When it comes to mastering photography, the issue isn't whether or not it can be done, it's how are you going to do it quickly and easily? Unfortunately for many people, they just can't seem to take the pictures they want no matter how hard they try.
I'm now going to reveal to you one of the quickest and easiest ways that Anyone, and I mean ANYONE can start to take better photographs! But just before I get onto that, you need to know that it's far better to get your photograph as good as you can get it in the camera before you start editing afterwards.
There's nothing wrong with cropping your picture later on so that the composition looks right, but you'll save yourself a lot of work and hassle, and end up with a much better picture just by taking it properly in the first place.
This applies whether you're using a point and shoot camera on your mobile phone or an expensive top of the range SLR.
There are quite a few things that you need to consider when creating a great shot before you've even pressed the button and taken the picture, let alone started editing it, so I won't be talking about Photoshop right now.
Photoshop and the other well known editing software packages are fantastic, and you can do amazing things with them, but you should just concentrate on taking the picture first.
So what's the secret to framing a great shot? There's no hard and fast rule to this, but probably one of the easiest ways ANYONE with ANY level of skill can take a better picture with ANY camera is by using the Rule of Thirds - if you can call it a rule.
As you'll see, it's not really a rule at all.
Douglas Bader, the famous British WWII pilot once said, "Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools!" That may be a bit of an extreme way of looking at it, but it's also true of The Rule of Thirds.
It's not so much a rule, more of an aid to good shot composition, so you can break the rule if you want.
You'll find that your pictures can often be greatly improved by mentally dividing the image into thirds like a tic tac toe grid (or noughts and crosses as it's called in the UK) with two horizontal, and two vertical lines, so that the shot is divided into nine equal sized imaginary squares.
Many digital cameras can even show you these lines in the LCD monitor, so it's a good idea to check your instruction manual to see if yours has a menu setting for this.
If not, it doesn't matter - you can still easily do this without actual lines.
Just imagine they are there.
As I've already said, the Rule of Thirds is probably one of the easiest and most effective ways you can improve your pictures when learning digital photography, or at any other time for that matter.
Once you've divided the image up, place the main subject roughly where two of the lines intersect, rather than placing it in the middle of the frame, which is one of the most common mistakes that beginners make.
If your subject is a person or an animal, try putting the eyes on the line marking the top third.
Armed with this knowledge, you're now ready to start taking better photographs! If you've made it up to here - congratulate yourself.
You've achieved what most people won't have done and read this far.
The great thing is, just by reading this article, and then watching the video that I'm about to show you, you have proven not only do you want to take better photographs, but you are unlike the other people who just talk about it!