Best $17 you will spend:

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...4480808&sr=8-1

 

Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO form a triangle of sorts (sure throw focal length in too, but now its a square, and no one want to deal with a square ).

Move one item and there is an effect on the others. Sometimes this is good, and sometimes it just needs to be accepted.

 

I think this explanation muddies things more than it clarifies.

First of all, Jupitersolo is absolutely correct. But you could draw the wrong conclusions that one mode is meant for one situation and another mode for other situations.

We use aperture and shutter priority because it is the shortest path to what we want, not because the mode is made for those situations.

If you read the post I linked, there are two ways to control how much light a camera receives (this is called exposure). The first is adjusting aperture, the second is shutter.

The values (the aperture and the shutter speed) you pick will depend on the environment and the subject.

There are two and a half ways to calculate these values. The first is to let the camera calculate everything based on the lighting conditions it can detect. This is fully auto, program AE, or green box, depending on what your camera maker wants to call it.

The other way is for you to calculate both values yourself, using the camera's meter, a hand held light meter, experience, charts, or whatever else you want to use.

The half way is for you to pick a value, either aperture or shutter speed, and then let the camera pick the remaining value. These are one of the priority modes.

You pick modes based on what you want to do and the results you want, not your subject. Often times, your subject will dictate what you want to do. If you are at a race track, you probably want a fast shutter to freeze motion. Shutter priority would be your pick. But you don't pick shutter priority simply because you are at the track.

 

Don't forget ISO is the third way to control the amount of light.

 

True. In the world of digital, ISO could be considered another way of controlling exposure. But I think the concepts behind ISO are more advanced. Probably 90% of the time, you're going to use the lowest possible ISO that will get you the results you want.

 

^Damn you guys are photography guru's huh?

Thanks for all of the explanations and such

 

Yes, but it is the third corner of the pyrimad for exposure. And the future of higher ISO cameras, it will become more involved.

 

+1 keep bringing on the info, the more i learn the better i can become. Of course with alot of practice.

 

We got about 4 inches of snow here in the Raleigh area over the weekend. I spent the weekend at my girlfriends house and snapped a few pictures. I wasn't really experimenting with the settings, rather just shooting away. The first three are from the last week or so.

A few didn't turn out as well as I wanted, but I have shaky hands, so I wasn't expecting anything amazing



















My favorite of the bunch:



You can see the sleet bouncing off of the car when I took the picture. And yes there is a rock wedged in my tire; I noticed that when I uploaded the picture

 

Couldn't sleep last night so I took a few pictures of my lava lamp

 

My friend got a 08 BMW 335i Coupe yesterday and he brought it over. Nothing fancy, he just parked in front of my house and took a few pictures. I did edit a couple of these, but nothing overboard.

 

That dealer sticker on the trunk would drive me insane.

Oh yea, nice pics

 

^He just picked it up a few hours before he brought it over so he hadn't had the chance to take it off. Of course I told him I hated it too

And thanks! You still indecisive on getting rid of the Sony?

 

Im probably just going to get a new lense and keep playing with it. For what I use it for, I dont need anything extravegant; not now at least.

 

I hear you on that. As much as I want a new lens, I'm enjoying this one for now.

 

i have been reading the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and it is really great to help me understand how things work. Who would of know that there are 6 exposures that could be taken of the same subject but only 1 or 2 of them really capture the idea of what you visualize. Great book . I really suggest you buy it.

 

Damn it sounds like I need to hop on that!