With their endless buttons, icons and settings menus, digital cameras can over-complicate the business of taking a decent photo. You may know exactly how you want your photo to turn out but have absolutely no idea how to achieve the desired effect.

In this feature we'll explain the most important settings and functions on your digital camera and show how these can be used to achieve the creative results you've always wanted. If you've made the investment in a digital camera, now's the time to make sure you're getting the most out of it.

Up close and personal
Why is it that so many attempts at close-ups result in blurry pictures? This is because you have to warn your camera of your intention to take an extreme close-up. To do this by activating its macro mode, indicated by an icon of a small flower. Next, find out the minimum distance your camera can focus in macro mode and simply be careful not to get any closer to the subject; this figure can normally be found in the specifications section of the manual.

At these short distances, though, any movement of the subject will be greatly exaggerated, so when shooting flowers outside try and choose a very calm day. If you're suffering from camera shake, use a tripod or find something to rest your camera on. After taking a close-up, remember to deactivate the macro mode, otherwise the camera will find it hard to focus on normal subjects.

Manual focus
All digital cameras have automatic focus settings that do a great job of selecting an appropriate focus mode under normal circumstances, but there are times when they get it wrong. Those annoying shots where the background is sharp but the person in the foreground is out of focus are a case in point.

This happens because most cameras focus on the point at the very centre of a picture; if this spot happens to be behind the person you are trying to snap, that will be the focal point. As far as the camera is concerned, you were pointing at the background so it focused on it. The solution is to lock the focus on the desired subject.

To do this, arrange the subject in the centre of the frame and press the shutter button down halfway to focus. Keeping your finger held at this halfway point, recompose the picture then press the button all the way to take it. It takes some practice not to let go of the button or push it too far as you recompose, but being able to view and delete mistakes is what digital photography is all about.

There are other times, however, when a camera won't be able to focus at all. This can happen taking photos through windows or under dark conditions. The answer here is to use manual focus, which forces your camera to focus at the distance you specify.

Most cameras will offer various focusing settings according to the distance between the camera and the subject. For subjects that are 50m away or further, the infinity setting should be used - this will be indicated by a figure 8 on its side.

So if you are shooting through a window and want the distant background to be in focus, simply select the infinity setting from the manual focus menu. To snap people at a dark party, try a setting of one to two metres depending on their distance.

Exposure compensation
The easiest way to alter the brightness of an image is to use the exposure compensation settings. Exposure compensation is measured in units called EV (short for Exposure Value), and most cameras offer them in a range of -2EV to +2EV. A setting of +1EV doubles the exposure, making the picture brighter, while -1EV halves the exposure, thereby darkening it. The +2EV and -2EV settings double the effect further. Most cameras allow you to adjust the range in one-third increments for more subtle effects.

If you're taking a photo of a sunset, consider underexposing to bring out the colours and transform foreground shapes into silhouettes. To do this, try an exposure compensation setting of -1EV, or maybe even darker still. Slight underexposures of -0.3EV or -0.7EV can also be good for hazy scenes or lending overcast landscapes a moody feel.

Aperture and shutter priority
All but the most basic cameras offer modes called aperture and shutter priority. These can be used for highly creative effects, such as making the background blurred on a portrait or freezing an action shot. They are normally selected from a mode dial and labelled A and S (Av and Tv on Canon cameras).

Aperture priority mode allows you to adjust the size of the iris situated behind the lens. While this can be used to control the amount of light entering the camera, its size also allows you to adjust something called the depth-of-field. This defines the range of distances from the camera in which subjects will be in sharp focus. A large depth-of-field has both near and far objects in focus and is therefore great for landscapes, whereas a small depth-of-field only has the main subject in focus with everything in front and behind blurred. This is great for portraits.

The aperture setting controls the depth-of-field using a series of f-numbers. Small f-numbers create a small depth-of-field, while large f-numbers create a larger depth-of-field. The range of f-numbers varies on every camera, but typically runs between f4 and f11. Either way, for portraits with blurred backgrounds, choose the smallest f-number available, and for shots where you'd like both near and far in focus, choose the largest f-number available. The camera works out the rest.

Shutter priority mode allows you to choose the speed at which the shutter opens and closes during the exposure. Shutter speeds are measured in seconds or, most commonly, fractions of seconds. While the shutter speed clearly affects the amount of light entering the camera, it can also be used to choose whether to deliberately freeze motion or let it blur.

To freeze fast action, such as at a football or tennis match, it's crucial to choose a sufficiently quick shutter speed. Aim for a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second or faster, such as 1/500 or even 1/1000. While you may imagine that freezing the action is the best approach for pictures involving a moving subject, it can often produce clinical-looking results.

Sometimes, letting the motion blur a little is much more effective, which is why slower shutter speeds are great for pictures of waterfalls, for example. Rather than freezing the motion of the waterfall, try a shutter speed of 1/8 or 1/15 of a second to blur it into a magical-looking scene. Going further still, consider really long exposures of a second or more to record a city skyline or perhaps a fairground at night.

The only thing to watch out for is camera shake. Most people can't hold a camera steady enough for shots taken using shutter speeds slower than 1/30 of a second, let alone several seconds. The most obvious solution is to use a tripod, although a workable alternative is to look around for a nearby post or fence on which to rest your camera. Placing a glove, hat or jumper underneath will allow you to position the camera, but be careful to keep the horizon horizontal and ensure you can't see the jumper or ledge at the bottom.

Finally, to eliminate any shake as you press the button, use the self-timer instead to take the picture. It would also be wise to loosely hold the camera strap in case it tumbles off the ledge.

