Internal Camera Settings

Hey Everyone,

So here we are just digging out from another snow storm, and wouldn't you know it, we have yet another one on the way. Ugh, I am so ready for a vacation. Anyway...

I remember when I first started with AIO a few years ago. I had just purchased my brand new Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR camera. I was both positively excited, yet very intimidated by all of the functions this camera had. Before AIO, I had never picked up such an elaborate machine so, I was a little bit scared at all of the symbols, functions, and in-camera terms I had never heard of before. I wasn't too worried, I mean, after all how hard can it really be?

Then the professor said those dreaded words, that every first time photographer fears. "Take you camera off automatic, and place it on manual." You could imagine those words spoken as a loud, powerful, echo, banging against the side of my head, in rhythm with my heart. I wasn't sure exactly what manual mode meant. So, with shaky fingers and in preparation of my first assignment I clicked the dial "click, click, click" until it rested on the dreaded giant "M". There appeared on my screen, confirmation that I was now in "Manual Mode Setting".

I went about taking my first series of images. Things looked pretty good on my LCD on camera screen, and I was pretty pleased about my work. I couldn't wait to bring them up on my monitor to see what they looked like. I sat down, inserted the memory card, and what did I see? One big disaster after another. My first assignment, my first photo shoot was in complete ruin.

I was immediately disheartened, and I felt my career as a photographer was over before it began. I was a no talent hack, and I needed to disappear into the shadows of ambiguity. This was especially true when the professor wrote things like, adjust the ISO, watch the shutter speed, and try reducing or raising your aperture by one stop. For all the good it did me at that point, he could have been speaking Klingon.

I had no clue what an ISO was, and I barely understood the shutter speed, and don't get me started on F-Stop. So, for quite a while I struggled with these things, trying to figure out not only their function, but how the worked together. I quickly got shutter speed and F-Stop was becoming clearer, but the whole ISO thing was really frustrating me. While my photography improved, it eventually leveled off and I was becoming more frustrated than before.

It was this way until a professor, sensing my frustration explained it to me. You see, I am a soldier, and with years of military training, I often think like that when I approach new things. This professor was familiar with the military mind and how it worked, so he was able to share these thoughts:

The ISO is like a commanding officer. He decides just how much light, overall, the camera will have to work with. In photographic terms, the ISO controls how sensitive the sensor that reads light is, to the light that enters the camera. The Shutter Speed and F-STOP are like sergeants. The shutter speed determines for how long that sensor is exposed, while the f-stop determines how much light can get to the sensor.

As funny as this may sound, it immediately made everything click. I understood the relationship between these three important camera functions. Suddenly, my photography was growing again, I was starting to create the images that I had imagined in my head. I want to thank my professor for understanding me. He made a huge difference in my ability just by breaking things down in a way that I could understand.

I hope this was helpful to others, especially our new classmates who may be looking at the "mode" wheel on their camera as a giant, black, intimidating, wheel of death. Don't be discouraged, you'll get it, and when you do, the world better watch out!