It is important to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect camera, one that will be the best for everyone. Although we sometimes talk about ‘cameras of the year’ or ‘top picks’, such lists and awards are really of little consequence. The camera that wins most accolades may not be the one that is most suitable for you. The important thing you need to do is to think about what you want from a camera; you need to know what the various specifications mean, and to work out which is the best for you. Even those aspects that can easily be quantified - such as the number of pixels the sensor records - are not always straightforward. For some people a 2 megapixel (Mp) camera may be a better choice than a 4 Mp model. Even where image quality is important, you cannot assume that a 5 Mp camera will necessarily give better results than a 3 Mp model. As in life, other things are seldom equal.

During photography’s entire history, the amateur and the professional have represented distinct and often contrary approaches to photography, each battling for supremacy. Has the digital revolution tilted the field of battle irrevocably in the amateur’s favour? Or has it swept this traditional rivalry into the dustbin? Can anyone say? For the 19th-century practitioner, photography was fraught with personal and technical adversity. The darkroom environment was equally challenging: space was constrained, and in smaller field tents the photographer had to kneel or lie down to work. Ventilation was poor or non-existent, and lightproofing faulty. Digital photography is starting to become accessible to the average consumer. Camera prices are falling and image quality is improving. Compared to conventional 35-mm photography, there is no film or processing costs, and results are immediately viewable so a re-shoot can be made quickly if needed. Plus there are more and more applications where digital images are more convenient and cost effective.

Normally our eyes compensate for lighting conditions with different color temperatures. A digital camera needs to find a reference point which represents white. It will then calculate all the other colors based on this white point. For instance, if a halogen light illuminates a white wall, the wall will have a yellow cast, while in fact it should be white. So if the camera knows the wall is supposed to be white, it will then compensate all the other colors in the scene accordingly. Most digital cameras feature automatic white balance whereby the camera looks at the overall color of the image and calculates the best-fit white balance. However these systems are often fooled especially if the scene is dominated by one color, say green, or if there is no natural white present in the scene. Most digital cameras also allow you to choose a white balance manually, typically sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent, incandescent etc. Prosumer and SLR digital cameras allow you to define your own white balance reference. Before making the actual shot, you can focus at an area in the scene which should be white or neutral gray, or at a white or gray target card. The camera will then use this reference when making the actual shot.

You may have already noticed that when you’re outside on a sunny day using the Sports/Action mode to take pictures of your child playing soccer or your pet catching a Frisbee, that you get these great action images that are worthy of submission to Sports Illustrated Magazine. But when you go inside and take photos of a basketball game with the same camera in the same “sports mode”, you get images that are only worthy of being erased before anyone else sees them. The main ingredient that’s missing in the indoor photos is “light”. The light inside a gym during a basketball game is minimal just as it is during a football game or soccer game after the sun goes down. Most of your sports/action photographs will be taken in available light. Flash isn’t always allowed and there’s also an effective range of your built-in flash (10 to 15 feet) that isn’t conducive to taking action shots from the stands. Taking a photograph of a moving subject without a flash under low light conditions can result in blurry pictures. The problem lies in the way that exposure works; the lower the light, the slower the shutter speed that the camera needs to make a correct exposure. The slower the shudder speed, the more chance that the picture will be “blurry” because of camera movement or subject movement.

JPEG is a format that makes changes to your photograph, such as adding lighting specifications or white balance. This is usually the best thing to save your picture as, because the results are generally satisfactory and the computer is smart about interpreting the data. However, sometimes you may want to take the raw photograph, which is the picture that has nothing added to it such as light specifications, and edit it yourself. You should do this if you are unsatisfied with the picture taken by the camera, as it is easier than trying to edit a JPEG image. In general, JPEG images are not as detailed as raw images which makes editing them difficult.

If you use a flash in a dark environment, you often get a red eye effect. This is because the light of the flash is reflecting from the retina, which is covered with tiny blood vessels. The more open the pupils are, the more red eye effect you get in your photos. Red eye is more pronounced in people with light eye color. It is also more pronounced in people with blond or light-red hair and in children. Many cameras have a built-in red-eye reduction pre-flash that helps reduce the incidence of red eye. Red-eye reduction works by having the flash shine a light into the eyes of the subject prior to taking the picture. This causes the pupil to contract. However, you have to make sure the subject is looking at the camera. If not, this technique won’t work. Also be wary of using red-eye reduction feature when not necessary, because it may cause your subject to blink.

“Picture-perfect” is a term almost always associated with photography, which makes photographers think that every photograph must be absolutely perfect. This is simply not true. Most often some of the best pictures are not perfect, because perfect can be predictable. However, in order to get those perfect pictures, any photographer, whether experienced or a beginner, must be patient and persistent. Eventually, taking perfect pictures will simply become a habit.