Here you will find some FAQs which will definetly help you in understanding photography better than ever.

General photography

1. How do I take good portraits?
2. What are the legal issues involved in photographing strange people and places?
3. What procedure will let me use wide apertures even in conditions of bright light?
4. How do I reduce glare off chrome, water, etc.?
5. How can I get more dramatic looking skies in my shots?
6. Are camera manuals available for download?
7. How do cameras focus?
8. Why is it so complicated to get the exposure right on my pictures? (Why doesn't the camera just capture what my eye sees?)
9. How do I set the exposure on my camera?
10. How does fully automatic exposure (program mode) work?
11. When do I use aperture priority (AV) mode and why?
12. When do I use shutter priority (TV) mode and why?
13. What is the minimum shutter speed I should use to avoid blurry photos due to camera shake?
14. Are smaller cameras more susceptible to image blur from camera movement?
15. What's the difference between my camera's different metering modes and how do I know which to use?
16. What is ev compensation?
17. What is an SLR and why is it a preferred type of camera?
18. Where can I learn more about the history of photography?
19. Why do so many of my shots using the timer come out blurry?
20. What conditions warrant the use of high ISO.

How do I take good portraits?

Here are some general guidelines for taking good portraits:

What are the legal issues involved in photographing strange people and places?

I'm not an attorney but would encourage you to consult one if this is a serious concern for you. The following site does attempt to address some of these questions: Travel Photography and The Law.

What procedure will let me use wide apertures even in conditions of bright light?

It sounds like what you want is a neutral density filter. This makes everything a little darker without affecting the colors or the polarization of the light.

How do I reduce glare off chrome, water, etc.?

Try a polarizing filter, also called a polarizer. If you have an SLR which uses phase detection for autofocus (most do), then you'll need to get a circular polarizer to avoid conflicts with your autofocus mechanism. I haven't tried it myself, but a circular polarizer probably is not necessary with non-SLR digital cameras.

How can I get more dramatic looking skies in my shots?

Try a polarizing filter, which can also be used to reduce glare. See above.

Are camera manuals available for download?

A very large number of camera manuals (but not all) can be downloaded from www.henrys.com/manuals/. Henry's seems to have stopped updating this page. Your manufacturer's web page is another good resource.

How do cameras focus?

SLRs typically use phase detection autofocus. The Scientific American article, Focusing in a Flash, makes an attempt to describe phase detection AF, but isn't all that clear. The basic idea is as follows: The AF system grabs strips of image from opposite sides of the lens that nevertheless project onto the same area in the focal plane. (This is typically done by using a half silvered reflex mirror and some optics behind the mirror.) When the overall image is out of focus, these two strips will be shifted in opposite directions, much like an old split prism viewfinder. When the overall image is in focus, the image captured by the two strips will be identical. The AF mechanism has two (or more) separate sensors corresponding to different parts of the lens. The lens is adjusted until these two images are the same, and the overall image is then presumed to be in focus.
Non SLR digital cameras typically use contrast detection AF. While typically slower and less accurate than phase detection, contrast detection is cheaper and simpler. It requires no additional lenses and uses the main sensor only. Contrast detection adjusts the lens until it finds the position that maximizes the contrast measured in a (weighted) region of the main sensor, under the assumption that maximum contrast implies sharpest focus. Contrast detection will hunt around until it finds the point that maximizes contrast.
With adequate light and a well calibrated lens, a phase detection system can, in principle, compare the two images and estimate the direction and amount to move the lens mechanism to achieve accurate focus. In comparison, contrast detection has no way of knowing the maximum achievable contrast in the scene, or determining the direction in which this is achieved. This explains the greater potential of phase detection for fast focusing. (Note that I have described these different mechanisms in general terms. Different manufacturers will undoubtedly have embellishments and improvements on this.)

Why is it so complicated to get the exposure right on my pictures? (Why doesn't the camera just capture what my eye sees?)

