Tips for great digital photo taking and printing?

tips for beginner: shoot more and more and more and more and try different subjects, environment, conditions (lighting, places, weather,etc) to get more feel of what you like the most. it can be a very specific things like architectural landscape, insects macrophotography, night scenes etc.

then, once you know more of what you like to shoot, get some books and read from there, join some forums to mingle around with people of the same interests, look at photo magazines (not camera magazines) and ultimately if you decide on taking photography as a career, take up a degree majoring in photography.

to print them out nicely, get a nice set of monitor, a color calibrator (you can start off with pantone huey), clear up your PC to make way for adobe photoshop, a set of trusty photo printer and you are set for the equipment part.

after getting your hardware ready, calibrate your monitor and start to learn how to post-process your photos by taking up on books in digital darkroom, or tips and tricks on digital photography or adobe photoshop's resource book, or something like that. there are many good books on this and some wonderful books that teach you stuff in details.

haf fun

Depends on many factors. Is this a 3rd grade play, or a dramatic production by a high school drama club? Will the stage be lit by overhead fluorescent, fixed or following spot, cans from a truss and beam, or a combination? The biggest issue with professional stage lighting is the extreme range of lighting applied to a set, where a performer's face can be 2000 candles on one side, and 1 candle on the other. It would be ideal if you could do a lighting test before the actual performance, and plot out shots by attending a full rehearsal. How high of an ASA/ISO can your rig shoot? Do you have a fast telephoto or zoom lens? Do you have a fluid ball-head on your tripod, or savvy with a monopod? Is there a balcony to shoot from? How about an orchestra pit? Can you set up a tripod on a platform in the back of the room? Is there a sound booth? I'm going to assume that you're shooting with a digital SLR, and have a fast zoom lens, and you're located at the back of the theater. I'd recommend about 50mm-500mm lens to catch full stage, and 2-actor close-ups. Use the highest ISO you can, opening up for close-ups with accordingly higher shutter speed to stop action. Presumably the stage is in some form of multipurpose gym, with a flat floor where the audience will be seated. I would get permission to set a couple equipment cases behind the last row, set up a tripod on one, and you stand on the other. Remember that the performers are projecting to the center of the 'forth wall', or front of the stage, so most shots are best caught center stage above the audience, at or above the actors' eye level. Watch for light glare off the stage floor. With dramatic lighting, meter the highlights and shoot RAW at +1 full stop. This should provide enough latitude to pull out some of the shadows in photoshop without burning out your highlights. Pay close attention to lighting changes, and change your perspective by occasionally catching a scene from a different angle. Try to keep your relocation during scene changes or it can distract the performers.

Best tip is to just get out everywhere with your Digital Camera and shoot away! Anything, everything, download the results to your computer, clear the Memory Card, and start all over again.

I purchased the Digital Canon Rebel -- and several lenses -- along with Several Memory Cards -- and believe me -- I am having the BEST time of my life with this camera -- Night Shots, Day Shots, Nature Shots, Sports Shots, Architecture, Low and High Views, Perspectives, etc etc etc.

The software I purchased to compliment is the Adobe Photoshop Suite -- and I ENJOY IT tremendously (I have the current version -- so it is expensive at 1st -- but I LOVE the way I can be even more creative with the .crw (.raw) photos I take with my Canon Digital SLR.

And yes, I do print out my results too -- and that is part of the fun.

As far as taking great pictures, the best thing to do is shoot, shoot, shoot! I picked up some photography books (even on film cameras) that show different types of framing and effects.

The best thing about digital is that there is NO cost to being creative, and you can take hundreds of pictures without having to worry about film costs.

Take some pictures and submit them to this discussion forum, there are many photographers on there (pros and amateurs) that will happily give feedback on your pictures. Good luck, and remember, the possibilites are endless with digital!

Here's the discussion forum, pick one based on your camera brand:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/

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Hi, I recommand you to try google picasa.

picasa is a Google's photo software. It's what should've come with your camera.

It can Edit , organise and Share you picture and small video flips.

It's very easy to use and is free, just like Google

Download it free in here:

http://www.adcenter.net.cn/google-picasa/

Good Luck!

Try Yahoo Groups

or the eBay HTML discussion board

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=99

Look at

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/

Gorgeous photographs, but note the link titled "Tutorials" in the green band across the top. Click on that. Tons of info.