Experiment with exposure Digital cameras usually work best in sunlight, just like film cameras. When you move indoors, or into dim light, things get much trickier — just like film cameras. So experiment.

Try all sorts of variations. Shoot your subject from different angles with different lighting if you can. Try turning off your camera\’s flash in some shots. Try \’fill flash\’ if your camera will allow it. Sometimes fill flash can make a perfectly exposed picture better. Sometimes you can add drama by turning off your flash and leaving your subject somewhat underexposed.

Every once in a while, you\’ll take the same picture three different ways, with three different exposure options, and get three radically different pictures — and all of them will look good. But you\’ve got to experiment.

Bracket your shots if you can, with one shot slightly underexposed, one slightly overexposed, and one \”just right.\” Even though some digital cameras will do this automatically, you still need to practice. The last thing you want is two of your shots to look as if they were taken accidentally or by a surprised photographer who was expecting only one shot instead of three.

Special Features: Many digital cameras now come packed with some interesting special features. Examples can be found in the ability to take short QuickTime clips and record sound annotations. Some cameras will even let you experiment with special effects like shooting in black and white or sepia toned images. Focus on the basics before you dive into special effects.

Keep in mind that some of these tricks, such as black and white or sepia-toned images, can be done without the camera. Just load up a normal color image in Photoshop and, in a few minutes, you can have perfect black and white or sepia-toned photos. In other words, if you can do it easily in Photoshop, you might be better off concentrating on taking a good color photo, and worrying about special effects later on at your leisure.

But still try out other special effects. One example is to pan you camera to track a fast moving car, the car will be in sharp focus while the background will be blurred for an interesting photo. Or try out the opposite by focusing on a stationary object such as a group of bright flowers or a child reading on the front steps and allow a speeding car to enter the frame. The result will be a sharply focused center of attention with the added feature of motion.

Silhouettes are another nice special effect. Try taking a photo with your subject in shadow, eclipsing a brightly-exposed object in the background. Now try the reverse, a brightly exposed subject against a dark background. Although different, both can be interesting. Getting a good silhouette with film is expensive: you shoot a lot of frames with little or no reward. With a digital camera, however, the only cost is your time and patience, and your patience will be rewarded.