Camera Spesification for Beginner

 If you going to focus on the single lens reflex style of digital camera. In the old days before many digital cameras were around, many film cameras had a dial or turn knob usually on the top right hand side of the camera when viewing from the back of the camera to set both the (ISO ) and the shutter speed.

The ISO controls the sensitivity of the digital camera to light. A low ISO generally 100 can be used for shooting when there are good lighting conditions in a variety of lighting situations such as outdoors or indoors providing that there is enough light to get a good shutter speed and aperture (f-stop) combination. When you are shooting pictures in darker lighting conditions generally you must increase the ISO and make the camera have a greater sensitivity to light when shooting in situations such as a cloudy, dark overcast day or indoors under lower lighting situations. Just remember that as you increase the ISO higher you may increase the digital noise giving your images a dotty or grainy colored look in color digital photography.

Generally on many digital cameras such as Canon cameras there will be a button labeled ISO either on the top or the back of the camera and a thumb wheel close to the shutter release on the camera. (See your owners manual for your particular camera)

Shutter Speed  is the duration of time that your cameras shutter remains open: This can be either a fast shutter speed or a long shutter speed. Shutter speeds go from very fast speeds such as 1/8000 all the way down to 30 seconds on many digital cameras of today. On a Canon Camera the dial for shutter speeds is designated as Tv ( Meaning time Value) After you set this to Tv you can toggle your shutter speeds up or down with the thumb wheel that is generally located behind your shutter release button on your camera. Long shutter speeds are used to capture images in lower light when you don't have to stop as much action: Some examples are: shutter speeds from 1/4th of a second up to 1/30th of a second. Often we start with these speeds when we are shooting an image in lower light situations because the cameras shutter is open for a longer period of time. When shooting at these shutter speeds you need to hold your camera steady and put your elbows against your chest, take a deep breath in and hold it then push the shutter release in or put the camera on a tripod to steady it. So lets say from 1/60th of a second and higher ( 1/60th, 1/80th, 1/100th and up in shutter speed )

Aperture: ( Also known as lens opening ) Imagine holes or openings that go from large ( bigger to smaller)

Depth of field governs what parts of our image are sharp and what parts of the image are out of focus. With one of the lens opening as we just suggested, if you focus your camera lens at the first box or domino you will generally have sharp focus from the front to the back cereal box or domino in the image. If you were to take a picture at a larger lens opening or aperture such as f 1.4, f2, f2.8, f4 you will most likely achieve a shallow depth of focus where if you focus on the front cereal box or domino then the cereal boxes or dominoes closer to you will be in focus and the cereal boxes or dominoes going further would appear out of focus. The larger aperture's are used in photography to get softer images in photographs such as portraits and wedding pictures as well as in images of children. About Measuring Light in A Scene, All cameras with a light meter to measure light are usually calibrated to see a tonal value of 18% middle gray! No matter what you aim the camera at it wants to get an exposure value of 18% middle gray. (read your cameras manual) Some cameras have an exposure lock button that you can push to remember the camera settings. If the image is too dark toggle the thumb wheel so that the indicator in the finder lines up more toward the + direction. Tv mode: You set the shutter speed and the camera will set the aperture (f-stop) Use this when you want to control the action stopping ability of your camera. If shooting a car going by fast use 1/200th of a second and up, if you were shooting in low light situations use a longer shutter speed such as 1/30th of a second and longer but be steady when you hand hold or use a tripod.

Av Mode: In this case you want to think about the range of focus, You set the lens opening (aperture) and the camera will set the shutter sped.