Photography : Understanding the basics

I'll try to make this article as less technical as possible assuming you've little or no knowledge about all the stuffs like camera,lenses,focus,RAW OR JPEG blah blah blah...You need not worry..we'll deal with everything you need to know...about digital photography.
The Camera
We all know what camera is. Still it seems somewhat misleading to classify everything from a little hole behind your cellphone to long big things that looks more like a rocket launcher. What is it that makes a camera than? Let me tell u about the parts of the camera first,than I'll proceed to tell what makes a Rocket Launcher and a small hole different from each other.
THE CONTENTS WILL START FROM SIMPLEST TO MORE COMPLEX ONES. IF THIS ARTICLE STARTS LOOKING LIKE A FOREIGN LANGUAGE, YOU CAN SIMPLY SKIP THE REMAINING PORTIONS AND CONTINUE TO NEXT SECTION OR SUBSECTION
The Sensor
The sensor is digital equivalent of the analogue reel or film. It does the same function ie to store the data of the image. We need to shine light on it to make it respond, Each color make a different impression on the sensor and hence a different photo.Like old films sensors also need to be post-processed to get the final picture ( it's done automatically by the camera on most occasions).It also has it's own equivalent of the analogue film-speed. Film speed is the sensitivity of film towards light. Higher film means greater sensitivity to light,that is, you can shoot at lower light conditions. ISO speed is the digital equivalent. At higher ISO speed you can shoot at higher shutter speed,smaller aperture ( you'll know about the shutter speed and aperture on the following section) or at lower light levels. Before you fall in love with high ISO speed let me tell you that the faster response to light comes at a price. The price you pay is the noise or grain in the image.You have decide for yourself what's important to you. I'll illustrate you the effect of ISO speed after the next section about the lens.
The Megapixels
There is always so much hype about the megapixels of the camera. What are these actually and are they so important? The answer is NO. Megapixels are simply HOW large the photo is, It tells nothing about the QUALITY of the image. Large megapixels allows us to have larger prints in paper. But we seldom use that option. So it's wise not to judge the camera by it's megapixel alone
The Lens
The lens is the eye of the camera. It sees the photo you're about to capture.In other words,it separates the photo from the rest of the surrounding and passes the light to the sensor which of course stores it. It tells the sensor what to store. The lens contains a lot of mechanisms to pass the correct information to the sensor. Let's see what are those
The Focal length
The focal length or the amount of zoom of your camera is the measure of how close the objects appear. Our eye is a lens with approximately 50 mm focal length. The larger focal length not only brings the objects closer they also determine how the objects appear in the photo. A illustration of changing focal length is shown in the illustration section below.
The Shutter Speed
The shutter speed is the time for which lens opens up, allowing light to fall on the sensor. As it may seem obvious to you,if we keep the lens open for a longer time more light will shine on the sensor producing a brighter image. Bright scenes require a very fast shutter speed whereas you need to keep the shutter open for longer time if you're shooting in dark.
The Aperture
We already dealt about two ways to control light in the sensor via ISO speed and Shutter Speed. But there is one more way to do so. By controlling how WIDELY the lens opens. If we open the lens wide open more light can shine on the sensor a small opening will cause less light to pass. The Aperture is measured in terms of F-number. Higher F-number means a small opening and larger F-number means a wide opening.The Aperture is,however,used for a more subtle reason than to control light. To control how many objects come to focus or the Depth of Field. Instead of explaining what Depth of Field is, i'd like to show you an example of it.
Illustrations
The ISO speed

ISO 3200: The Image is very noisy but a higher shutter speed could be used (1/50 in this case) This is a advantage is many situetions where we can freeze motions by using a higher shutter speeds even though the lightning condition is poor. eg concerts,carnivals etc...

ISO 100 : The image is Sharp and Crisp but the camera had to be held steady for about 1 seconds which is not so practical in many situations.
The Aperture/F- Number

A large Aperture ( here F 5.6) causes blurry backgrounds as shown above. This is a important when shooting close objects (as this one) and potraits. This effect is also known as Bokeh effect.


