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Twitter, Facebook and the world of blogs are revealing that dSLRs were a popular gift this year, making me think that many of you reading are currently trying to learn how to best use that shiny new camera of yours! A few tips to help you along in your journey to taking better photos!

1. Read some of my past posts on photography basics. The three things you absolutely have to understand before you can ever have complete control over the pictures you take are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. You will never be able to take good pictures until you understand these three things. Your camera might take pretty pictures if you never bother to learn, but wouldn’t you like to take all of the credit for each and every photos you take?

A few other posts you might gain something from:

2. Get thyself over to Pioneer Woman Photography and read her tutorial posts. They are some of the best I’ve seen on the world wide web. This post on metering changed my life (it’s kind of embarrassing how long I went without understanding how to utilize my camera’s meter). You might also enjoy this post on Focus Point, this one on Basic Macro Tips, and this one on Nailing the Exposure. I Heart Faces has some really fantastic tutorials as well.

3. Get yourself an editing program and learn to use actions. [Editors Note: Apparently Photoshop Elements doesn’t provide the ability to use actions. Whoops! I’ve been spoiled and never had to use it. Check out these Photoshop Elements tutorials on I Heart Faces if that’s the program you are currently navigating!) Also you should learn to do things that don’t include actions, but actions are a good place to start. I frequently use Pioneer Woman’s actions and I think you will love them too. PW also wrote a great post on making eyes pop with Photoshop. Know that you will instantly be judged as an amateur by the majority of those who call themselves photographers if you edit your photos with the selective color technique.

4. Find some blogs with photography tips and subscribe to them. The Digital Photography School blog is my favorite.

5. GOOGLE EVERYTHING! I frequently get questions from people on things that could easily be answered with a little digging. Click here and I’ll help answer your questions concerning the best tips for beginning photographers (but just this one time).

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