The Easiest Way To Understand All Those Camera Functions

Although many of us have digital cameras, how many of us really know what all those camera terms like f-stop, aperture, and ISO mean? I own a Digital SLR (Canon 20D) that has almost every imaginable setting but even on my pocket camera (a Canon SD500), I can adjust some of these settings.

It's taken me awhile to understand what all these terms are and how they affect the picture I'm taking (I still don't have a full grasp of it all) but that took a lot of time as I learned through lots of trial and error. Each of these settings affect the other settings and all these combinations can definitely be overwhelming to learn.

Photonhead.com has a load of fantastic tutorials on how to use a digital camera:

• Beginner's Guide to Photography
• Digital Camera Buying Guide
• Photography Tips
• Photo Editing

But, the very best thing on Photonhead is SimCam which is an online Film and Digital Camera Simulator. It gives you the ability to play around with things like f-stops and apertures, take a "virtual picture" and see what the results would be. I think you would find it very useful in learning how all the various settings interact with one another.

In the end, Photonhead has a great tip to learn to take better pictures...take more pictures! I couldn't agree more.