The exposure for a shot determines the amount of light that strikes the film or sensor. There are two variables the control this, the aperture and the shutter speed. These adjustments are required because no film or electronic sensor has yet been developed that can capture the full range of light intensities to which the eye responds. Of course, our eyes have help too. We have pupils that constrict in bright light and dilate in low light. So, why don't our eyes ever expose things incorrectly? Our pupils tend to adjust to whatever we're focusing on, so we automatically compensate as our gaze moves. (Obviously, a camera can't do this since it must use a single exposure for the entire scene.) However, it is possible to get your eyes to expose things incorrectly: Have one of your friends stand with his back to a very brightly illuminated window in an otherwise dark room. Take a few steps back and try to concentrate on your friend's face. It should look dark to you and you may have trouble making out his or her facial expressions. The reason is that your eye is being tricked by the bright background.

How do I set the exposure on my camera?

Some experienced photographers can judge exposure accurately simply by looking at the scene. In fact, in the days before light meters, this was the only way to do it. Handheld light meters were the next step, allowing accurate measurements of the light levels for an entire scene or for individual subjects. The metered light level, measured in EV, could then be matched against an exposure table to find aperture and shutter speeds appropriate for the shot.
Modern cameras have light meters built in to the camera. They can automatically select both aperture and shutter speed for you, or you can pick one and let the camera pick the other. Most also offer some kind of fully manual mode, where the exposure meter can still be used to provide guidance on how the camera estimates the scene should be exposed.

How does fully automatic exposure program mode) work?

Your camera has a built in light meter, which it uses the measure the amount of light in the scene at various places. The position of the light meter will vary from model to model. Some popular positions in SLRs are behind the (partially reflective) reflex mirror, or in the penta-prism. On some digital cameras, the main sensor may serve double duty as a light meter.
Your camera will determine the light level in the scene and then use an electronic version of an exposure table to pick the appropriate shutter speed and aperture. You may notice that there are multiple combinations that will be suitable for any EV. To the extent that it is possible, cameras will typically try to pick shutter speeds that are compatible with handheld shooting. The more advanced ones will even take the focal length of your lens into account and try to pick higher shutter speeds if needed to reduce the effects of camera movement.
One thing you should realize now is that with multiple possible combinations of shutter speed and aperture for any exposure level, a one-size-fits-all solution that always chooses one of these many possible combinations can't be right for every situation. This is why more advanced photographers tend to use aperture and shutter priority modes instead of fully automatic.

When do I use aperture priority (AV) mode and why?

Aperture priority mode is similar to fully automatic mode, except that you pick the aperture value. Metering works the same way, but with the aperture fixed there is exactly one shutter speed that will provide the correct exposure in the exposure table. This is what the camera picks for you.
There are many reasons for using aperture priority, including:

When do I use shutter priority (TV) mode and why?

Shutter priority mode is similar to fully automatic mode, except that you pick the shutter speed. Metering works the same way, but with the shutter speed fixed there is exactly one aperture that will provide the correct exposure in the exposure table. This is what the camera picks for you.
There are many reasons for using shutter priority, including:

What is the minimum shutter speed I should use to avoid blurry photos due to camera shake?

This depends upon a number of factors including the focal length, the steadiness of your hands, and vibrations caused by the mechanical parts of your camera, e.g., mirror slap in SLRs. If your lens has a (35 mm equivalent) focal length of X mm, then a good rule of thumb is to shoot at 1/X or faster. Small movements of the camera shift the image more at long focal lengths.

Are smaller cameras more susceptible to image blur from camera movement?

