Digital Camera Settings
Digital Camera Basics

Knowing digital camera settings is an important part of taking better pictures. When you know what the settings on your camera do, you'll be able to more easily master digital photography basics and more advanced digital photography techniques.

Aperture

The first setting we'll discuss is aperture. The opening inside the lens that controls the amount of light that gets into the camera. This is usually expressed in f-stops. The lower the f-stop the larger the aperture. The higher the f-stop the smaller the aperture. Aperture settings can be used to control the depth of field in your shot. A small aperture will give a greater depth of field. While a large aperture will create a shallow depth of field. This will cause the background of your shot to be out of focus while the subject is in focus.

Different brands of cameras use different symbols for the aperture settings. Normally, the adjustment of the aperture is on the top of the camera. It's denoted as a an A, M, A/S/M, Tv, or Av.

ISO

ISO is a term that was used in film photography to talk about what was often referred to as film speed. Film came in a variety speeds that included 100, 200, 400, 800, and so forth. These numbers showed how sensitive the film was to light. The lower numbers means the film is less sensitive to light and the higher numbers are more sensitive to light.

In digital cameras, the ISO setting determines how sensitive the camera's sensor will be to light. Normally, you should try to use the lowest ISO setting you can. Low settings give crisp images with smaller grain or less noise. The higher your ISO number the more noise or grain in the photo. Higher ISO settings will make your camera's sensors more sensitive to light so you can take pictures in lower light and catch motion without getting a blurred image.

Manual Mode

Manual mode gives you total control over your camera. This mode will allow you to set your camera's shutter speed and aperture yourself. It's great for keeping your imagines consistent. When your camera is in auto mode it adjusts these settings itself. Even a slight shift in the lighting of the image your photographing may cause the camera to change the settings to compensate.

Using full manual mode with your digital camera settings gives you--not the computer contained inside your camera--the ultimate control over what your photographs look like.

Exposure Bracketing

This is one of the digital camera settings found on higher end DSLR cameras. Exposure bracketing allows your camera to take multiple pictures of the same image using different exposures. This is a simple idea that I learned about in my photography classes in college. We were always told to make sure we took pictures at different exposures to make sure we got a good picture. Now your camera can do it for you.

In this mode, the camera will take these three exposures itself quickly. It's a great way to make sure you're getting the right exposure.

Burst Mode

This mode is used to take pictures one after the other without pause. It's great when you want to take pictures of a moving object. The camera will take several images per second when it's in this mode.

Histograms

This mode in your camera will help you have a better idea of what the image your just photographed really looks like. When you view a photo on your camera's LCD screen you don't always get a true idea of what the picture looks like. How many times have you thought a picture was great when you saw it on your camera but later when you saw it on your computer it wasn't so great? Histograms help you not make that mistake.

In histogram mode after you take a picture when you display the picture it's displayed in a graph that will help you determine whether the picture is over or under exposed.