Everybody wants to take good photographs, taking a good photograph has more to do with technique then having the top of the line camera. Having a good camera is important as far as having a technically good photograph, but taking good photos is more about learning helpful techniques to train your eye to look for a good photograph.

1 - Remember the Thirds

One of the most commonly known but most useful techniques is using “The Rule of Thirds”. In the Digital SLR cameras, Nikon has a Grid Display that you can turn on or off to help allow you to see the Rule of Thirds guidelines (see image below)

Nikon D70 Grid Layout and Nikon D80 Grid Layout
Taking your photo on a third consists of aligning your subject or key point of interest on one of the lines, or where the horizontal line and vertical lines intersect. This can bring more dynamic interest to your photo.

Rule of Thirds Grid

The Grid display by default is not turned on, you must turn it on by going into the menu and under the CSM Menu (the one with the pencil) go into the Grid Display and select ON

2 - Have a Full Range of Lenses

The beauty of a Digital SLR is that you can interchange you lenses. Try and get a full range of lenses, for the beginner you can go with the less expensive lenses. Start off with the 18-55mm (which is equivalent to a 27-82.5mm in 35mm film camera) then I’d get a zoom lens like the 55-200mm or the 70-300mm zoom lens.

Having a good range of lenses helps you never miss a shot. There are many time I wish I would have had a wider angle lens for a shot or more zoom.

See a list of the Nikon DX lenses specs and details here

3 - Are you close enough? Get Closer

If you don’t like the results of your photo you’ve taken, try getting closer. Tighten up the angle, or point of view. Get closer to your subject, be it with a lens or just walking closer. I am not sure were I heard it from, but it’s great advice. Sometimes your photo can look busy, but if you get in tighter on your subject you can eliminate distractions.

4 - Shot in “M” (Manual) mode

When I bought my first SLR camera I bought a camera that was fully manual. No automatic anything, I did it to teach my self how to adjust, focus, measure for light, and just learn everything about taking a photo. Even though I now have a D70 with all sorts of Automatic function, I still shoot in Manual mode 90% of the time (Except I do use the Autofocus, which is the one thing I wish I would have had on my first camera). I think you have more control over your photos when you shoot in Manual. You can play with the exposure, the aperture, and white balance. It teaches you why you shoot and expose your photo the way you do in different lighting situations.

5 - Change up your depth of field

The plus of shooting in Manual mode is you can adjust your aperture to effect your Depth of Field. If you set you camera wide open such as F-Stop of f/1.8 you’ll have a narrow or small depth of field. If you close down you F-Stop your depth of field will get bigger. Say you have a flower you want to take a photo of and want that photo to be in focus but the background to be out of focus. If you open up your F-stop as large as you can you can achieve this with your F-Stop. See sample images below

f/1.8 | 1/1000 shutter | 50mm lens

f/6.3 | 1/125 shutter | 50mm lens