One of the best ways to understand your digital camera is to read the manual. I do not mean this facetiously! Digital cameras, even though they try to make the photographic process simpler, are complex tools. They have a great number of automatic features built in to them designed to yield good exposures in almost every kind of lighting situation. You can set your camera’s controls to AUTO and snap away, being assured that most of the time, you will get a fairly well exposed image. The thing you have to ask yourself though, is “Is this what I want?” If the answer is “yes,” then you need not read any further. If,however, you wish to make images, that are a bit different from the norm of rainbows, or deep sunsets, then I suggest you read this article.
The Beginning
A camera is essentially a tool for modifying light enough to make a desired image. The lens collects and alters light rays and focuses them on a sensor or piece of film at a spot behind it called the “focal plane.”
You can control the amount of light that hits the focal plane by mastering three major parts of the camera.
1.The camera’s ISO setting. This tool controls the amount of light entering the camera by setting its sensitivity to light. ISO stands for INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION. This is an international group of people who decide what standards the world will use for most items that require numeration of some sort. The lower the number, the less light the camera “sees.” So, an ISO setting of 100 will be less sensitive to light than a setting of 800, say. If you are shooting in a situation where there is very little light, (at night, say), you might need to use a higher ISO number so that the camera can “see” more light. In many cameras equipped with a built-in flash, if you don’t change the ISO number, the flash will automatically pop up to add light to the scene. This would be undesirable in shooting a sunset, for example. So, if you don’t want to use the flash, you would need to increase your ISO setting.
How To Understand Your Camera
by William Lulow