For those of you who don't know, Parker knows a lot about photography. He has read so many photography books from cover to cover that I lost track a long time ago. He loves reading and remembers almost everything he reads. This is one of the reasons that we make such a great team. He knows a lot about the technical aspects of photography, and I have a good eye for the artistic side of it. I love that we can come together and learn from each other. I find myself constantly asking Parker what settings he would use in this situation and why. I thought that he might be able to help some of you out there who are having a hard time using your equipment to the best of its potential, so I have asked him if he would post a couple of posts regarding camera techniques and equipment. With that being said, I will turn the computer over to my wonderful husband Parker.

Photography to me is all about expressing your emotions and ideas. It's about sharing your creativity, capturing lifes precious moments, creating art, and then taking all those emotions and creating an image that will somehow allow others to feel those same feelings when they see your art.

EXPOSURE: the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium (photographic film or image sensor) during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value (EV) and scene luminance over a specified area.

To put that in terms that most people can understand, exposure is simply the amount of light that is allowed to hit your sensor while the shutter is open. Although simple enough to understand, this is one of the hardest parts about photography. Anyone can push a button on a camera and take a picture, but good photographers know that its not about getting an exposure, but it's about getting a correct exposure. So, what is a correct exposure?

A correct exposure can only truly be defined by the photographer! But, it is essentially controlling different elements on your camera to produce the desired effects in your picture. There are several entire books written solely on the topic of exposure. Since I'm not going to write an entire books worth of content on a blog, I'll simply tell you the basics of what I've learned.

A correct exposure, or picture, is produced by choosing the correct shutter speed, aperature, and iso. These three elements make up what photographers refer to as the Exposure Triangle (pictured on the left).

Now that you realize what constitutes an exposure you need to understand how to use these elements to create the artistic picture you have in your head.

Hopefully you have heard of iso, shutter speed, and aperature, but do you understand what they really are and how they affect your pictures?

Aperature is essentially the size of the opening in your lens that lets light through. You can either make this opening larger or smaller. This can be done by simply putting your camera to manual (M) and rolling the dial on the back of the camera, or aperature priority mode (Av) and then rolling the dial located next to your shutter release button on top of the camera. If you've never used Manual or Aperature Priority modes, you might be asking yourself, why you need to use it now? The question is better asked this way... Who is the photographer? Is the camera the photographer, or are you the photographer? Like I said before, ANYONE can push a button and make an exposure but a photographer creates an artistic expression by using the elements of the exposure (iso, shutter speed, and aperature) to create a specific and desired effect in their image. Your camera is an amazing piece of equipment, but not very artistic! It is programmed to take a properly exposed picture, but not an artistically exposed picture.

Hopefully your not completely lost now. If you notice the Exposure Triangle, you may notice the words: motion blur, depth of field, and noise. These three things are the artistic elements that shutter speed, aperature, and iso respectively control. Motion blur is caused by objects in your picture moving during the split second that your shutter is open. Depth of field is the range of distances within your picture that are in focus. Noise is simply those unwanted color or light artifacts that show up in your pictures, they usually look like "grain". I think that's a pretty good start for those of you wanting to learn more about photography. This should have given you a broad understanding of the terms and elements that make up an artistically correct exposure. I will be doing posts in the future regarding ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperature individually because the topics are really too big to put in one post.