Want to take better photos? You really don’t have to struggle in the darkroom to learn the techniques of taking great photos. That is because the lessons of Photography have gone online too with Shaw Academy.

Are you serious about being a photographer? You love photography but getting confused by all the Camera features? These instructions should help you figure out what type of camera feature you use. Since there are so many different features of a camera, it might be best to start by deciding on three or four that are most important to you.

Know your need for speed. Many cameras have a substantial time lag between pressing the button and actually taking the picture. If you’re going to take photographs of running objects, or people performing fast actions, find a camera with a lag time of 0.2 seconds or less.

Auto exposure bracketing. This feature is great to use when you’re having trouble figuring out which level of Exposure to use or when you’re trying to create a high-dynamic range photo. Most cameras will “guess” at the level of exposure by taking three photos — one at the current exposure, one underexposed and one overexposed.

Depth of field preview. In cases where you want to focus on one aspect and blur everything else out, you can use the depth-of-field preview button to help you make certain that your camera is going to capture the image the way you want it captured.

Exposure compensation. If you notice that some of your photos come out too dark or too light, or that they seem flat and requiring contrast, you can use Exposure Compensation to adjust for lighting into your camera.

Judge the zoom capacity. A zoom function allows you to adjust the distance of focus by the amount specified, for instance 4x or 50x the normal focal length.

Well, there you have it…some key features to look for when you do photography. According to Shaw Academy reviews there are, of course, many other features you may use while photography. But, the list on this page is as good as starting point as any.