The Basics, originally posted Oct. 23, 2008

I recently promised help for YOU to take great pictures. I want to walk you through some key terms that you need to know to be able to get the most out of your camera, whatever kind it may be.

• Exposure= the balance of camera elements giving you the perfect amount of light in your photo. You picture is merely a recording of light. So any issues you have with your photos, most likely has to do with the amount of light and how you are capturing it.


• Aperture=the AMOUNT of LIGHT that your camera lets in. If you could look down into the lens in super slow motion as your camera fires, you would see a curtain open over a hole that allows light to reach your sensor (digital) or film. The larger the hole, the more light. This allows you control your depth-of-field (the amount of your image that is in focus).


• Shutter speed=the AMOUNT of TIME that curtain is open. This allows you to blur your little soccer players legs as he's running down the field, thus showing motion (slow shutter speed) or stop the action and have those legs frozen in time (fast shutter speed).

Now, I'm not going to weigh you down with detailed explanations of these. I could write pages on each. But you need a basic understanding. Don't be frustrated if it sounds confusing. I've been doing this most of my life and it still takes a little bit of thought when I'm trying to balance all of the elements involved. Go back and read it one more time. Return to these simple explanations as you see the next few posts.

Next week, I'm going to talk about ISO setting. Knowing how to change this setting will help you tremendously! Take a few minutes over the weekend and see if you can find out how to change this setting on your camera. You'll soon find out what those numbers mean!