It's really true: quality comes out of quantity. One of the greatest things about digicams is that once you buy one, they're essentially free to use. So take tons of pictures. Snap away. Fill up that memory card.

Get away from the scarcity mentality of film, when each press of the shutter cost you half a buck in film and developing cost.

Be totally ruthless when reviewing your pictures. Chuck the ones that are less than great.

Your camera doesn't think you need to use flash outdoors during the day. However, when shooting portraits, they'll usually be improved if you use "fill flash" to supplement the sun's rays. This is particularly true when the sun's overhead, forming deep eye socket shadows that need filling-in, or when your subject is backlit and needs overall illumination to avoid becoming a dark silhouette.

On overcast days, flash will brighten colors and put a nice "catch light" in your subject's eyes.

There's no quicker way to give your photos the snapshot look than by using flash when you don't absolutely need it. Flash-lit pictures are contrasty, have harsh shadows, and rarely make people look their best.

You know all about red-eye, but flash causes other portrait evils. It often makes skin appear greasy or pasty. Full-frontal flash flattens facial features (say that 3 times fast) and leads to character-less, boring pictures. Instead of flash, try boosting your camera's ISO (the manual will tell you how), and take maximum advantage of natural or ambient light.

Even though a tripod will enable you to take sharper, often better composed photos, it's not always practical to take one along or set it up. Therefore, you must learn to hold and shoot your camera properly. What you don't want to do is just whip the camera up to your face and slam down on the shutter release button. Take your time. Place your feet apart in a wide, stable stance. If your camera has an optical viewfinder, use it instead of the LCD. Pressing the camera against your face stabilizes it much better than holding it out in front of you. Pull your elbows in against your sides for even more stability. Press the shutter release down only half way while you compose your picture. Take a breath and let it out slowly. When you're halfway through the exhale, press the shutter all the way. For your patience and effort, you'll be rewarded by much sharper, better framed photos.

Be sure to keep the horizon level in your photos. This is especially important at the beach or lake. If the camera is tilted to one side, all the water will pour out the edge of your photo. Seriously, it's going to look bad.

Another no-no is tilting your camera up to photograph a tall building. The distorted perspective will make the building appear to "fall back" out of the photo. Much better to instead move farther back and (of course) use the wide-angle setting if you can.

10. Get in close
Many photos can be improved by zooming in closer. A tightly-framed portrait will often look better than one with a lot of distracting details in the background. And most new digicams have "macro" capability that'll enable you to explore a whole new interesting world.

12 One subject at a time please

Unless you're intentionally shooting a group of people (of equal importance), your photo should emphasize only one subject. If you've got three interesting things, shoot three photos. Otherwise your viewer won't know where to focus his or her attention.

This example portrait of an executive is very effective. There's no doubt who's in charge here. Your attention is drawn immediately to her eyes, then her smile and confident expression, then to her assistants/colleagues. The background is simple, portraying an office setting without clutter.

The same "one thing at a time" advice goes for non-people images. Pick one "hero" element and feature it prominently.