The Basics: We will start out with learning some of the basic principles of D-SLR Camera Photography: Aperture and Shutter Speed and their influences on the pictures that you take. I will show you how to adjust both of these factors with the camera and show you online at the website eirikso.com the effect of these adjustments:

• Aperture adjustments
• Shutter speed adjustments

In addition, I have put together a slide show of pictures that demonstrate the effect of different Apertures and Shutter Speeds on the final photograph:

"Depth of Field and Motion in Photographs"

Once you get the hang of what aperture and shutter speed do to a picture and how to adjust this on the camera, I want you to head out and take some pictures, see if you can get to the point where you know how to create all of the following shots:

• The FOCUSING SHOT:  Set your Aperture (Av) to a wide setting (very low number), such as F2.8. Find some nearby subjects that have big backgrounds and focus on them.  Check to see that your subject is in sharp focus and the background and foregrounds are slightly to very blurry.
• The STORYTELLING SHOT:  Set your Aperture (Av) to narrow setting (a high number), such as F8.  Find some scenes foreground objects and big backgrounds and take some pictures.  Your pictures should be in focus from front to back.
• The FROZEN ACTION SHOT:  Set your Shutter Speed (Tv) to a setting FASTER than 1/60th of a second.  In bright light, find a moving subject and take some photographs.  You should be able to freeze the action in place.
• THE BLURRED ACTION SHOT:  Set your Shutter Speed (Tv) to a setting SLOWER than 1/30th of a second.  If you are in bright light, you may have to turn on your NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER (Function/Set Button>ND>ND FILTER ON).   Find a moving subject and take some photographs.  You should see blurred motion trails of your moving subject.
• THE LOW LIGHT SHOT:  Set your Aperture to a wide setting, such as F2.8.  Turn your ISO to a high number (such as 1600), head to a place with relatively low light and take some pictures.  Because your shutter may need to be open for a while, you might need to use a tripod to get a clear shot.  You should be able to get relatively clear and bright pictures, despite the low light.