Finger picking/strumming

Food?

I was going to post this in the other guitar thread, but that one has more to do with purchasing guitars.

Two questions regarding finger picking and strumming without a pick:
-How do I make my finger picking sound clean and loud? I'm accurate with what strings I'm hitting, but they're muddled and too quiet unless mic'd.
-Whenever I strum without a pick (i.e. with my fingers), my fingernail always gets chipped. When I strum, I hold my hand like I'm holding a pick and pretty much use my index fingernail as the pick. Is this incorrect?

ege02

As you use your fingers, they eventually develop calluses at the tips, which will make your finger picking produce cleaner sounds.

eltsian

When you strum with your fingers, are you running your index finger across the string or, for lack of a better word, striking the strings? I've noticed that if a person keeps their fingers loose they can go just as fast but not chip a fingernail.

Captain Cthulhu

I actually just grow my finger nails long on my right hand and use them to bring out that nice loud, tinny acoustic sound. To avoid breakage, I take supplements to keep my nails strong.
Also, when strumming without a pick, I've found the best way is to actually just keep my hand relaxed. This way you can use the backs of the nails on your fingers on the way down, and the back of your thumb nail on the way up. Trying to use the inside of my nail always just results in breakage and an uneven strumming sound.

Food?

That's probably it, as I usually strum with my hand tight, only hitting the strings with my index fingernail.

So I pretty much just gotta keep doing it until the callouses get bigger? I'm not so sure I'm gonna grow my nails out.