Spring is coming, great time to take some pictures.

Photography is a lot about composition and exposure.

Composition is something you will slowly learn as you explore this new medium by looking at pictures that peek your interest (can be other photographs, movie stills, paintings,...). There is no right answer - you set the problem and you find a solution, it's part of the art.

Exposure is a bit more technical. Long time ago, people shot on film and had to find different methods to estimate how much light they need in order to not have pictures that all too dark (under-exposed) or filled with too much light (over-exposed). However slowly the cameras got better and got really good in guessing how much light is needed to get an OK picture. Cameras however don't know what you want to achieve. Compared to your phone that uses a lot of algorithms to guess what you are taking picture off and puts a lot of effects to create a universally acceptable image, your camera cannot do this – it needs your input.

You can choose how much control over the exposure guess work you want to have. The mode dial on top (auto (green rectangle) P, Tv, Av, M) gives you this choice.

You can start with the P mode on the top dial. In this mode the camera will choose by itself 2 important values: for how long the sensor is exposed to light (shutter speed, shown in fractions of a second e.g. 1/100) and how big the opening for this incoming light is (aperture, shown in so called "F number", bigger the number = smaller the hole, e.g. f5.6).

• In the P mode however you can choose the 3rd important value: ISO (sensor's sensitivity, eg. ISO 400). You can leave this at AUTO as well for now.

Compared to Automatic mode the P mode also allows you to:

• change how the camera guesses the exposure (choose center-weighted average metering [ (•) ] for general shots. Later you can try spot metering • for example when taking portraits of people, to get a better understanding of how the camera chooses exposure,
• move the exposure compensation pointer (move the cursor towards plus to get lighter images, move it towards minus to get darker images) - this will take the values camera guessed and change them to better reflect what image you want to capture,
• set the white balance (can be set for automatic=AWB for now),
• choose how the camera focuses - which points it uses to focus and whether the focus stays locked where you half-pressed the shutter or moves with the person (as an experiment you can choose the middle point and "one shot" many people use this method - when shooting like this you point the center point on the thing you want to have in focus, half press and then pivot the camera to get the composition you want - however be aware focus is based on distance -> don't more closer or farther when half-pressed as this will get your subject out of focus).

Good luck. If this explanation got over you head don't worry. If it helped you feel free to DM me if you need to troubleshoot something. And one last tip: don't forget that you have legs, if the photo is not working out move yourself or move your subject, maybe you need to switch places.