So, you have just bought a new camera and you want to get more out of it than just shooting in P (program) mode.

The best place to start is in A (aperture priority) mode, (AV) on Canon cameras.

When I was first interested in photography there was no aperture priority mode or any of the other modes for that matter, you had to set your lenses opening (aperture), shutter speed, and focus manually, ISO/ASA was set by the film you put in your camera.

So the next time you go out and shoot, set your ISO for the lowest setting, set your shooting mode to A and get out and practice moving your f/stop around and experimenting with the results of changing the lens opening discovering the different results you get from doing so. That’s the thing that is nice about digital, you can always erase the results you don’t like.

Above shot is an example of using Aperture Priority mode to slow the shutter speed to the point of blurring the moving water.