Now you will be getting into really being able to control your camera. Without knowing how to use these tools, it is difficult to have more control over your photography than putting it in auto mode. Keep in mind, at first, you will absolutely, positively get frustrated that you are having a hard time taking a simple picture that you could have easily taken on auto mode before. Be patient. After you get over that (brief) hump, you will realize how much control you have and will most likely not put your camera back in auto mode very often any more.

The first part, we have already talked about briefly when going over the rule of thirds. FOCAL POINTS are going to be used every time you pick up your camera from now on because you will most likely not be content with letting the camera choose for you any more.

The 3 things you will go over are ISO, APERTURE PRIORITY, and SHUTTER PRIORITY. Using a combination of these three things will allow you to have an extreme amount of control over your photography. It will be very rewarding to see what you are able to accomplish with just knowing how to use these three things - and it is a huge stepping stone to understand how MANUAL mode works.

After the exercises in those three tools, we move into MANUAL mode. Be patient as you work on this part of the course. It can be very confusing the first time through because it seems to be a lot of moving parts, but there has been a build up to it, so you will be fine. Just take your time.

Then we will get into USING YOUR METER and how it works. This is important so as to fine-tune your exposure. Sometimes you may want to have your image a little over- or under-exposed for some reason and this exercise will teach you how to achieve this goal.

To wrap up this section, we will go over how to use the manual mode to achieve the PROPER EXPOSURE by making decisions on Aperture and Shutter Speed.

With all of these exercises complete, you should have a solid understanding of how these modes work. Remember, just like anything else - you will get out of this course what you put into it. These exercises were designed for you to be able to keep practicing and figuring out how these modes and tools all work.