Scene presets
Most digital cameras offer a number of preset modes optimised for taking certain types of photos, such as landscapes, portraits, fireworks or night-shots. Essentially they're doing the job of the aperture and shutter modes but choosing the settings for you automatically.

If you're not ready to delve into shutter and aperture priority modes, scene presets are a perfect way to achieve creative results with the minimum technical effort. Just choose the appropriate one from the camera's mode dial or settings menu, but remember to return to automatic mode afterwards.

Using the flash
A flash is essential in many situations but has no effect or may even be detrimental in others. The important thing to remember is that a flash is only effective over a distance of a few short metres, so if your subject is any further away it will have no effect whatsoever. Consequently, there's no point using the flash at concerts or when snapping city skylines at night, unless there's someone a few metres away you'd like to illuminate. It's better to switch the flash off and force the camera to compensate with an appropriate exposure instead.

Most cameras have a button or menu dedicated to the flash, labelled with a lightning symbol. By pressing this button several times you'll normally be able to cycle through the options available. When the lightning symbol is circled with a line through it, like a no-entry sign, the flash will be switched off. Use this when taking photos through windows to avoid reflections and also when shooting city skylines at night, although for the latter you'll need somewhere steady to rest the camera.

Believe it or not, the flash can sometimes be beneficial during the middle of the day when taking photos of people against bright backgrounds. This is called a fill-in flash and can be achieved by scrolling through the flash options until you get the lightning symbol by itself; this simply forces the flash to go off regardless of the surroundings. It should also be used on outdoor portraits at dawn and dusk.

Sensitivity controls
All digital cameras can vary the sensitivity of their sensors. Higher sensitivities allow you to take pictures in darker conditions but, like film, the higher the sensitivity the worse the quality. While film becomes grainy at higher sensitivities, digital sensors suffer from random coloured specks called electronic noise.

Sensitivity is measured in units of ISO, with 100ISO being standard for bright conditions. 200ISO is twice as sensitive and ideal for overcast days, while 400ISO is twice as sensitive again, allowing you to take photos under very dim conditions without worrying about camera shake. Conversely, some cameras offer less sensitive settings, like 50 or 64ISO, which may require more light, but produce better-quality results.

In auto mode, your camera will select an ISO setting appropriate for the conditions, but to minimise electronic noise you might wish to manually set it to 100ISO or less. Be aware, though, that this will need a longer exposure which could result in camera shake if it's dim.

White balance
Have you ever taken a photo indoors and wondered why it sometimes comes out with an orange or greenish tint? This is because indoor lighting is a slightly different colour than sunlight but our eyes automatically compensate. Digital cameras do the same thing using something called white balance, but it doesn't always work automatically.

Fortunately, many cameras allow you to manually select a white balance designed to compensate for indoor lighting. Some have presets specifically for strip lights or standard bulbs, while others ask you to point at the light you'd like to be considered as white. This is ideal for eliminating unwanted tints, but again remember to switch back to auto-white balance afterwards.

Image file formats
As standard, all digital cameras save their images in the JPEG format, which employs varying degrees of compression. The type of compression used to create JPEGs, however, permanently throws away detail that photographers might prefer to keep.

Some cameras allow you to save uncompressed images in the TIFF format, thereby eliminating loss of detail through compression. The only problem is uncompressed 3-, 4- and 5-megapixel images measure 9, 12 and 15MB respectively, which fill small memory cards almost straightaway.

A more practical choice, where available, is the RAW format, which saves the raw data from the sensor before being processed into a JPEG. The RAW format therefore avoids compression while delivering files at least half the size of TIFFs. The downside is they must be processed on your PC using special software before you can print or email them.

While RAW is the choice of really serious photographers, the vast majority of us will be fine using JPEGs. Choose the best-quality options to make the most of your camera, though. Finally, when retouching JPEG images on your PC, use the software to first save them in the TIFF format. This will prevent further compression from being applied, although you'll never retrieve the detail lost on a picture when it was first recorded in the JPEG format.

Digital SLRs
While most consumer digital cameras are capable of all the techniques described here, enthusiasts and professionals demanding greater control and flexibility turn to digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. These combine the benefits of film SLRs with the immediacy of digital imaging.

SLR refers to a mirror in the camera body which diverts light from the lens to a viewfinder. When you're ready to take a picture, the mirror flips out of the way to expose the film or, in a digital model, the sensor.

One of the greatest advantages of true SLRs is being able to see precisely whether the subject's in focus through the viewfinder. Most SLRs also feature removable lenses, providing a wide choice of views. Better still, there's little or no pause as you press the button to take a snap, which is perfect for action shots. While SLR sensors may have similar resolutions to consumer cameras, they're physically much bigger, allowing them to be more sensitive with less electronic noise.

Admittedly you don't get gadgets like movie mode, but most photographers who care about still images find SLRs the ultimate cameras. The most affordable digital SLR today is Canon's 6-megapixel EOS-300D costing £899. It's pricey, but it'll thrash any consumer model.

Compression and resolution
Digital cameras can increase compression and reduce resolution in order to squeeze more pictures onto the memory card but at the cost of quality. As you increase the compression, fine details in the picture will be lost forever, while other areas could begin to look smeared. Reducing the resolution will simply record less detail across the entire image and prevent you from making the best-looking enlargements or crops.

We believe there's no point buying a decent digital camera if you handicap it in this way. So unless you're exclusively taking pictures for use on a website where they need to be small, ensure you've selected the highest resolution and lowest JPEG compression settings. You'll fit the least number of pictures on your memory card, but larger ones are now quite affordable: 128MB cards cost as little as £30 and typically store 60 to 80 photos at best quality.

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