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When people get their first good digital camera, many feel they can take photographs like the pros.

And they really do get better photos than they have in the past, partly because of the instant feedback of looking at the photos, and partly because of the technology in today's digital cameras.

However, to really move to the next level of photography, let me suggest you learn to do three things with your camera.

1. Learn to shoot in manual mode.
2. Learn to shoot in RAW.
3. Learn how to use a good flash.

If you learn to master these three things, you'll be on your way to being a photographer instead of a person with a nice camera.

It amazes me how many people see one of my professional cameras and a large lens attached and comment, "You must be able to get some nice photos with a camera like that."

The camera is just the tool. Learning to master the tool is what makes a craftsman.

First, a person should learn to shoot in manual mode. Shooting in manual mode is the only way to truly learn photography. I know some people who get great photographs and contribute to microstock photo sites, but still don't know how to shoot their camera's in manual mode.

They don't know an fstop from a shutter speed. They don't know why their sports photographs come out blurry. All they know is if they keep the camera on one of the automatic modes the photos come out good most of the time.

If you want to learn how to control depth of field, or how to stop action, or took good photos in low light, you have to get a good grip on how fstops, shutter speed and film speed all affect the amount of light that hits the sensor of the digital camera.

Even though technology has changed from film to digital sensors, photography is still about light. Light creates the image in a digital photograph, just like it did on film. A good exposure is making sure the right amount of light is hitting the sensor.

There are four ways to change the exposure:
1. Change the fstop on the lens.
2. Change the shutter speed.
3. Change the iso (film speed)
4. Change the lighting.

If you shoot in automatic mode, chances are you camera will only take advantage of one or two of these. It may be able to do all four, but may choose to do the wrong one.

If your camera has an flash built in, the camera may choose to just blast out a harsh flash in the middle of a quiet moment where flash isn't welcome. Or it may choose a shutter speed so slow that the entire photo is blurry, even though it is well exposed. (This is usually the problem when

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