can you give me tips on how to capture good photos?

Challenge yourself. plan to do some time shooting photos and then focus on one thing. Every picture must have that one thing in it somewhere. You may decide that your thing is the color Red, or you may say it has to living or non living. What ever thing you choose don't make it too specific. Don't go out to photograph dogs or children. Try something that is more abstract. If you are interested in people then try to capture an emotion. By doing this you will thinking and looking at things differently. Right now I am working on a project for our weekly paper. I am trying to capture the sights of the season to be used on the front page in color. Try this and then select your best photo from each shoot and let us see it and share our suggestions and comments. Here is the first shot that was used in the paper.

there is a lot of factor to consider when taking picture, lighting, surrounding, lens, steady capture, type of camera you are using, and your desired. if you can have those or at least 2 of these factor then its a great step in photography.

I wish I could help you with photoshop but i find that very hard although there are a few good tuitorials on the net...I love photography as well, and I have just bought a new DSLR camera wich i am still getting used to but years ago when I was dabbling with a cheap camera someone told me never really centre the main subjest...and when i went out with my friend to take photos I tried this and when my friend and I would look at our photos mine were always better than his as he would centre his subjest where I would take a moire artistic approach....I think it can be little things that can make a good photo...

If you are already adept on using your camera, you could try taking pictures of simple things but, to make them interesting, find angles which makes the perpective of looking at the subject new and interesting. Why not take a picture of a scenery from a perspective of a flower? Play on the aperture I guess on that. Really like using macro set up when it comes to taking photos of insects or any animals for that matter. If your enthralled with a particular moment, you just have to take pictures of its moments as much as you can. Then decide which shot(s) would be the best for you.

Hi, Maybe you can buy some photography magazines and read about it. I borrowed a lot of photography magazines from my friend. I really learn a lot.

If you look on popphoto.com (the online counterpart to Popular Photography magazine), they have tons of Photoshop tips and tutorials that are quite easy to follow. I've been working with Photoshop for years now, so I know how to use it fairly well, but without a specific question it's hard to know which tips to really give you. I can tell you that you should always use unsharp mask or a high pass filter for sharpening, because it lets you have more control. You can lasso certain parts of your image to do selective sharpening as well..this works extremely well with making eyes really pop! Select the eyes using the lasso (you an hold down shift to add to your selection, or ctrl to take away from it, until you get it just right). Then I usually feather the selection, just about 2 pixels or so. Then head to unsharp mask and sharpen until you like how it looks. I'm talking about the irises of the eyes here, not the person's entire eye. Then, if you like, you can also add a bit of saturation, for blue or green eyes (for dark eyes it doesn't really make a difference). After that, just go to selectiondeselect and voila! There are SO many things that you can do with Photoshop...I'd never be able to explain them all here. You can download tons of brushes, textures, and actions for free from sites like atncentral.com, deviantart.com, flickr.com (for textures and actions), etc. As far as improving your photography: read, read, read! Even photographers who are well versed in the basics always keep trying to improve. Head to your local library and check out all the photography books (not at once of course) and read through them..make notes and practice as you go along too! Practicing every day will greatly improve your understanding and comfort level with your camera. Don't be afraid to try interesting angles, and for portraits, GET CLOSE! Get close enough to block out any distracting elements in the background OR move your subject to a location that has a simple background...even a plain old wall will work. Also, if you're using a dslr, a good 50mm prime lens is awesome for portraits! I love mine..it's priceless to me! Good luck!

I have done a search on Photography and started putting together my own book of tips for better images. You may want to try this as well.

The very best advice I can give you is to keep taking pictures. The more often you shoot, the more pictures you take, then the more your work will improve. Also, take advantage of resources available to you! Attend local photo workshops in your area. Find out if there's a local photography club in your area and start attending meetings. You may even want to take a class or two at a local community college if it's available. Also, take advantage of online resources. Post your photos on websites such as Flickr.com and deviantart.com and get feedback from professionals and experienced photographers. Search for photography and photoshop tutorials online!