Guest Post- Kylie from LL&P

Hello lovely readers! I'm Kylie and I blog over at Living Loving & Photographing... also known as LL&P.  Today I'm going to give you the low down on the aperture and shutter speed.  They are very simple concepts, but they can be tricky to implement while shooting. Keep in mind that although most camera brands implement the same concepts, the numbering system is a bit different between them - and I shoot with a Nikon.  Let's start with shutter speed.

Things to remember:

1.  Shutter speed is measured in seconds (mostly fractions of seconds).

2.  Slow (or low) shutter speeds cause motion to blur.

3.  Fast (or high) shutter speeds cause motion to freeze.

4.  Slow shutter speeds are fun to play with if you have a tri-pod.  If the camera shakes during a slow shutter speed, the effects will not be great. 

5.  Fast shutter speeds are great for sports or taking photographs of kiddos on the move. 

Got it?  Let's move onto aperture...this one get's a bit more tricky. 

Things to remember: 

1.  Aperture is measured in "f-stops" (note the "f" before the number).

2.  The higher the f-stop, the lower the aperture and the less light that is able to pass through. (In other words, the higher the f-stop, the darker your photograph will turn out.)

3.  The lower the f-stop, the higher the aperture and the more light that is able to pass through. (In other words, the lower the f-stop, the brighter your photograph will turn out.)

4.  Aperture changes depth of field (the things that are in focus and out of focus within your photograph).

-The higher the f-stop, the more the depth of field increases. (In other words, more things in your photograph will be in focus.)

-The lower the f-stop, the more the depth of field decreases. (In other words, more things in your photograph will be out of focus or blurry.)

Whoa, that was a ton of information to take in.  I hope I didn't confuse you! These simple concepts need to be put into practice and studied very much in order to successfully use manual modes on your DSLR. 

Hope this helps! :)