Yes and no. Depending upon weight, balance and ergonomics, it may be harder for you to hold a small camera steady. Some people mistakenly believe that cameras with a smaller capture medium (sensor or film) or more susceptible to blur than cameras with a large capture medium given the same field of view just because the capture medium is smaller. This often manifests itself through the misconception that compact digital cameras will produce more blur for a given amount of camera shake than traditional SLRs. This can be debunked with a simple thought experiment: Consider two cameras, C1 and C2, with the same field of view, but suppose C1 has a larger sensor. Place C1 at some starting point and move it along a trajectory through space. Now do the same thing with C2. Since C1 and C2 have the same field of view, they must see the same thing at every point along the trajectory. If the shutter is open while the cameras are moved, then the resulting blur must be identical as well, since both cameras saw exactly the same thing during the exposure.

What's the difference between my camera's different metering modes and how do I know which to use?

Most cameras will have some subset of the following metering modes: spot, center weighted average (sometimes just called "average", and multi-segment (sometimes called "evaluative").
Spot metering is the easiest to understand: The camera meters only a small area in the center of the frame. This mode is useful if there is a particular area of the frame that you must expose properly, even if it comes at the expense of overexposing or underexposing the rest of the image. Spot metering can be tricky to use properly. If the metered area is quite small, tiny camera movement can have dramatic effects on the metering, making it tricky to get the desired exposure.
Center weighted average metering takes an average over the entire scene, where, as the name indicates, the average is weighted more heavily towards the center. This implicitly makes the assumption that the center is the most important part of the image, but that you don't want to completely ignore the edges of the image either. If implemented properly, this metering mode usually works pretty well. Moreover, with some practice, it will be relatively easy to predict when it will fail and to compensate.
Evaluative metering is the most complex metering method. It samples multiple areas of the frame and tries to come up with a good exposure value that takes all of these areas into account. This can be implemented in varying degrees of sophistication. For example, one implementation might notice two dark blobs with a bright blob in the center, conclude that you are tying to take a picture of two people with backlighting, and adjust the exposure for the people and not the bright background. Such methods can seem to work miraculously when implemented well. The only downside is that they can sometimes outsmart the photographer, making some incorrect assumptions about the effect the photographer is trying to achieve. Thus, some photographers prefer center weighted averaging because they find it more predictable.

What is ev compensation?

This is a way of telling your camera to expose the scene in a slightly different manner from the way the scene was metered. Compensation is usually expressed in terms of the number of stops of compensation and most cameras have the ability to compensate at least between -2 and +2.
Here's an example of how this works: Suppose you dial in +1 compensation. This means that you want the scene to be one stop brighter, which will require a wider aperture, longer exposure, or some combination of these two. If you are using aperture priority mode, your camera will keep the same aperture, but double the exposure time (half the shutter speed). Dialing in a negative value will give you darker images and shorter exposure times (and/or narrower apertures).
It's important to understand that exposure compensation does not change the characteristics of your film or sensor; it's just a way of dealing with situations where the metered exposure isn't what you want.

What is an SLR and why is it a preferred type of camera?

An SLR is a Single Lens Reflex camera. The single lens part refers to the fact that it is using a single lens for capturing images and displaying on the viewfinder. The reflex part refers to the use of some mechanism for reflecting light towards the viewfinder.
An SLR is a preferred style of camera because it allows the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or sensor without any parallax or distortion. For this reason, high end features have been incorporated into these cameras and the style of camera is sometimes confused with the high end features that go along with it.
Some common misconceptions about SLRs:

Where can I learn more about the history of photography?

Why do so many of my shots using the timer come out blurry?

For timer shots, many cameras focus when you press shutter button, not when the timer goes off. Thus, the camera focuses on whatever is in the center of the frame when you press the shutter and will fail to focus on you after you've moved into position in the center of the frame. The workaround is to point the camera at something else, which is roughly the same distance from where you plan to be after you move into position. Press the shutter, then quickly adjust the composition and move into place.

What conditions warrant the use of high ISO?

In general, high ISO is used in conditions where it is not possible to achieve a fast enough shutter speed with low ISO. Typically, the reason for desiring a faster shutter speed is to avoid blur from motion - either from the camera shake or subject motion. Situations that might require high ISO would include:

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