For Beginners: The Basics of Photography

[gpersi]

matt great article just read it agin figure if i keep reading your articles some of it will stick to my mushe brain

[litphotography_01]

Thank you so much and I know I can get a good idea to your article.

[MatthewGore]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I finally had the time to write the follow-up... which I'm afraid is not quite as clear as the first one, but just as important.

There's also a Quiz, for those of you who were having a good day that needed spoiling. Both can be found linked from the bottom of the first article.

- Matt

[Cerbograph]

That's useful, thanks. One question though - I'm just starting out and understand there are trade offs between the three aspects however with ISO is there an ideal setting? I know it will vary but should I have a general rule of thumb to keep the ISO as low as possible to keep noise at a minimum?

[MatthewGore]

Hi Cerb, As a general rule, the lower the ISO, the lower the noise... so it's best to set the ISO to the lowest setting that will still let you achieve your goals overall. So, if you need 1/500th of a second to stop action, then set your ISO only as high as is necessary to get 1/500th at your widest aperture (or whatever aperture you need to use for the image your making). I guess the answer, then, is that the ideal ISO in terms of noise is the lowest natural setting on your camera, but thats obviously not ideal in terms of gathering the most light. Depending on your camera, there may be a negligible difference in noise between say... ISO100 and ISO400, so it may make sense to shoot at 400 most of the time. - Matthew

[Cerbograph]

That's great, thank you

[digifate]

Does this link still work? My browser can't get to it :/

[digital paradise]

Nice work. Very well done.

[MatthewGore]

Hi Digifate, The link is still working... though the site has been a little unstable recently because of a server migration. Let me know if you still can't get it to work!

[gumby1220]

Thank you that was a really good read. I am a complete newb that just got my first DSLR