Cameras come in many forms and many types, but no matter whether the camera is costly or inexpensive, uses film or digital sensors, has one lens or can use many lenses, all cameras have the same basic characteristics.

Photography is all about light.

Controlling how much light gets into the camera and how it gets there is one of the most important parts of learning photography.

Getting the correct exposure for a given scene is important for the highest quality photographs, but that’s only part of the story, as exposure is also a creative tool, allowing you to make your pictures look the way you want them to.

It’s likely that your camera came with a zoom lens. Often called a “kit” lens, it’s a great starter lens, allowing you to do a variety of things with a fairly wide variety of subjects.

There are, however, other lenses out there for your camera that can expand your range of things that you can do. Other zooms and single-focal-length lenses (often called “prime” lenses) are tools that you may want to add to your photographic arsenal as you progress towards mastery of the medium.

Composition is the art of arranging the elements in the frame so they make sense to the viewer and the photograph can be understood.

A good composition in a photograph is the best way of describing that subject in that situation.

The basics of composition only take a few minutes to learn but they can take a lifetime to master.