Hi all. Welcome back to my blog. In this article I will be discussing the basic camera controls every beginner should know.

While clicking pictures with a smartphone we usually just randomly click pics in the auto mode, as in, we really won’t be in control of how we want the picture to turn out. Though we do get some basic controls like exposure or lock focus, that’s definitely not sufficient to bring the best out of your image. Hence we need to learn to use the Professional(Pro) mode or the manual mode.

In order to use the manual mode, it’s important to understand certain terms in it. These are the most basic controls you need to know and these are available in almost all the smartphones all the way till the most sophisticated Cameras.

Let us now discuss those terms.

1. ISO: This refines the sensitivity of the camera’s image sensor. ISO or ISO Speed can range from 100 all the way up to 6000 depending on the camera. The more the ISO number, the brighter is the image. So it is recommended to increase it only if necessary.

2. SHUTTER SPEED: Simply saying , it is the amount of time the camera shutter is open to allow the light to pass through the sensor. It directly affects the brightness of an image and also helps freeze or blur the motion of an image when necessary.

3: EXPOSURE: Amount of light that is captured is the exposure. While clicking a picture u can pretty much adjust the exposure and make your image look good and well lit. I’ll give u a in-depth information on this soon. 

4.AUTO/MANUAL FOCUS: As the name itself says, it sets the focus on the subject in the image. If the camera itself sets the focus then it is Autofocus. If the Photographer sets the focus manually then it is Manual Focus.

5.APERTURE: Aperture is a hole in the camera lens through which the light passes and hits the sensor. Aperture affects the Exposure and Depth of field of an image. This is also called the ‘f’ number. Bigger the aperture, more the light that passes through the lens and vice-versa.

I have also explained these in the youtube video linked below. I shall make another video explaining all these topics in-depth. It is Sriraksha here and I Thank you for reading this article.