Digital photography has come about as a result of the convergence of both IT and photography. Both technical and aesthetic aspects of digital photography are derived from conventional photography, and hence a good knowledge of photographic skills also help to make or break a picture.

Inevitably, digital photography brings with it new techniques and means to capture an image. Basic photography skills such as lighting, exposure and composition are naturally important.

IMAGE TWEAKING
Suggestion: Most images from digital cameras are not at their best. Tweak the colour balance, levels, brightness and contrast for a more pleasing image.

Whilst the quality has improved tremendously over the past 2 years, images taken on most digital cameras still lack the punch of conventional photographs. But, digital photographers have the benefit of using simple image editing tools to boost the quality of their images. In the past, conventional photographers had to spend many hours in the darkroom just trying to get that perfect image.

There is no fixed rule as to how to tweak your image, as this differs from camera to camera. Experimentation needs to be done, but in general, the images from digital cameras are rather cold, and the contrast is lacking. If this is the case with your images, try to increase the levels of red and yellow, and push up the contrast slightly.

Other creative avenues could be changing the image to black and white, applying special- effects filters available in your graphic manipulation programs, or even montaging several photographs together.

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