Although I try to avoid using too many technical terms, I still have to explain certain basic terms that will help you to understand the techniques  explained in this guide much better.

I will provide images to help you remember the information better. After all a picture often says more than a thousands words …

1. Learn to know your camera

It is very important for you as a user of the camera to know where to find the different settings to make quick decisions. In case of portrait photography there are ‘magical’ moments you want to have on photo.

Icons, buttons and menus…

There are so many digital photo camera brands and types that it is almost impossible to explain where to find all those buttons and menus. For every individual user it is important to read the manual of the camera and practice to use the different menus. However, the icons used on cameras almost always look the same. Below you see some of the most used icons and buttons on digital photo cameras:

Some explanation:

Shutter release: This is the button you press to take the photo.

Zoom  W and T : The zoom buttons are used to zoom out: Wide

Or to zoom in on your subject: Tele

Flash : with this button you control the flash, meaning that you can choose to use the flash or  not, but also choose the ‘red eye reduction’ setting of your flash.

EV: exposure value is the amount of light the CCD receives during a certain amount of time.

You can choose to manually over-expose(-EV) or under-expose (+EV).

Self Timer: This option gives you the ability to delay the shutter release, so that the photographer can be subject of the photo as well.  The self timer can also be used in bad lighting circumstances to avoid camera shake.

Close Up or (Macro): this option gives you the opportunity to put the camera very close to the subject to put details of an object on a photo.

Using the camera too close usually results in blurry photos. The photo is out of focus. With Close Up you can approach much closer. (usually centimeters)

Auto-Manual-Scene-selector: A photo camera has many different settings, but also modes, such as: auto:  aperture, shutterspeedand white balance are chosen automatically by the camera depending on the light available. In manual mode you can choose the aperture, shutterspeed and white balance, but also other settings can be chosen manually.