Play With Your Knob.

A good friend of mine, who happens to be just getting into digital photography himself, asked me what on earth the different camera settings do. I could never find a simple clean cut quick answer. So I will do my best to answer as simply as I can. Because I am a Canon man, I will be describing things in Canon terms. But these are things all camera users should know, so listen up.






I think the appropriate place to start is with those cute little pictures. You know the ones. The face, the mountain, the flower. The settings we have all become so accustomed to using on our point and shoots. They luckily are the same. Now that you know that, never touch them again. If you touch them, I can guarantee a web ninja will come and punch you directly in the dick/vagina. That goes for pretty well every setting below the red "L."

Auto: This mode is represented by a "P" on a Canon dslr/slr. This will give the camera control over all settings besides flash. This is useful if you are wanting to get a picture without having to think about anything. This is pretty lazy, but hey. We can't be serious all of the time.

Shutter priority mode: This is the setting you will probably use the most. It is signified with a "Tv." This is very useful in many different ways. It allows you to manually set how long the shutter will stay open, while the camera takes care of everything else. If you are shooting by hand it is important to have a low shutter speed to avoid camera shake. By using shutter priority mode you will be able to get your timing just right.

Aperture priority mode: This mode is like shutter mode in the way that you manually set the aperture, and the camera takes care of the rest. It is represented by "Av" on Canon cameras or "A" on Nikons. You may be wondering what on earth Aperture is. Well, aperture is how wide your lens opens. A wider aperture will have a small number such as f/2 this will allow the lens to open wider allowing more light into the camera sensor. As the aperture number goes up the amount of light let in goes down. In a low light situation a lower aperture will allow for faster shooting. While in bright situations a higher aperture will allow for an accurate shot.
Your depth of field is also controlled by aperture. Basically how far away your camera can focus. A higher f stop (aperture setting) will allow for a greater depth of field. As in, more of the picture is in focus. While a smaller f stop will allow less of the picture to be in focus. A very good article on depth of field can be found here.







Manual: Represented by a simple "M" this is by far the most involved setting. It is exactly what it sounds like,  manual. You set everything and the camera does nothing.

Automatic Depth of Field: At the very end of your knob is automatic depth of field. This is represented by "A-DEP." This mode is best used for large group pictures where you want to have everybody in focus. This mode senses what the furthest object and the closest object and adjusts the aperture accordingly to keep everything looking sharp.

ISO: This is a button that is usually right in front of your knob. We talked about ISO in an earlier post.

So there it is. The very basics of what each setting does. In the end it takes practice to get everything down just right. It is confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it.

If you want to go deeper, I suggest this site.