We’ve established that it’s not the camera that takes good pictures - it’s you. Now we’re moving on to helping you make the most of your camera. That’s why we’re going to the basics: how cameras work.

Yup, if we want to take better pictures, knowing our tools - and how they work - is an important step. Even with all the automatic settings modern cameras have, knowing the principles behind these features helps us make better use of them.

A camera, in its simplest form, is hollow container with an opening on one end, a device to cover that opening, and a light-sensitive recording surface on the other end. When the covering is removed, light goes through the opening and reaches the recording surface - and et voila, you have a photograph.

Pinhole cameras are perfect examples of this. With no moving parts, they’re the simplest cameras around. That doesn’t keep them from taking amazing photgraphs though. You don’t believe me? Check out this group on Flickr! Yes, you can make these cameras at home if you want. If you want, you can convert your DSLR into a pinhole camera, albeit a pretty sophisticated one. Heck, if you’re really in a DIY mood, you can make a whole pinhole camera out of Lego.

We’re getting sidetracked though - we’re supposed to discuss how a camera works. Well, we’ve already pretty much covered the parts of the camera:

1. the opening, or aperture;
2. the device to cover that hole, also known as the shutter; and
3. the recording surface, usually film, or in digital cameras, a CCD or CMOS sensor.

All three of these parts combine to allow you, the photographer, to take a picture. How do they work together?

1. the aperture determines the amount of light that enters, among other things;
2. the shutter determines the amount of time that light reaches the sensor; and
3. the recording surface captures the image.

This gives us three parts - and consequently, three variables. These variables are

1. aperture size, sometimes known as the f-number or f-stop;
2. shutter speed, and
3. film speed, or in the case of digital photography, the sensitivity of the image sensor.

We’ll be tackling these, as well as their interplay, in upcoming photography.101 posts.

Yes, there are other parts. How, you might ask, could I forget about lenses? That puts other variables into play - focal length, lens speed, and barrel distortion, among others. There are others, of course, but we’ll be saving those for another day.

_{Image by Bob Mellish for Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License}

Tags: drivebyshooter, photography 101, photography basics, pinhole camera, camera parts, Digital pinhole, Lego camera, Northlight Images, Found Photography, Bob Mellish