise form that is easy to read in virtually no time at all. That's basically all you need to know at that moment in order to make the necessary adjustments. Understanding Histograms requires a little practice, but it's actually easy and useful.

When shooting a dynamic scene, a good way to go about it is: set the camera to display the Histogram as Preview after each picture, take the first shot, take a short glance at the histogram to make sure you got the exposure as you wanted it, make the adjustments if needed and then focus on capturing the image you're looking for without interrupting to check the display again until you're done.

Hope it's helpful, enjoy and take great pictures.