Learning how to leave Automatic Behind

      So you've got a camera; that's great. But what's that? You've left it in green box mode! Oh no, that will never do. No self respecting shutterbug would use the green box mode. You see, the green box means automatic, which means that you're letting the camera decide how it wants to take the picture. But the camera doesn't know whether you're  shooting a waterfall or a wedding or just naked pictures of yourself to put on craigslist. Do you really trust that tiny onboard computer to take a good picture?
      Of course not. Now, if you've got any sort of respectable camera, you've got a few different modes to choose from. While the names may change from brand to brand, the options you should have are an aperture mode, a shutter mode, and a manual mode. In aperture and shutter mode, you control one aspect of the image and allow the camera to decide the rest. In manual, you control everything. But that hardly tells you anything at all, does it? Well, allow me to explain.
         Taking a picture is a lot like using a sink. You can choose how long to run the tap(shutter speed), how much water comes out at once(aperture). But how do we use these things to fill our picture-cup?
         Let's start with shutter mode. Inside every camera is a sensor. There's also a little plate called a shutter, which opens and closes to let in light. By setting the shutter speed, you control how long the camera lets light in. As you raise the shutter speed your pictures will get sharper and sharper, but will also become darker. If you slow the shutter speed down, your pictures will be blurrier and brighter. I won't tell you what shutter speeds to use, but I will say this; if you take a picture with a shutter speed longer than 1/60 of a second, use a tripod. The human hand can't hold still for more that long.
         Aperture doesn't just control how much light pours into the camera; it controls depth as well. Now there's one thing you should know about how we talk about aperture. Low is high, and high is low. An aperture of 2.8 is high, and an aperture of 16 is considered low. Now that we've cleared that up, let's look at how aperture affects depth. High apertures let in a great big rush of light all at once. Because of this, what you've focused on will be sharp, but everything else will be blurry, because rather the camera threw all that information at the sensor at once. Lower apertures let in a little light at a time, and the camera can process the sights much more clearly. A low aperture is great for landscapes because it keeps a huge area in focus. The amount of stuff that your camera keeps in focus is called the depth of field.

      One last light-related setting on your camera is the ISO, or light sensitivity. If the camera's light sensitivity is low, you will take sharper pictures, but you'll be limited to shooting in brighter environments. The higher you set the ISO, the grainier your image will become, but you can take pictures in darker places. You might wonder why you wouldn't just use your camera's flash and always shoot with a low ISO. Well, on camera flashes are, in a word, crap. They give out harsh light with big blotchy shadows, and generally make things look miserable unless you've got a little more know-how.

I went to my kitchen to get a muffin, and figured that on my way I could show you what I meant. All these pictures were taken with the same ISO.

An automatic picture Note the harsh light and the glare on the wrapper.

A picture taken in shutter mode. Shutter priority pictures in dimly lit places will be dark unless you've cranked up the ISO.

Taken with a higher aperture. Notice the light is smoother, since we're only using the ambient.