This is the first in a series of posts through which I will explore the basics of the tool used to capture images. The main purpose of these ‘tutorials’ is for me to get the concepts straight in my head … but if in the process it’s useful to other then why not.
There is no better place to start than at the beginning, that said, wherever I start will be the beginning so that leaves the last point moot but insightful, my personal take on relativity.
I like to think of a camera as an equation (lame, I know, but stick with it) with a set of constants and variables. The elements of the equation, the aforementioned constants and variables, control the final capture. So in my Canon, for instance, the only constant that I can think of at the moment is the size and type of sensor that captures the image and the variables are the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focal length (aka zoom), metering, focus, flash, file size of the capture amongst others.
The point I am trying to make here is that we have access to all these wonderful ‘variables’ but most of us only limit ourselves to one variable, ‘the zoom’. We don’t worry about the constants, those we have no control over.
Knowing that the general public would like to stay ignorant to these variables the camera manufacturer’s program presets in their hardware, call them all sorts of silly things like sports mode, portrait mode etc. In creating these modes all they have done is pre-set those variables for you so you don’t have to. It’s like Nike making a one-size-fit-all running shoes, ridiculous right.
Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to taking pictures; the more you know about your camera the better your capture. In the next few posts I will log my simplistic, and occasionally twisted, understanding of these variables. There is tons of stuff out there on the web that explains this in detail and I would encourage you to find out more.
Are you ready to get a shoe that fits !!
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