If you're shooting a person, the sun should be behind you at a 45-degree angle. You don't want the sun to be behind your subject and you don't want it to be directly in front of them, because chances are they'll be squinting. But if the sun is behind you at a 45-degree angle, the light will be ideal.

Know when to use the flash. Even when you're outdoors, a lot of times it is beneficial to turn the flash on. Suppose your subject is posing in front of a sunset. If you're pointing your camera directly at light, you're going to have a person in silhouette. With the flash on, the exposure will be perfect on their face and you'll have the sunset in the background. Turn the flash off to achieve a silhouette effect.

Always carry a tripod. This will cut down on vibration and give you sharp images. If you don't have a tripod, try this: Get your breathing under control and just before you press down on the shutter release, breathe out at the same time. If you hold your breath just as you're about to take the picture, your hands tend to shake more. But breathing out will eliminate a lot of camera shake, which means you won't come home with blurry pictures.