A great article from ND, which talks about Nikon camera, but I believed they actually be applied to all DSLR cameras…

1 - Remember the Thirds

One of the most commonly known but most useful techniques is using “The Rule of Thirds”. Taking your photo on a third consists of aligning your subject or key point of interest on one of the lines, or where the horizontal line and vertical lines intersect. This can bring more dynamic interest to your photo.

2 - Have a Full Range of Lenses

The beauty of a Digital SLR is that you can interchange you lenses. Try and get a full range of lenses, for the beginner you can go with the less expensive lenses. Start off with the 18-55mm then I’d get a zoom lens like the 55-200mm or the 70-300mm zoom lens.

3 - Are you close enough? Get Closer

If you don’t like the results of your photo you’ve taken, try getting closer. Tighten up the angle, or point of view. Get closer to your subject, be it with a lens or just walking closer. I am not sure were I heard it from, but it’s great advice. Sometimes your photo can look busy, but if you get in tighter on your subject you can eliminate distractions.

4 - Shot in “M” (Manual) mode

I think you have more control over your photos when you shoot in Manual. You can play with the exposure, the aperture, and white balance. It teaches you why you shoot and expose your photo the way you do in different lighting situations.

5 - Change up your depth of field

The plus of shooting in Manual mode is you can adjust your aperture to effect your Depth of Field. If you set you camera wide open such as F-Stop of f/1.8 you’ll have a narrow or small depth of field. If you close down you F-Stop your depth of field will get bigger. Say you have a flower you want to take a photo of and want that photo to be in focus but the background to be out of focus. If you open up your F-stop as large as you can you can achieve this with your F-Stop.

Website : 5 Techniques to taking a good photos with your DSLR