If you've ever used a basic camera before, you know that all you really need to do is aim the camera, push the button and you've got your picture.
But have you ever thought how that all happens? Unfortunately, many people never stop to understand the intricate way in which a camera actually works - knowing why and how your camera does what it does can make your photos stronger and increase your ability to adapt to changing situations.
With that in mind, here's a quick rundown on what's going on in the case of your camera.
The Guts of the Camera Camera technology hasn't changed a lot over the years considering that all cameras are lightproof boxes that control the amount of light and timing of a piece of film's (or digital sensor's) exposure to light.
Most cameras nowadays are what is called "single-lens reflex," or SLR for short.
This simply means that they have one primary lens and some sort of mirror system that gets the actual lens image to our eye.
A camera lens actually sees things upside down so in order for our eyes to see it right side up the image is reflected by a mirror into a prism.
The benefits of looking directly through the lens as opposed to a representation of what it would be (seen in many digital cameras) means that your photographs will always come out almost exactly as they looked when you framed them up.
Behind the shutter there is one frame of film (or light sensitive cells) waiting to be exposed - when you push the "take picture" button the shutter lifts for a fraction of a second and the image hits the film instead of bouncing into the mirror.
It's worth noting that new digital SLRs actually work in the exact same way, except instead of film being exposed it's an array of light sensitive cells.
Making Adjustments to Your Camera Naturally, one size does not fit all in terms of how long the shutter stays open.
If the shutter is open for too long it will over-expose the film, and if it's not open long enough the film will be under-exposed.
This is why your camera either allows you to adjust the shutter speed manually, or will figure out what the appropriate speed is automatically.
If you want to let in more or less light into the camera, all you have to do is change the camera's aperture settings.
Around the lens of an SLR camera, you'll find a ring with a bunch of f stop numbers listed.
These f stop numbers represent the size of the aperture opening.
A high number denotes a small opening and very little light, whereas a low number means the aperture is wide-open and will allow more light to hit the film.
With so many different parts working together it's easy to see how complex the art of photography can be.
Thank goodness that most cameras do the calculations for us, but being able to manually adjust the f stop and shutter speed is an important foundation for any serious photographer.
Understanding how your camera's parts interact with one another gives you more options for controlling the final image, and more options are almost always a good thing.
Try to always have at least one roll of film (or a part of a memory card) to have available so you can experiment with the individual settings on your camera.
You should shoot a bunch of pictures just working with various shutter speeds, then try a few only adjusting the f-stop.
As you get more comfortable with how your camera works, you'll be able to create better pictures by being able to adjust your camera to get exactly what you want.