hey thanks! great site not overwhelming for a beginner like me hehe

seconded

focus on object and blur background...the correct term is shallow depth of field. macro setting (yes the flower sign) should do that. try to position urself to snap so that the background is far away...the further the background, more blur it gets

shutter speed and aperture are two different ways to adjust exposure. depth of field has nothing to do with shutter speed... it's all about aperture. if u're using a manual camera, find a way to use a bigger aperture setting. normally this is by using the A or Av mode, and turn DOWN the aperture number (smaller number is bigger aperture)

got portrait mode? use that. normally in portrait mode the camera will use the maximum aperture

u mean photo? got several ways in photoshop... make a selection of the part u want coloured, invert selection, then decrease saturation to 0

or (as i prefer) create another layer on top of the original layer, decrease saturation to 0, and erase the part u want coloured

im no sifu, but bringing an assistant to hold reflector will do wonders

the pic u posted doesnt use the built-in flash on the D90... it's using external flash. the only 'good' use for built-in flash is pretty much for fill light in bright places only...

easiest to do that...set to Portrait mode quite hard to achieve that using compact lah. if DSLR, auto also can get that picture hehe

lighting doesnt have to be flash...sunlight can also

manual settings doesnt mean the picture will look good...in fact, it increases the chances of a photo to be bad

1st, use focal length about 30-50mm like that. try to use Aperture priority mode, set to the lowest F-number u can go. if u're using the 18-55 kit lens, shud be around 4 or 5.

get someone to pose like that for you. get as close as you can (get nearer, dun change ur focal length) until the left hand is almostttt out of the frame. compose ur shot, n focus on the right arm. that way, the left hand will be blurred. this is caused by the distance of ur focus point (the right arm) and the left hand.

actually you can make the left hand more blur by using 18mm focal length because of two reasons: 1) 18mm will exaggerate the length between ur focus point and the left hand, and 2) u can use a bigger aperture like F3.5. but then this will make the left hand look huge~

yeap. actually it's "wider aperture lens make the effect easier". those f1.4 or 1.8 prime lens is perfect for the job. a fast zoom like 17-55 f2.8 also can

u mean the colour tone? u know photoshop?

1) i might be wrong here, but i think white balance filters are for film cameras. for digital cameras we can juz change the WB setting. we still need coloured gels for flash though.

2) "visible loss" is subjective... can you see the difference? i don't, so i juz snap JPEG. we shudnt worry too much about quality..there are great photos out there winning awards but it's not technically "good quality" at all. if a photo is good, even thumbnail also look nice the only time u might wanna use RAW is in low-light conditions...PP can salvage RAW shots better

by dull u mean less saturation? like the photo is black n white (or almost) but only the subject is in colour? i dont think any dslr got that function. but very easy to do in photoshop

i think http://digital-photography-school.com/ is pretty good for beginners.

also recommending kenrockwell.com . some may hate this guy, but i like how he always emphasizes on skills rather than equipments. very important lesson

attempted before but my G lens aperture wont open wide if i take it off from the camera

any reason you particularly want to use S mode?

u have to remember shutter speed is just one out of 3 that controls exposure...the other two are aperture and ISO. in a dark area, you would want to get as much light in as possible.

try this, use A mode. set aperture to the maximum (f/3.5 for ur lens, need to use 18mm focal length), and set your ISO to maybe 1600. set a shutter speed of about 1/25s. shoot first, and if still too dark, use a slower shutter speed. you might reach a point where u need a certain slow shutter speed (maybe 1 s?) but you cant handhold you camera well enough. if u run into this issue, either learn to steady yourself, get a small tripod, or get a lens with a larger max aperture

or just use flash hehe