1. Look your subject in the eye
When taking a picture of someone, hold the camera at the person’s eye level.

2. Use a plain background
A plain background shows off the subject you are photographing.

3. Use flash outdoors
Make faces clearer by using your flash to lighten the face. When taking people pictures on sunny days, or cloudy days, turn your flash on.

4. Move in close
If your subject is smaller than a car, take a step or two closer before taking the picture and zoom in on your subject. Your goal is to fill the picture area with the subject you are photographing.

5. Move it from the middle
Bring your picture to life by simply moving your subject away from the middle of your picture.
You’ll need to lock the focus if you have an auto-focus camera because most of them focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder.

6. Lock the focus
If your subject is not in the center of the picture, you need to lock the focus to create a sharp picture.

7. Know your flash’s range
The number one flash mistake is taking pictures beyond the flash’s range. Why is this a mistake? Because pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be too dark. For many cameras, the maximum flash range is less than fifteen feet—about five steps away.

8. Watch the light

Next to the subject, the most important part of every picture is the light. It affects the appearance of everything you photograph.

9. Take some vertical pictures
Turn your camera sideways to take a vertical picture. All sorts of things look better in a vertical picture.

10. Be a picture director
Become a picture director, not just a passive picture-taker. A picture director takes charge. A picture director picks the location.