Welcome,

I thought I would share some basics of Photography and DSLR cameras to make it easier for you to understand them.

Getting to know your DSLR camera is important as you need to know what certain things do and how they work, and what difference they make to your photography.

SLR cameras are different, but many features are the same, so you will get a solid ground from this series of posts.

Let’s start with controls on DSLR cameras.

Looking at the top of the camera first:

Here they are:

1 – Mode Dial – it offers many shooting modes, from fully auto to manual, to give you as much or as little control as you want.

NOTE: I will explain the Mode Dial in detail in the next lesson.

2 – Shutter Release – the button you will use most on your camera, used for autofocusing and metering when pressed halfway. It releases the shutter when fully pressed down.

3 – Aperture Dial – use this dial to change the aperture when using Aperture-Priority Mode and Manual Mode.

4 – Metering Mode/White Balance – change how the camera reads the light from the scene (Metering Mode) or set the White Balance to different shooting conditions – light sources (White Balance).

5 – On/Off Switch

6 – AF/Drive – set the auto-focus mode (Single, Servo) and Drive – Single shot, Continuous Mode, High-Speed Mode.

7 – ISO – this sets sensitivity of the sensor to light (more on that in future lesson).

8 – LCD Display.

9 – Hot-Shoe for external flash.

10 – Lens Release Button – press the button to remove the lens (by rotating).

You can download it as a PDF document and keep it or distribute it:

DSLR camera controls explained (480 kB).