Getting started in the realm of digital photography today can seem overwhelming. Our digital SLRs have more catches, dials, and menu alternatives than any person can reasonably be expected to keep track of. There are really just three things that you need to learn to understand photography. Once you understand these three fundamental elements, and how they relate to each other, you'll just need your own particular creativity and desire to succeed. These things are: Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO. Once you understand how these things affect your images and how they relate to each other, everything else just becomes alright. Each of these three elements affects your image in two different ways: one is physical, and one is creative.
- What are the basic equipment you’ll need?
You can do photography with even the simplest of cameras, yet the principles that are necessary for people who need to learn to use a DSLR camera, a micro four-thirds camera, or if nothing else at least a camera that enables the photographer to modify the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
- What is exposure?
When we discuss "exposure," we basically mean the brightness or darkness of a photograph. It seems simple enough to take a photograph that is correctly exposed (has the proper brightness or darkness), yet in reality, it can be quite precarious. Exposure uses Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO in conjunction to create a properly exposed image.
- What are Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO?
Our camera's sensor (or film) needs a certain measure of light, and the shutter is essentially a way to let light into an otherwise light-proof box where the sensor resides. Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open, and as you'd expect, the longer it remains open, the more light can get to the sensor. If you peep into a digital SLR lens, you'll see a set of blades that shape a hole in the middle to let light go through. That hole is the aperture, and the lens can move those blades to make the hole smaller or larger. The larger the hole, the more light gets through, clearly. Your camera's aperture control, then, is another approach to change how much light gets to the sensor. ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to the available light. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light, while a higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of your camera.
- What is white balance?
White balance balances the colour temperature in your image. It adds the opposite colour or tint to the image trying to take the colour temperature back to neutral. Instead of whites appearing red or yellow, they ought to appear white after correctly white adjusting an image.
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