4 Basics of Photography Tips
Posted in Photography | By AhTim @ June 17th, 2009
I start to learn the basics of photography before get a DSLR soon. These 4 basic terms always confuse me. Will try to explain in simple way I understand.
By understand the 4 basic elements, you may snap image with effect you want easily. They are: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and White balance.
4 Basic Photography Elements
Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when taking a photo. Shutter Speed is the amount of time the shutter open. ISO refer to the measure of a camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. Lastly, white balance is feature to get the colors in your images as accurate as possible.
To illustrate, these elements are represented by a situation where a man wearing sunglasses looking out from a window. Aperture is like the size of the window. The wider you open, more light go into the room.
Photo by HomeAway
Shutter speed is the amount of time you open and close the window. The longer you open, more lights go in. ISO is like your eyes. You see darker (low ISO) with sun glasses. When you take off sun glasses, you see brighter (high ISO).
Since you’re in the room, there might be light bulb. Normal bulb produce yellowish color to the objects in the room. Florescent light produce bluish color. White balance is camera feature where you can adjust the object color back to normal, or more accurate color in the photo.
My Two Cents
What is the best combination? There is nothing as such “best” settings. Important is which settings able to capture the photo with effects you want.
Now the question is how to make use of these elements to shoot a nice photo? Experiment yourself. We might discuss this topic later.
Please share with us if you have experience on the settings. 
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Tags: aperture, ISO, photography tips, shutter speed, white balance