Source:www.jimippolito.com

You'll be giving your digital camera a workout during the holidays so here are some tips for better photography.

Life is full of rules and proper photographic composition has a few too. When you want something, an object or a person, to be the center of attention in a scene, don't put it in the center.

That's right, put your focal point off to the side a bit and you'll actually draw more attention to it. This is called "The Rule Of Thirds".

Now there's a long theory as to why this works but we won't go into that. Next time you're out shooting, look through your viewfinder or at your camera's LCD screen and imagine that it is split into thirds.

Some of the more advanced digital cameras actually have an option to bring up a grid to make it easier.

Ignore the center and try placing the main point of interest into one of the remaining boxes as I did with the photo above. Notice how your attention naturally gravitates towards that work of modern art?

Again, because you're using a digital camera you only pay for the pictures you really want to print, so you can snap away merrily, placing your subject in different positions in the frame and then decide later which shot turns your crank.

Source:www.jimippolito.com

And now for some unrelated tips:

Don't forget to take some vertical pictures. Many people forget that they can turn their camera on its side, and get a shot that's often neglected because it just doesn't look right in a horizontal format.

Keep in mind when shooting near reflective surfaces, glass, metal, and glossy painted walls or objects, that they will reflect light back at the camera with much more intensity their surroundings. This creates undesirable "hot spots," so shoot at an angle to these surfaces, and their reflected light will go off at the opposite angle and not straight back at you. This applies both outdoors in bright sun and indoors with flash.

Happy shooting!