Capturing that perfect digital image using your DSLR camera can be tricky. You make use of the auto settings with confidence that your image will come out perfect. What you find is that the image you have captured is too dark, too blurry, and just not right. Did you ever think of using your camera’s manual settings? All it takes is a little knowledge and some practice.

Experimenting with your camera’s manual settings is how you become the master of your camera and producer of beautiful images. But before we start practicing one needs to gain a little knowledge. Let's start off with a look at each of the 3 main manual settings on your digital camera.

All DSLR cameras contains 3 manual settings (ISO, Aperture, & Shutter Speed) that will help you to create images that are crisp, clear, and properly exposed. These settings together is also known as the exposure triangle. Each setting impacts images in various ways.

The first one we will discuss is ISO. ISO is a measurement of your cameras sensitivity to light with lower numbers indicating less sensitivity and high numbers more sensitivity. Another way to look at ISO is the amount of light needed by your camera in order to achieve the correct exposure for a certain lighting condition.

The next setting to discuss is aperture. The aperture is a small set of blades located in the lens of the camera that controls the amount of light that enters the camera’s image sensor. To put it simply, aperture is a hole in the lens that light travels through. On a DSLR camera, aperture is expressed in numbers known as f-stops and is used to determine depth of field or the area of an image that will be in focus.

On to the last manual setting, shutter speed. The shutter is a small curtain that rolls in front of your camera’s image sensor allowing light to shine in. Shutter speed determines the amount of time that the shutter will remain open and the length of time the image sensor is exposed to the scene you are capturing. The end goal is to capture or show movement

Now that you are more familiar with each setting, let's put it all together starting with step 1 setting the ISO

Step 2 is choosing what is more important to you, motion or depth of field.

If motion, set the shutter speed and choose the aperture until the exposure level indicator reaches zero.

If depth of field, set the aperture and choose the shutter speed until the exposure level indicator reaches zero.

Before snapping that photo be sure to follow step 3. Review image and correct as necessary making changes to settings until exposure level indicator hits zero.

Now get out there and become masters of DSLR manual mode!