In general, it’s better to use an 18% gray card, as a white card might be too bright for the digital camera sensor (sunny day, reflected bright light), which then can cause the camera sensor to record a false value.

To use a gray card to set the white balance, your camera must have the option of setting the white balance manually. Ensure that the gray card is in the same environment (amount of light, angle of reflectance) as your subject, then set the white balance with your digital camera, and lock it so that the camera remembers the setting. Remember that you will have to set it again (or use auto white balance) if you want to use your camera under other circumstances.

Matrix Metering (Evaluative, Multi-Zone, Multi-Segment)

This mode is used in most digital cameras as the default metering mode. The camera divides the whole picture into several zones and measures the light intensity in each of them in order to find the best exposure for the whole picture. This mode is best used when the subject takes up a large part of the frame and when shooting panoramas.

Center-Weighted Metering

This mode is also known as Center-Weighted Average Metering. When your digital camera is in this mode, it meters the entire frame, but gives greater weight to the center of the scene. Using this mode when your main subject is in the center of the frame emphasizes it, while keeping from isolating it from the surrounding areas.

Spot Metering

Spot, or Partial, metering mode instructs the digital camera to optimize the exposure by measuring the light intensity only at a given spot in the center of the frame. In some digital cameras, this spot can be moved along with the af frame, allowing the photographer to meter the shot in any area of the picture.

Unlike other image formats, RAW doesn’t have a defined standard. This means that if you have two different digital cameras with RAW capabilities,your post-processing software (like Photoshop) may be able to open a RAW photo from one camera, but may not be able to recognize the RAW image from the other, newer digital camera. That’s why post-processing software developers have to constantly update their programs to support newer digital cameras. In 2004, Adobe developed and started promoting the DNG (Digital Negative) format as a solution to this problem. You can read more about this on the Adobe DNG page.

Because RAW files require post-processing, which takes time, this format might be suitable only for professional photographers or serious amateurs who want to control every step of the image processing, like setting the white balance. Setting the latter when saving your photos in JPEG is not possible to do after you take the photo. This is one of the benefits you receive when saving your photos in the RAW format. It gives you more control.

A telephoto lens with a 200mm focal length magnifies the subject four times as much as a normal, 50mm lens. 400mm telephoto lenses have a magnification of 8x compared to a 50mm lens, and 2x compared to a 200mm lens.

If you are planning on buying a telephoto lens, be sure you have a tripod. And if your digital SLR camera isn’t equipped with sensor shift stabilization (body based stabilization), try to find a lens with built-in image stabilization (lens shift stabilization) to counteract camera shake, which is amplified the longer the focal length of the lens.

Not every lens is capable of macro photography, but, in general, zoom lenses have this capability; the photographer only needs to turn this setting through a menu or dedicated button. And while some lenses cannot focus on a subject that is too close, other lenses allow shooting at a distance as small as 0 cm from the end of the lens.

Often perceived as having the same meaning, close-up and macro photography are actually different. The difference between the two is the size of the subject being photographed compared to the size of its projection on the camera’s sensor (or film). In simple terms, if the image on the sensor/film is the same size or bigger (1x or more magnification), then it’s called macro photography; if it’s smaller than the subject (less than 1x magnification), then it’s a close-up picture.

Let’s say we are taking a picture of a small button, which has a diameter of 5 mm. If its projection on the camera’s sensor/film has a 10 mm diameter, then we just got ourselves a macro photo. If the diameter of the image on the sensor/film equals 2 mm, it’s technically a close-up picture.

Time Lapse Photography is the process of taking several photos, then making some kind of movie by combining them. The subject of the photos might be a blooming flower, a building being constructed, or somebody’s face as it changes over time. Time lapse photography is certainly possible without an intervalometer, and it is even impractical at times, when you want to take one picture per day, for example. So don’t panic if your digital camera doesn’t have an intervalometer, because you can have fun with time lapse photography, intervalometer-free!

The CHDK firmware addon for Canon Powershot digital cameras (Digic II and Digic III) adds some advanced intervalometer capabilities, either with the firmware addon itself, or through an additional script.

The color of each pixel in RGB mode is defined by a combination of the values from 3 channels, the Red one, the Green one and the Blue one. The value is between 0 and 255. For example:

A red pixel has these values: R=255 G=0 B=0

A green pixel has these values: R=0 G=255 B=0

A blue pixel has these values: R=0 G=0 B=255

Various lenses have various focal lengths. Wide angle lenses have a focal length of less than 35mm in film cameras and full-frame DSLRs; lenses are considered standard if they have a 50mm focal length; telephoto lenses generally have focal lengths of 70 or more.

For example a 50mm f/2.0 lens is faster than a 50mm f/2.8 lens, because the first one has a smaller f-number (larger aperture), which means that it allows more light through the camera’s diaphragm and onto the sensor or film, allowing the photographer to set a faster shutter speed.

If the camera you purchased came with bundled software, and, of course, if you installed this software, then it might have an option that shows you the EXIF data.

But you can access this information without any special software. In Windows XP, for example, right click on the file you want to see the EXIF data for, and click properties (you can just press Alt + Double Click). Choose the Summary Tab and click Advanced. If you are new to this, here are some screenshots that could help you:

On the “Summary” Tab, click “Advanced”

On the “Advanced” screen of the “Summary” tab, you can see the settings the photographer used when shooting the photo.

If you have Firefox installed, yet another way to access this information is with the help of a free extension called Exif Viewer. This nifty extension shows you everything there is to see as far as photos are concerned. Sometimes, though, the EXIF Data is omitted when photos are saved on websites. In that case, Exif Viewer won’t be able to show you anything, obviously.

This extension shows you a lot of info about a photo. Just right-click on any photo in Firefox and choose “View Image Exif Data”.

If you are a beginner photographer, we highly recommend studying the EXIF data of photos shot by good photographers (bad photographers don’t have very valuable EXIF data, do they?). It’s the best thing to do to learn from them aside from communicating directly with them.