Use Photo-editing Software. There are many, many benefits to using a digital camera - but one advantage of film was that you had to bring your roll to be processed by a photo lab, where a trained technician would print your images, adjusting each print for color, brightness and contrast. It's very rare that a picture I take does not need adjustment - especially for brightness and contrast. Most digital cameras take an image that is visually flat - and while menu settings that boost contrast and saturation can enhance the image in-camera, they often look artificial, or remove too much file information, blowing out highlights or limiting shadow detail.

Adobe makes Photoshop for pros, but many of the most useful functions of that program are available in Photoshop Elements, a much less expensive alternative aimed at the consumer market. Of course, there are also plenty of free options if you do a web search. Spending half-a-minute (I usually spend about 5 to 10 seconds per file using curves in Photoshop) adjusting the brightness, contrast and color of an image makes a world of difference.

Right out of the camera and after 10 seconds of processing time, makes a big difference.

Keep shooting. You're using a digital camera, so take lots of pictures. There is an old saying about "being blessed by the photo gods" delivering that perfect, magic image to you. You rarely get there by taking one or two exposures of someone or something - you really do have to keep working the situation until the moment has passed. When I've taught or taken photo classes, it was always expected that you would shoot at least one roll of 36-exposure film on your subject. So if you were taking a portrait of someone you might, for example, shoot an entire roll inside, and then another entire roll outside - that's 72 exposures right there. It's true that your best shot may be at beginning, but it's often the last image you take. Download your pictures and cull the wheat from the chaff ASAP. I save the best images in a folder with the subject titled, and delete the rest. It's not unusual for me to take over 1,000 frames at a long event - a 10-20% success rate is typical.

Not a bad picture, but a much better one a few seconds later.

Use Aperture settings to blur the background. Every camera uses three variables to control exposure - lens aperture, shutter speed and ISO setting. ISO (also called ASA) is a technical term that just means the sensitivity of film or chip-set to light. The higher the ISO number, the less light you need to take a picture. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, so back to Aperture settings.

Most digital cameras will have an Aperture Priority setting. If you don't know how to find this in your menu or control dial, refer to your owner's manual. If you've lost the manual that came with your camera, just do a search online - you will find a digital copy someone has scanned or the manufacturer has provided.

With Aperture Priority, you will set the lens aperture and the camera will take care of the shutter speed and ISO for you. If you choose an aperture setting of f5.6 or less, then only your subject will be in focus. The background will be out-of-focus and will effectively separate your subject from the background - especially if you are within a few feet of your subject. Portraits almost always work better with a blurry background. Landscapes are just the opposite, so consider adjusting the aperture to f11 or f16, and up, for a completely sharp image (just make sure your lens is clean as dust starts to come into focus as you move up in aperture numbers). If you leave your camera on the plain "Auto Everything" setting on a sunny day, the camera will always give you a middle-of-the-road, everything mostly-in-focus, image. By controlling your aperture, you control how your image will look - try it! If this helps, remember: blur down, sharpen up.

The soft background eliminates any distracting elements, creates a nice color wash and makes the subject dominant.

Use Custom Color Balance indoors without a flash. I mentioned ISO sensitivity in the previous step. Many digital cameras today have a chip-set that is sensitive enough to take pictures indoors under artificial lighting without a flash. However, leaving the color balance setting on Auto often results in an image with an obvious color cast - typically greenish for fluorescent lighting, yellow for incandescent, etc. Every camera I've come across will have a Custom White Balance function so that you can specifically set your camera for the light you're shooting in. In my experience, Auto White Balance works fine for outside in daylight. Settings for other light sources indoors - there's usually a list starting with incandescent, fluorescent 1,2,3 etc. - are pretty much useless. You will want to refer to your owner's manual once again to find how to set the Custom White Balance for your camera.

I was a salesman for Ritz Camera for about six years, and I learned that every camera brand will have its own way of setting a custom color balance. My little Panasonic point-and-shoot has it right on the dial - you simply set it to Custom White Balance, take a picture of something white (like a sheet of paper) and the color is pretty dead on. Most work in a similar way, but getting to the setting might take some maneuvering through the menu. One thing to remember, the flash on your camera is daylight balanced. You can't combine a custom white balance with the flash, unless you really want a funky picture color. Sometimes flash is the only option, but it's rarely the best.

Gymnasiums are notorious for difficult and tricky color - a quick Custom White Balance yields very good color and a bright and fully lit scene for an image where everyone is equally illuminated with good skin tones.

Use Fill-Flash Outdoors. Despite how I just disparaged flash, using flash on a sunny day to fill in shadows can be a great tool for the photographer. If I have the option, I prefer to shoot into, or towards, the sun as opposed to having the sun behind me (this is a tip in itself, shoot towards the sun, especially later in the day). If you're photographing people and the sun is low, then there will be nice ring lighting around your subject's head and hair. But because their face is in shadow, they will often be underexposed without adding flash to fill in the exposure. As well, if the sun is high at midday, then often-harsh light and shadows, especially if your subject is wearing a hat, will make for a terrible exposure without adding flash to your shot. So, if you're taking a photo of someone and it's in bright sun, have the sun behind them so that their face is in shadow and turn the flash on (again refer to your owner's manual if you don't know how to adjust your flash settings - every camera will have this option, it's usually just beyond the red-eye reduction setting). Works great if you're photographing someone in front of a great sunset as well.

With and without fill flash.

One last tip, candids tend to make better portraits than "here, smile for the camera" pictures. If your subject is in the moment, then that moment will translate as something real in the photograph.

Jon Pelletier originally trained as a photographer at the Maine Photographic Workshops, he holds a Masters of Fine Art in Photography from Tyler School of Art, Temple University.