January 5th, 2010 
Andrei 
I will conclude this first beginner tutorial with some basic ideas that you need to have in mind when taking photos, so that you will be satisfied with the final result.
What goes through your mind in the moments as you raise your digital camera up to take a shot and before you press the shutter? If you’re like many digital photographers you’re not thinking about too much – you just want to capture the moment and then move on. However getting in the habit of asking some simple questions can help take your images to the next level. Here are some questions to get in the habit of asking while framing your shots.
What story am I telling? – This is an important question and one that should help you to make any number of decisions in terms of composition, framing, exposure etc. In essence what you’re asking is “why am I taking this shot? What is it’s purpose and what am I trying to convey?”
Hello everyone! I’m on vacation right now and this is the reason why I haven’t post nothing new lately. So I just wanted to assure you that new lessons and many other interesting articles will come soon. Meantime I hope you all enjoy holidays and take as many beautiful pictures as you can! I wish you all a Happy New Year!
The background in a photography is both an opportunities and a challenge to photographers. On the one hand it can put a subjects in context and make it stand out in a way that highlights it wonderfully, but on the other hand backgrounds can overwhelm subjects and distract from them. Some of the common problems that photographers have with backgrounds are:
Shooting moving subjects is always a challenge. The time is short and usually you don’t have a second chance, so you must think and act fast. One of the most important rule that you’ll have to consider when shooting moving subjects is to give them space to ‘move into’. The main idea behind this is to frame in that way so the subject will have space in front of it. Some call the space in front of a moving subject the ‘active space’ in a photograph. Alternatively the space behind your subject is often called ‘dead space’.
Next time when you are about to press the shutter button on your camera, take a moment and ask yourself: “What is the focal point in this picture?” Some other ways to ask the same question might include – What is the central point of interest? What will draw the eye of the viewers of this picture? What in this image will make it stand out from others? What is my subject?
There is a rule in photography that says if you want to improve your photographs 100 percent, move closer. It’s true. The one sure way to keep from including too much extraneous information in a photograph is to fill the frame with your subject and nothing but your subject. Filling the frame from edge to edge leaves little doubt about what your intended target was. There are two ways to get closer: Use a telephoto lens or walk closer to the subject.
Vertical lines have the ability to give a variety of different moods in a photograph ranging from power and strength to growth. As horizontal lines can be accentuated by shooting in horizontal format vertical lines can be used very effectively by swapping the way you hold your camera into a vertical framing. This lengthens the vertical subject further which can emphasize it’s height. The other option is to break this rule and frame your vertical subject horizontally which will give it the sense that your image can’t contain it.
The rule of thirds is one of the most basic composition guidelines in photography. The rule of thirds makes use of a natural tendency of the human eye to be more strongly drawn towards certain parts of an image.
Metering mode refers to the way in which a camera determines the exposure. Cameras generally allow the user to select between spot, center-weighted average, or multi-zone metering modes. Various metering modes are provided to allow the user to select the most appropriate one for use in a variety of lighting conditions.
