Many people who begin their journey down the path of learning more about photography often start looking at photos taken by others and, more often than not, someone will ask, “what settings did you use?”  It’s a fair question, but it’s a fairly limiting one because, you see, there are many “right settings” that the photographer could have used, but for any given photo, only one was selected, and in some cases, the “right setting” wasn’t used for a particular reason!  Have I confused you yet?  Good, because the answer to that question is, “it doesn’t matter!”  Really.

Unless it was a controlled, consistent environment, shot at approximately the same time of day, in the same time of year, in the same type of weather, and for the same composition, those settings may no longer be valid.  To put it simply, all those settings do is tell your camera how to record the light that is available in the place that you’re aiming at.  Depending on the selected settings, you, the photographer, can influence how that light is recorded, and use it to communicate your message.

As you can probably already figure out, even if you went out to the very spot where a great photo was taken, the lighting conditions could be wildly different.  And when you get there, you may decide to tell a different story.

The bottom line is: don’t rely on other photos, or other photographers’ “right settings” to get you great images.  Know your camera and know what you want your photo to say.  These two things will tell you what the “right setting” is to use.

Teaching you how to figuring out the “right setting for what you want your photo to say” is what this site is about, so if you need help with that, stick around, and I’ll try to cover those topics.  Until then, I suggest you read Bryan Peterson’s book, Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film Or Digital Camera.  For under 20 bucks, it’s an easy read that will help you get beyond, “what settings did you use?”