...set your own aperture and shutter speed? Check out this website:
- http://www.kenrockwell.com
This site helped me alot in understanding aperature and shutter speed and how they interact.
Also, head over to a bookstore and find any book on beginning photography and it will be a world of knowledge to you.
Some definitions may help:
- ISO
This is the speed of the film, or how sensitive it is to light, the higher the ISO number, the more sensative it will be, thus the shorter the shutter speed will need to be.
- Aperature
The opening of the camera's "iris". The larger the opening, the more light will be let in, and the less the shutter speed will need to be. Also, aperature becomes larger as the number becomes smaller.
- Shutter Speed
The speed of the camera's shutter, or how long it is exposed to light, the faster the shutter speed, the darker the picture will be. Expressed as a fraction such as 1/120 sec. The shutter is open for 1/120th of a second.
Basically, just take the camera off of AUTO and start shooting and experimenting with the Aperature and Shutter priority modes, change settings and see how it affects the picture. Take pictures of everything on multiple setings.
If the use of those modes is slightly intimidating, your camera may have a "Programmed AUTO" mode, which still selects aperature and shutter speed, but will let you scroll through different combinations of each, and will also let you choose other settings that AUTO will not.
The great thing about having a digital camera is that if you mess up, you can delete it. Good Luck, have fun, and remember that experience is the best teacher If you don't want to learn all the ins and outs and just want to take snapshots, then leave the camera on auto.
If you want to learn the relationships between ISO, shutter speed and aperture, depth of fields, and how different zoom levels effect all of these, then that is when you want to delve into the aperture/shutter priority modes or the manual mode.
Trust me..I used to be in the "I just want snapshots" camp. But as they say, a little knowledge can be dangerous. Now, I cannot see me giving complete control over to the camera. I like controlling the aspects of the image through the options on the camera. |
