Basic photography requires a minimum understanding of how your camera works.
Mastering photography involves more than simply pointing the camera and clicking away. The objectives of a basic photography course should cover various aspects of photography, the most important of which are aperture (depth of field), shutter speed, exposure compensation, histogram levels and digital sensitivity.
Aperture
A large aperture is suited to this photo as less of the subject is in focus.
Understanding aperture is key to learning how photography works. A large aperture (characterized by a "small" number such as f2.8 or f4) means less of the subject is in focus. In other words, if you focused on a dog's nose, its eyes and the rest of its face would be out of focus. With a narrow aperture (characterized by a "big" number such as f8 or f22), focusing on the dog's nose would cause most of its face to remain in focus. A large aperture is usually for portrait or macro photography while a narrow aperture is better for architectural and landscape photography.
Shutter Speed
Whether a photo is in focus is crucial to its success. A potentially brilliant image that's blurred is wasted but an average one that's in sharp focus is usable. This comes down to shutter speed. A fast speed (for instance 1/1000th of a second) means there's more chance of a photo being in focus, while a slow speed (1/60th of a second) increases the chances of blurriness. Poor lighting and a narrow aperture will slow the shutter speed, which means that to take a focused image you need to switch to a larger aperture (such as f4), increase speed or use a tripod.
ISO Sensitivity
The International Organization for Standardization sets the international standard for film (or digital) sensitivity. Photographing outside when it's sunny usually requires an ISO of 100, which means the resulting photo will be smooth and won't contain much grain or noise. However, taking photos in poor light forces you to increase the ISO to 200, 400 or higher, which introduces more noise and negatively affects quality. The only way around this is to use a tripod or beanbag on which to rest your camera, or to use a high-powered attachable flash, which will allow you to shoot at a low ISO.
Exposure Compensation
If a photo is too dark, it is considered underexposed; if it's too light, it's overexposed. The trick is to master the perfect exposure. A photo perfectly exposed has neither too many dark areas nor too many "burnt" hot spots and overall has balanced lighting. The histogram on most digital cameras gives you a good idea of whether your photo has an incorrect exposure. Peaks so prominent they disappear over the top of the histogram indicate a hot spot while too much flatness in a graph indicates excessive underexposure.
