How to take good pictures? Tips

Once you have the size of picture you want, setup the tripod and set the timmer for 2 seconds, push the button on top and you get a perfect picture.

 

Be sure to remove the lens cap.

 

One big tip - pay attention to what is in the background and the foreground - you don't want something so noticeable that it takes away from the picture you are trying to take, you want folks fixated on the car, not the big elm tree in the background....
Look at the car windows - anything in a reflection you need to get rid of ?

Since you pretty much said you don't know a thing about cameras, then I can't tell you to make aperture adjustments to throw the background out of focus. In short, do everything you can to make the main point of the picture the car, not something else around it.

If it's a dusk picture, turn on the parking lights in a few pics.

 

Whisky has some good suggestions. In addition, make sure you are not shooting towards the sun or have bright light like a window behind your subject. That is probably the most common mistake I see amateurs make. When shooting people, frame the shot so the head almost touching the top instead of dead center of the view with too much space above. Fill the frame with you subjects – don’t be afraid of the zoom.

 

Play around with the light a lot; move around until you get the lighting you want and snap away. About the auto setting, take note of what setting it automatically applies in certain light and situations. Then, put it in manual mode a play around with it.

Hope this helps,

John