If quality is your aim, you should set your camera to save photos in the JPEG format with the highest possible resolution and the least amount of compression. This will create big files, but beautiful images. You can always reduce resolution later for e-mailing and easy file sharing. When in doubt, leave your camera in auto mode, since it will probably be more adept at setting exposure, aperture and focus than you could possibly be. The "p" setting allows you to shift between equivalent exposures, allowing for faster or slower shutter speeds. In the "night" setting, the camera automatically chooses longer shutter speeds for longer exposures. In "landscape," it selects a smaller aperture to get more depth of field.

Red eye is caused by the flash reflecting off the red blood vessels behind the retina. If you use the "red-eye reduction" feature on your camera it pre-flashes to close the pupil of the eye before taking the picture. Using this feature definitely slows down your photo session, however. You can also remove red eye in your photo program with a feature that replaces the red pixels with black.

Don't expect too much from the flash unit built into your point-and-shoot camera. Its effective operating range is from three to 12 feet, so it isn't going to illuminate the top of the Empire State Building from the ground, or a concert from the last row of seats.

For an interesting effect or simply to bring out the Diane Arbus in your snapshots, remove the color entirely in your photo program and see how they look in black and white. Some programs also allow you to try a sepia effect.

If you repeatedly alter and save a JPEG image, you'll start to lose image quality. To protect the original, save it under one name and do your experimentation on a copy.

Wignall lost 10,000 Photoshopped images when a hard drive failed, but luckily the originals were stored elsewhere. It's easy to back up your photos on a CD or DVD, so do it now before you forget.

The cost of professional-level digital single-lens-reflex (SLR) cameras with interchangeable lenses has dropped dramatically. Wignall once borrowed an early Kodak version that had to be insured for $50,000. Today, a far better SLR can be had for less than $1,000. Wignall recommends the Canon EOS Rebel and the Nikon D-50. Another reason to choose an SLR is that prices for excellent zoom lenses have also dropped dramatically. A good 70-300 mm is less than $300. To shoot the photos for the book in sympathy with his readers, however, Wignall used inexpensive pocket cameras from Olympus and Nikon, available for $400 or less.

To avoid wasting costly photo paper, make sure you go through all the correct settings on your printer before hitting the "print" button. Set paper size, choose "scale to fit the page" and "center image," select a quality level and a paper type. Make sure the paper is aligned properly. If all of this is daunting, or if you're just tired of replacing ink cartridges, take your memory card down to the local photo outlet and they'll do it for you.

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