An independent reference for people learning photography on their own. It is not a school or studio and has no connection to the former site on this domain; we do not sell courses or photo shoots.
Lessons
This section is a short course in the basics that you work through at your own pace. Six lessons answer a beginner's main questions: what determines how bright a frame is, how to make the right thing sharp, why the same object looks different in the morning and the evening, how to build a frame, where odd colour casts come from and what to do with a RAW file. You can apply each lesson on your very next walk with a camera or phone.
Don't try to memorise every setting at once. Understand what each one changes, and you will find the right value yourself.
How this section works: each lesson explains one concept, shows how it appears in a photo and ends with a simple exercise. We don't give tables of "best settings": the right values depend on the light, the subject and what you want to show.
Six core lessons that work best taken in order.
Three settings determine how bright a photo is: aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. Each can be changed in steps called stops; one stop doubles or halves the amount of light. If you shift one setting, you can compensate with another.
Focus selects the plane that will be sharp, and depth of field describes how far the sharp zone extends in front of and behind it. The wider the aperture (the smaller the f-number), the shallower that zone and the softer the background. Learn to decide first what should be sharp.
Light can be hard or soft, warm or cool, and can fall from the front, the side or behind. Soft light from a window or an overcast sky smooths shadows, while side light brings out texture. Before you raise the camera, look at where the light is coming from.
Composition is deciding what goes into the frame and what stays outside its edges. Remove the clutter, find the main subject, think about the background and the lines that lead the eye. Changing your viewpoint is often more useful than changing lenses.
Lamps, sunsets and shade give light of different tints, and the camera tries to bring it to neutral. White balance sets which colour counts as white. Sometimes a warm or cool cast is worth keeping if it conveys the mood of the scene.
RAW stores sensor data without in-camera processing, so the file has to be developed in a RAW converter. In return, it has more latitude for correcting exposure and white balance. Start with simple adjustments and always keep the original.
RAW basics (in Russian)
Week-long assignments: one scene in different light, exposure bracketing and signs that you are shooting on autopilot.
Shooting modes, reading the histogram, a little photography history and popular myths about gear and rules.
Short, plain-language definitions of terms for exposure, optics, focus and photo processing.
Information on exposure, optics, light and processing is given in general terms, based on introductory photography textbooks and the materials listed in the sources. Camera settings depend on the scene and your intent, so test the advice on your own photos.