Can we become a professional photographer? Sure, with the help of advanced digital cameras, you can do all the work. Just push the shutter button and great pictures appear. The better the digital camera, the better the picture prints.

But, it is not entirely true. In fact, you can take wonderful photos with a regular digital camera, or take bad digital shots with the most expensive SLR digital camera. It's not the camera that makes treasured images; it's actually the person taking the photos. You should also use one of the many affordable for your copies. Here are some tips for both point and shoot and SLR digital cameras to help you take professional looking photographs.

Have you ever noticed that your shots sometimes have a "bluish" look to them? This is a common problem when taking outdoor photos. The white balance setting on most digital cameras will cause a below par snapshot. Changing your white balance setting to "cloudy" will enhance your images resulting in warmer digital photos with richer reds and yellows.

Your digital camera's flash probably has various modes but the fill flash mode adds just enough flash to create professional looking portrait photos indoors and outdoors. Most point and shoot digital cameras with built-in flashes only have a range of 10 feet (or even less!), so make sure you don't stand too far away when using fill flash outdoors. An even better option would be an add-on camera flash.

Most of the photographs on our website are considered close-up/macro photos. Taking close-up/macro photos opens an entire new "mini world" to you and is plenty of fun to work on. When taking pictures in the close-up/macro mode of your camera, you should try to focus in on the most important aspect of your shot. You won't be disappointed.

Shoot your pictures in the highest resolution setting that your digital camera allows. A higher resolution will enable you to print larger copies of your gems as gifts and such. Memory cards have gone down dramatically in price lately and would be a great investment.

We always seem to take photos horizontally but a vertical shot could enhance your photo. Take the same shot both vertically and horizontally and keep the better shot. You never know what you'll find on the other side.

It is a natural instinct to position your subject dead center in your viewfinder and take the shot. This leads to a very boring photo. Try imagining that your viewfinder is divided into six equal blocks (like a tic-tac-toe game). And then, line up your subject along either the left or right line and close to the lower or upper line. The results will surprise you.

With those tips above, and of course a digital camera, you can definitely become a professional photographer.