A small Aperture (here F 32) causes more objects to come to focus. Notice how the plants in the background are also clear. This is important when shooting landscapes but in image like this it causes distraction from the main subject.
The Focal Length

Focal length of 24 mm (moderately wide-angle was used. Note how much of the background comes to frame,also note how far the houses in the background look with respect to main subject (here my friend keshav) and also from each other. you can than compare it with the image below
The Focal length of 18 mm(wide-angle) was used. More of background comes to frame and houses look further away. The position of subject was kept same by moving closer to subject. Similar effect in videography is known as Dolly or Contra zooming technique.
The Cameraphones,Point n Shoot Compact Cameras and DSLRs. WHAT are they all about?
The camera behind your cameraphone is simplest and most useless among all the camera. They have smallest sensors with a fixed ISO speed, a low quality lens with a fixed focal length and no focusing mechanisms (except for some high-end phones) They also have a large shutter lag ( that is the time you have to wait before you can take another photo ) They,however, have the advantages of being portable and can come handy at times

All cameras with a fixed lens can be called as Point and shoot camera. In other words if you can neither completely spoil your photo nor get a good crispy photo NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO you're probably using one of the Point and Shoots. These are by far the most popularly used cameras. These are usually light,portable and fully automated for easy operation even for complete stranger to photography. Their price range starts from around 100 bucks to a high-end model of around 400 bucks. All of these cameras feature built in flash,Auto-mode with autofocus and live-view on LCD that is you can see what photo you're taking on your LCD screen.Most of them can record video with sound as wel. Some of the camera models come with a high-power zoom and manual mode of settings.Their sensors are small and VERY noisy even at a moderate ISO speed. Shutter lag is still the problem. Manual controls are very limited and do not work the way they should. They are compact and mostly come as a WHOLE, lenses and other accessories cannot be changed and upgraded.In a nutshell, Point and shoot cameras are easy to use,portable and decent but don't quite have an edge the SLRs have.
PROS

• Light,easy to carry and operate
• Cheap
• Can take decent photoes effortlessly
• Can come with a high-power zoom at a VERY moderate price ( eg a 18-200 mm lens cost around 800$ whereas compact cameras with a 'equivalent' of 28-414 mm come at 350$)
  

CONS

• Low quality sensors giving a low quality image
  
• Poor performance at low light levels
  
• Not Versatile
• Limited manual Control
• Slow to start and time between two consecutive photoes is large

The SLR cameras are the most-widely used type of camera by photographers and enthusiasts. These cost from around 450 $ to 8000$ for high end model. Even the starting level DSLRs have sensors that are around 25 times larger than the high-end Point ans Shoot cameras. The most important feature of the camera is probably the eye level viewing which allows the photographer to see THROUGH the lens in the viewfinder. YES !! the viewfinder. Even though high-end SLRs feature live-view. No good cameraman will ever use it. The cameras focusing mechanisms don't work well using the feature and the image u see on LCD is not the PHOTO that will appear on the sensor. The Viewfinder shows the EXACT photo that's gonna be stored in the sensor. The SLRs give a lot of freedom of changin the settings for shutter speed and aperture allowing you to take the any kind of photo you can imagine.The cameras are extremely versatile. you can change almost everything in the camera to suit your need. The photoes are incomparably sharper than those taken by Point and Shoots. If you're planning to be a photographer you'll sooner or later let go of the comfort of compact cameras and take one of these SLRs. Cannon (around 68%) and Nikkon (around 25%) hugely dominate the SLR market recently.
PROS

• Superior image quality
• Eye level viewing or viewing through the lens
  
• Highly versatile
• Freaking fast
• Control over Depth of Field and Shutter speed
• Good performance in low light

CONS

• Expensive-Both cameras and accesories freak you out with their prices
  
• Bulky and difficult to carry around

This is all for today. I hope it helped. I intend to write more chapters dealing with Focus, Digital and optical zoom, types of lenses , image formats (JPEG and RAW )and various Tips and techniques for photography.I must admit I've misled you in some matters here for simplicity.Visit Frequently for updates.