The advent of low-cost digital cameras has made it possible for everyone to own a camera. As a result, everyone has a picture or two that is worth sharing with the world. Moreover, today’s cell phones have excellent cameras that can help you capture even passing moments in your life and then share them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other such social media sites. It is usually a wonderful thing, but the big trouble with great digital cameras and automatic image-processing technologies are that they can also make your photos look like a total mess.

Professional photographer Ram V Chary has the following tips for amateurs trying to shoot high-quality images but not the necessary skills.

Use the right camera for your subject.

When shooting important things or family moments, use a higher quality camera rather than your cell phone. Of course, any digital camera will do fine. However, if you are shooting landscapes or other non-living objects, it is better to use a camera with interchangeable lenses.

Use your DSLR in Auto Mode

If you do not have time to adjust all of the settings on your DSLR, just put the automatic mode or scene-mode setting and let your camera do all of the work for you. You particularly want to stay away from shooting with flash. Doing so can ruin the mood and atmosphere of your picture and make it look like amateur hour.

Use a wide aperture (small F-value)

You need to consider how you want to frame your shot very carefully. Only then should you decide what aperture setting will work best for you. A wide aperture gives your image a small F-value and will produce a very thin depth of field. This means that objects in your picture that are too close or too far from the camera can also be blurred. This is what you want if you do not have time to adjust according to every object’s distance from the axis of the lens.

Use a tripod

If you are shooting objects that do not move, use a tripod. This will allow you to take long exposures without installing your camera on a wall or some other object. If you can’t afford a tripod, put your camera down on something steady like a car hood.

Use the right film for your subject.

You’ll want to use fast films for high-speed subjects, but use slower films if you are shooting landscapes or other still objects. Use a film with an ISO value of 200 or 400 when photographing in normal lighting conditions indoors.

Use the right lens for your subject.

Use wide-angle lenses to shoot large groups, but use telephoto lenses to get that close-up shot of your friends and family without them seeing you.

Let the background take care of itself.

You do not want your subject to competing with a busy and overwhelming background. If you cannot move the object away from a distracting background, just focus on getting your main subjects exposed correctly. Do this by putting it in either close-up or long-shot mode as needed, but keep those backgrounds simple and clean.