tenny52 Loc: San Francisco

4. shoot more frames at different angle, zoom and exposures(as P&S has less keepers due to missed focus, white balance, hand shaked esp when shutter is pressed); try to manipulate if your P&S allows the manual mode, exposure +/1 compensation, ISO buttons.
5. P&S is not limited to utilize free ICE software for panoramic shots(try to appreciate many of the good panoramic scenery shots are stitched); you will spend more time on each spot to do wide angle, zoom, and also panoramic shots.
6. If possible, try to view your captures on a largest possible monitors; I would say at least a 24"; let me warn you that the larger the monitor, the easier you will find faults in your shots.

I let other people to add to this list

Mu Dan

Great suggestions. Every one of them is right on. Taking a photo of a person or animal is absolutely true in almost every case. In fact I have a grouping of twelve photos on my wall themed “Here’s looking at you.” Everyone is a photo of animals and humans looking straight into the camera. Dogs, horses, a turtle, a tiger, an orangutan, an iguana and five persons from different parts of the world.
But every rule has an exception from time to time.
For instance two of my favorite photos are persons completely turned away from the camera. One is a Masai warrior looking out over the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania. He is wearing traditional warrior’s garb. From the rear his ear lobes with the holes in them show up clearly. I’ll admit that getting to know him might prejudice my judgement.
The other “looking away photo” is a mother and her young son sitting close to each other on a little dock. They have their legs hanging over the blue water. They are holding hands and leaning against each other, shoulder to shoulder.
Both of these photos were spur of the moment shots.
So you and I agree that a full frontal of the face is strongly recommended, but I will bet you have many “looking away” photos similar to what I described.
BTW, your explanations on a number of subjects have been consistently clear and helpful to me. Many thanks.

bentvalve

I prefer a PNS to have an optical view finder as it just seems un natural to look a screen after all these years.
bent

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

I use a point and shoot a lot because it is easy to carry. Just remember to check your screen and make sure that you are happy with what you get.
You check the exposure and the composition to make sure that you are getting what you want. That is the most important part of taking photos with a point and shoot.