It is very important for seasoned as well as new amateur photographers to review the basics of photography every now and then. If you are new to photography then you must learn the basics before you start taking pictures. Taking pictures is different than being a photographer. Knowing a few things about photography will help you take great pictures of the important things in your life and maintain those memories for ever. The thing is that everyone can take a picture, but in most cases the photograph will not always be good. If you know a few things about photography then chances are that most pictures you take will be good in quality. Photography is not rocket science, it is a simple process that you can follow and have guaranteed results. The cornerstone of a good photograph is a good camera. Even though a camera might appear to be a complicated mechanism it really is not. The basics of understanding any kind of camera, whether it is a film camera or a digital camera are two things. The two basic things you need to know to operate a camera are the aperture and the shutter speed. Aperture is a term used to describe how wide your camera lens opens when you take a picture. The wider it opens the more light comes in. Shutter speed refers to how fast the shutters will open and close to let the light in. So in other words the most important terms in photography are speed and distance. The speed the shutter opens and how much it does so. Shutter speed makes a huge difference when taking photographs of moving objects and so does aperture.

For getting a shot of a fast moving event or object you want a wide aperture to let in a lot of light but a short shutter speed so you capture the event quickly and close the window so the picture is caught before more light hurts the quality. Think about it, a photograph is a recording of the light reflecting off the object you want to capture. You can and will get the hang of things soon enough. There are many ways to play with and control the light. You can do so with your lenses or a flash or a backlight. There are many ways to control a shot and get different results every time. The skills will have to come with experience as long as you, the new photographer are willing to continue to learn. You can obtain greater control over the basic controls of the camera, aperture and shutter speed by learning how to switch from automatic settings to manual settings. Once you do that you should practice taking photographs in the day time and at night with artificial light. That way you will, through trial and error gain the necessary experience. That's why digital cameras are very good for practicing photography; you don't need to spend any money developing your photographs. You can even get a cheap digital camera with the basic settings and practice your photography technique.