Someone help out a beginner

[Hare]

Ok, just got an XSI and dont know much about digital photography. Could someone please just tell me the basic steps to shooting the picture you desire? Like, what is the difference between 1600 ISO and 200. I've looked around but I find a lot of the info confusing. So if someone, in simple terms, can go over the basic steps to manually shooting a sufficient photo, that'd be very much appreciated. Thanks

[VegasMike]

You may want to check out David Busch's book on the CANON XSi/450D. It explains the camera very well. What I did when I first purchased mine was take some photos with the camera set to auto just to get the feel for it. Then after reading up on this website and the book, I started experimenting with the different settings and looking at the results I was getting.

[Hare]

Thanks for the reply.

I will look into that. It's not the composition or subject choosing that throws me off, it's the lighting and whatnot. I have trouble getting it set right. Would anyone recommend this book? I am thinking about ordering it today.

Amazon.com: Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition): Bryan Peterson: Books

[SusanH1970]

Hi and welcome to DPS!

Check out this section of the DPS blog. It will answer many of the questions you have about the basics (and you won't have to wait for a book!).

[inkista]

The Peterson book is a good one for the basics of exposure and balancing iso, shutter speed, and aperture. Just read up on small apertures and diffraction afterwards, so you don't end up using f/22 all the time.

ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor to light. The higher the iso, the more quickly the sensor can gather light, but the more danger you run of introducing noise into the image. You typically use a higher iso when you need a faster shutter speed and you can't open up the aperture any more.

The aperture is the size of the shutter opening. The larger it is, the more light you can gather at once, but the narrower your depth of field becomes, and the more critical focusing accurately becomes. This will be limited by the lens you use--a lens is always described by its focal length and its maximum aperture. And a smaller f-number actually describes a LARGER aperture.



Your shutter speed is how long the shutter remains open during the exposure. The longer it's left open, the more light you gather, and the brighter the image. But the more chance motion blur has to register in the photo, either from subject motion or from camera shake. The faster your subject is moving, the faster your shutter speed needs to be to freeze action. And to eliminate camera shake while handholding (without stabilization), the rule of thumb is to have the shutter speed be 1/focal_length or faster (i.e., with a 50mm lens, 1/50s or faster; with a 200mm lens, 1/200s or faster). This works about down to about 1/30s. Assuming you know how to hold your camera.

[Tiberius]

Have a read of the tutorials in my signature. They'll give you a solid foundation in photography.

The first ones you should read are the top line. They're the most important ones.