As most beginners and amateurs will discover, there are some curious frustrations that come along. Of these, the most common are taking a photo on a bright day of something such as snow only to have it turn out too dark or taking a picture at night and having it turn out to bright. So, why does this occur?

Well, first of all it is important to note that because a lot of the time cameras reproduce more or less what we see with our eyes, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we can just put the camera in fully automatic mode, point, shoot, and get a photo that looks just like what we saw. But this is not always possible, and it is because of the way your camera makes decisions when you press the button.

Unless you are using a fully manual camera, your camera must make the decision as to how much light to allow the sensor to be exposed to. If there is too little light, the subjects of the photograph may appear almost invisible, also known as ‘underexposed.” In reverse, if there is too much light allowed, areas of the photo may be completely white, also known as “overexposed.”

A camera will make these decisions based on the fact that most scenes, most of the time, are comprised of both light and dark tones that average out about the same. This average is commonly referred to as “18% grey.” This premise is what allows the camera to determine how much aperture and shutter speed should be utilized. However, in certain situations, this rule of thumb can break down.

A prime example to better explain this phenomenon is the classic photo of a polar bear in the snow on a bright sunny day. You will use your camera to reproduce this beautiful scene you viewed with your own eyes in a bright, perfect photo. However, because your camera is using its rule of thumb to determine the shutter speed and aperture, it is more likely your photo will depict the snow and polar bear as dirty grey.

The other situation is when you take a photo in dark conditions, perhaps a street at night lit by some streetlamps. Here you want most of the photo to be dark, with perhaps some lighter areas that were illuminated by the streetlights. Instead what you may get is dark areas that are dull brown rather than black, and lighter areas that are overexposed. Again, your camera has assumed this scene, like others, is 18% grey, and has exposed it accordingly.

To manage these situations, you will need to take over control of your camera. This means the camera will no longer be able to make its own decisions. One way to achieve this is to dial the ‘exposure compensation’ setting on your camera. A good rule of thumb to go by would be one stop forward for bright scenes and one dial back for darker scenes. An additional option is to turn your camera into manual mode. This will allow you room to play and experiment with settings as you view them in your LCD screen until you determine the exposure you are looking for.

Tobias Sterling is a keen photography enthusiast who loves to write and share his photography knowledge online. He does so by contributing his articles including Motor Sports Photography Blur and Understanding Photogrpahy Aperture to Clivir.com.

For many people, portrait photography might be a tough job. Here are a few hints for those who would like to get into this amazing area of photography.

Before we start, you need to realise what portraits are. Any photographs that you snap of your household, friends, relatives or teachers can be called portraits. Yes of course, starting off, portrait photography might seem to be rather difficult when compared to standard photography, but as you get more engaged in it, it comes more and more easy to you.

What do you call successful portrait photography? It is actually something which builds up a kind of special feeling on the viewers. Now, what makes a portrait photograph stand out? It might be due to several ingredients like the physical scene of the photograph, the subject matter, or it can even be the some other noted features like the background, the light arrangement and so on. A portrait always imprints some kind of impression on the mind about the person in it, otherwise it cannot be termed as a portrait photograph. Anything can turn out to be attractive in the person being photographed like the mannerism, the attitude, the mood or even a casual look.

Being a good photographer is an inherent skill but despite this it can still be learnt. The trick to learning is to let go, experiment, and have fun. Allow your creativity to flow and you will amaze yourself!

In portrait photography, the photographer is taken to be the leader for that time, and he should be able to bring up a striking difference in his subjects energy. For this, you need to start with a small discussion with the person on any current issues or something which might produce a strong impact so as to create the opportunity to take a ideal portrait photograph. If you can trigger off a change in thinking and mood of a person in a good way quickly then this will allow you to capture some amazing photos. This is just one way to move your subject into a different feeling space. Of course you do now want to make them angry but you do want to arise within them different feelings so that their expressions become more acute and distinct creating great pics.

Everything depends on you as the photographer to set the scene so an amazing result can be captured. As well as conversation, controlling the natural surroundings can be utilized to create the special outcome in the portraits. To come up with the best snap, it is very important to cooperate with the person and the environment. You should have good interest in people so that the natural expressions of the person can be seen.

At the end of the day the trick is to be able to trigger a change in emotionality with your photographic subject so that new and amazing expressions can be seen on their face.