Digital Cameras Specialty Digital Cameras

Picture yourself out walking in the park with your new point and shoot camera. You are happily taking picture after picture of all of the beautiful flowers you find along the way. You can't wait to get home to enjoy all those excellent nature and flower pictures now on your camera.

You rush home and excitedly load the pictures onto your computer. Only the pictures just are not quite what you had pictured in your mind.

These wonderful new point and shoot digital cameras take care of everything for you. But sometimes the camera just can't seem to get it right.

This is when it is time to take control. Who knows you may find you like your own settings better.

Almost every new point and shoot camera has a setting where you can control the shutter speed and aperture (this is the F-stop). Some will give you a larger range of control than others. But with a little practice you will be shooting pictures like the Pros.

I can here you now. "I don't understand all that F-Stop talk." Believe me I know how you feel. I have asked my boyfriend about these same terms and his answers are always textbook photography class mumbo jumbo. The minute his lips start moving I start to feel my eyes glaze over. There seems to be some kind of block to receiving the information this way.

When I see that same information in print, it seems to finally click in. So here is a quick explanation to clear up some of the fog.

F-Stop is simply the range of light that your digital camera can record. You can adjust your F-Stop with your camera set on M for manual.

Every camera is different. Refer to your camera's instruction manual to see how yours operates. Just look for F-Stop to find the instructions quickly.

Go ahead. Play with your camera a little. Take a picture at the lowest F-stop setting. Then take the same picture at the highest setting. These settings will depend on your camera. For instance, my point and shoot camera is capable of settings from F2.7 to F8.

Notice that taking the picture at the lowest F-stop your picture is very light. Please note, the light in your room will affect your picture. If you have a dark room this can produce a decent picture. If your room is light the picture will be too bright.

Now try the opposite end of the spectrum. In my case I can take pictures with an f-stop setting as high as F8. Your camera may be different. Take the same picture so you can compare notes.

Notice how dark your second picture is compared to your first? Now if you combine your F-stop with an adjustment in the shutter speed you have a better chance at the perfect photograph.

Shutter speed is just what it sounds like. It tells you how long the shutter will be open when you take a shot. And the range is much greater than with the F-stop settings.

The Canon PowerShot IS6 for example ranges from 15" (longest time open) to 1/1600 (shortest time open). Translated that means the camera's shutter is open from 15 seconds (longest) to as little as 1/1600 of a second.

As you may guess the longer you have your shutter open the more light is able to come in. This means a higher exposure of the picture. Thus you have the term over exposed photograph.

Watch your LCD monitor while you are making the shutter speed adjustments. You can actually see the screen as it becomes lighter and darker. When the light looks good, this is the picture you want to take.

These two simple steps will give you a greater control over the outcome of your picture. You can be shooting like the professionals in no time at all!

Sally Stoneking is a digital photography enthusiast and digital artist. She is web designer and owner of http://www.natureandflowerpictures.com Be sure and visit for more articles and beautiful nature and flower pictures to download and share.