I have only been doing photography for about 6 or maybe 7 months now. I have had no lessonds or any true understanding of any of the functions of the camera. Just the basics and a little creativity and luck combined. My question is what potential does my camera have and what possibilities can I reach using it? I have been reading up on some past posts and learned a few useful things but what I am wondering is how simple little manual changes in the camera can make the difference from a good picture to a great or amazing picture. Any type of post would help with this wether it be an effect or just slight enhancements for various conditions or maybe even the simplest of things like changing the depth of field or how iso can help the image in drastic ways I may never think of. I dont know whatever you can think of. okay :) Thank you all!

Armageddon:
When taking picture I always felt learning on a manule camera. by doing this, you learn to set the f/stop, ISO and speed. If you are using a Digital or a camera with auto setting thaty can take good images but the problem is that they can not judge and think like you can there for sometimes tweeking a setting or switching to manule iis preffered.

There are a few good websites you can go to for some tutorials and answers. Here are a few I can refer you to. I would also repost this under photography people like BPphoto can help you even more. Also by posting there you can be refered to even more sites that will help.

www.dpreview.com
www.photo.net
www.photoshopuser.com
www.outbackphoto.com

These two camera sales site have some great on line educational classes and hints also:
www.calumet.com
www.samys.com

Something that can be a big help that you may or may not be capable of doing depending on your camera is shoting raw, instead of jpg. This way you can take control of how the camera interperts the colors. All digital cameras decide what the colors should look like, and often they don't pick the best way, because they just don't know what effect you are going for. If you shoot raw, then you can go in on your computer and pull the red out abit, or pull the light greens up or whatever. There is lots of things that can be done if you can do that. If you don't have raw, alot of times to get some great colors it is good to play in photoshop, or something like it, to do the color adjustments. Of course there is also alot of things that need to be done in camera to insure there is a good shot, like composition, and all the other technical things. Alot of those come from practice though.

Thanks for that tip unfortunatley I forgot to mention I dont have a digital camera but I do plan on getting one in the next month or so ... sooo I really am glad to be getting some comments on digital cameras but just as a slight warning for any new posts keep in mind that for now I have film. Thanks! :)

Ah, sorry dumb assumtion

Well, the big differrence between snapshots and great photos are the composition. If you have a keen eye and know the basics of composing a good photo, then you are more than halfway there.

The manual options are good to play around with, and if you have a good understanding of them they can be used to great effect. However they are not absolutely necessary since you can take a great photo without using them, provided that you have a unique outlook and can compose and share it.

Hi Rye. What kind of camera do you use?
The 'Auto' adjustments are good enough to take "good" photos. But if you want to improve your works, you must be able to change the basic set.
Example
Darryl forgot to give us the technical datas of his beautiful shot, but I think he worked for a tiny depth of field by increasing the aperture of the lens. Choose the Aperture priority, set it on the lowest value (higher aperture) and let the camera choose the speed...

No problem Milo I appreciate your help. And if any of you are curious what camera I have its a film Rebel K2. But I really do plan on getting the digital version of it soon so I truly have no reason to reject any comments for digital cameras. Thank you! Keep it flowing.

i find rather than using manual exposure always a good understanding of the way your camera's auto-exposure works, and using the exposure compensation is a good way of getting the shot you want. i find i often want to take a picture in less time than i can figgure out what exposure i should use, so i just use the exposure control (between -0.3 and +1.3) and a pretty good intuition for the results the autoexposure will give at a certain setting with a certain view. i find this way faster, and often get exposures exactly how i want them, but never get duds that are inherant when you have the camera on manual and are forgetful, or make a mistake.

I have to agree with prismmagic. The best way to learn how to take pictures is with the camera set on manual. Keep a record of your exposure settings so that you can review them later. Back when I was in high school, my photo instructor didn't even let us use light meters the 1st year. All we had to go by was the instruction sheet that came with the film. The whole idea was to learn how to see like the camera and makes you pay more attention to the light. Remember, light is the photographers paint brush it's what puts your image onto the film or sensor.

I would suggest that when you go to Digital that you get no less than a 6 megapixel camera. Anything less and I'm afraid you won't like the quality. 5 may be fine but why get one when you can get a 6 for under $300? You can set these to run auto or you can do manual adjusts. Keep in mind that major film manufacturers are abandoning their film production. So you will go digital sooner or later.

Dont look at megapixels!, i'd take an archaic 3MP DSLR anyday over any compact camera quality wise. more importantly i'd look at how much you like the camera, how fast it is to use, and stat-wise look at the physical size of the sensor, as well as reviews of the lens quality and iso performance. In the end you really get what you pay for, whether its size, mega zoom, or quality performance. (although really good performance will probably cost the most)

Agree with Carl. It's better to find a 3 or 4 MP cam with a very good optical zoom than a 7 MP with a cheap lens. 6 or 8 MP are only necessary when you want to print large developments

I'll take a look into it. Thanks for the help.