The Components of a Digital Camera

Now let’s spend some time going over the camera parts. First and most importantly is the
lens. One of the keys to understanding photography is to think of the lens as an extension
of your eyes. For the mechanics are indeed based on how our eyes work. What regulates
the amount of light entering our eyes it’s what’s known as the iris? This corresponds to
what is called the aperture in the lens. When we go out to the sunlight or enter a brightly
lit room the iris shrinks. It shrinks down to lessen the amount of light entering our eyes
and not flood our senses. When we go into let’s say a dimly-lit restaurant or a theater they
open up wide to allow more light in so we can pick out the details. The camera lens
works in the same way. The electronic sensors behind the lens registered the amount of
light available for the picture. And the shutter between the lens and the receptors opens
for a fraction of a second according to how wide the aperture is open.

On the more professional cameras, one has the option for varying this function known as
exposure. This allows you an example of putting the background out of focus when
shooting portraits or having everything sharp and then focused when shooting landscapes.
For more in-depth understanding of this, explanations will be offered in our DVD for the
more advanced photographer. But for the beginners rest easy for their simple controls and
even the most inexpensive point and shoot cameras which will allow you some creativity
when photographing. We’ll go into this in the next chapter.