The Exposure Triangle
So here is a basic tutorial on what your camera settings do, and how you can use them. For this tutorial, we will skip over white balance. In simple terms, white balance configures the camera to the lighting available to you at the time. For instance, you get a slightly different light from artificial lighting than you do from daylight and this difference will give your pictures a colour cast unless you tell the camera what type of light you’re using. The good news is, your camera isn’t too bad at working it out itself, so for this tutorial, leave your white balance on “Auto”.
What we are going to talk about now are the elements of the exposure triangle and how these elements can be used by a photographer to create the image they want. A sports photographer might want to pan with the action, keeping his subject sharp while blurring the background with motion. A portrait photographer might want the eyes of their subject to be pin sharp, while blurring out a distracting background. At the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how the exposure triangle can be used to do this and just as importantly, how to set your camera to get the picture you want.