A Guide to the Basics of Photography in 10 Minutes

When you are new to photography, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to learn all the technical parameters, their relationships, and their consequences on your photos. This excellent video will get you on your way to better understanding them and taking more control of your images.

Coming to you from David Manning, this great video will show you the basic ins and outs of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, collectively known as the exposure triangle. These are the three most fundamental parameters any photographer should have mastered. Not only do they control the creation of a proper exposure, they also control the majority of the overall appearance of an image. Thus, their mastery is not only about technical aptitude, but learning to take creative control of your images and beginning to move past snapshots into carefully crafted photos. The most important thing to remember is that these three parameters sum to the overall exposure; thus, if you change one of them, you must compensate with an equal shift in one of the other two (or a combination thereof) to maintain the same exposure. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Manning.

And if you want to continue on your photography journey, check out "Photography 101: How to Use Your Digital Camera and Edit Photos in Photoshop With Lee Morris!"

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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5 Comments

This video: "It's weird: the smaller the number, the bigger the hole; the larger the number the smaller the hole"
Also this video: "There's this weird f/number thing, don't worry about it. It's confusing math."

It's a fraction. It isn't hard or weird. It's literally why the "smaller" number provides a larger whole: because 1/3 is actually a larger number than 1/4. It isn't actually smaller. Fractions are grade school. We can take it.

This is great! I'm just starting and this vid give a ton of info! Thanks!

And control of the light.
If you can, bring more light, so you can use low iso, low f number, high shutter speed or use nd filter in bright light so you can use low shutter, low iso, low f number
Light is the 4th control...i think😇

well i think the 1st thing he brings out about ISO is not true that high iso cause noisy and grainy pictures....check out this Tony Northrup takes on ISO thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jkf31w7fwU

In defense of David Manning's video: I can just see the experts rolling their eyes, but this wasn't made for them. This video helped an absolute beginner like me to begin to grasp the concepts when I found it last year.
I confess, I am not an impartial judge: I have since subscribed to his channel because I enjoy his light tone and humor.