Where to learn the "Technicalities"

I've only been on the forums a short period of time and already learned a great deal. My goal is good photos, much like everyone else, but being an engineer by training, I'm a bit twisted in the way I learn, conceptualize and understand things, and I feel like knowing the technical ins and outs about the settings and their effects on one another, will really help me understand why I'm changing what setting and achieve my goal. Rather than knowing a few small concepts and playing the "guess and check" game.

A few posts caught my attention that got me to thinking about this. The post about Rebels tracking a subject properly and someone talked about calculating the "Focal Plane" of the shot. UNDERSTANDING what is happening, and knowing how to do that calculation would be very useful! People always talk about ISO values with relation to shutter speed. I don't even know what "ISO" stands for. I see that the lower I set my ISO and make adjustments to shutter speed and aperture to get an exposure of "0" (maybe exposure isn't even the right word), the lower the iso, the lower the noise. I also notice that the lower the ISO, the slower I have to set my shutter speed. Great, now WHY? And as I typed this, a light bulb just went off and I remembered that the ISO setting is old school for film speed, but all I remember from back then, is if you want to shoot sports, use faster film, and set the aperture and shutter so the green dot shows up before you shoot (hey, I was 12 years old it was all I needed)...

Is there a good book, or even thread on here, that explains this stuff in somewhat technical detail, without being a lesson in optics? I guess I want some thing that falls between an instruction manual and a text book. I would like to get a grasp on basic calculations and numbers that might require a slight effort, but don't require a scientific calculator. I want to know how to manage my depth of field etc.

It will probably prevent me from creating a bunch of different posts that can be answered by the same link or book, and will also save me the time of deleting all the terrible pictures I caused. Not to mention, I already want to replace my kit lens, and knowing these things will ensure I choose a lens that really suits my needs.

I can't imagine being a REAL photographer back in the film days where you have to wait a week to see how your pictures turned out! How did you remember what you even did for the good pictures!?

We took copious notes, just like Galileo.

For camera operation, go over to canon's camera museum site and look for their white papers and technical notes.

There are a lot of places that google can take you for other aspects, but Wikipedia is a good place to start. Also, google for Doug Kerr's excellent technical articles on his "pumpkin" website. Actually, find Kerr's "pumpkin" first.

What you are really looking for is Basic Photography 101. Look for a book that offers this.

Start Here... Ben's newbie guide can help place you on the right path for what you are looking for. And definitely read the manual. That too will get you and the camera on the same footing.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=414088

Possible books that might help you can check out this area of the forums..

https://photography-on-the.net …um/showthread.p​hp?t=53846

Techniques..

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=458053

Try "Petersen's Big Book of Photography, Petersen's Photographic Digital Photography Guide".

It's a thick magazine currently on news stands. It explains basic photographic concepts step by step with examples. I've found it to be reasonably priced, very interesting and useful even though I have other photographic books costing three and four times as much.

Maybe see if a local community college or camera club or something offers some basic classes in photography. That would be a great way to learn about the basics and much of what you described, while learning by a hands on method (this worked better for me than reading on the internet). Also gives you a chance to meet other people in your area that share the same interest as you and most teachers are usually willing to help you out even after you are done with that class.

The analogy I have worked with is comparing taking a photo with filling a bucket.

In our analogy, the amount of light available becomes water pressure; the aperture is the diameter of the pipe we are going to use; shutter speed is how long we are going to turn the tap on for; ISO (sensor sensitivity) is the size of the bucket.

Having made our choices, we make our 'test exposure'. If the bucket isn't full (underexposed) we need to either turn the tap on for longer, use a bigger pipe, or use a smaller bucket (effectively making it more sensitive to the volume of water being passed.) The converse applies if the bucket overflows (overexposed).

Once we have reached an equilibrium, providing the water pressure (available light) doesn't change, we can change one of our settings, providing we compensate by changing one or both of the other settings to ensure that the bucket is not over or under filled. So, if we want to turn the tap on for longer, we must use a smaller diameter pipe or a bigger bucket.

If the water pressure should change at some point (i.e. there is a change in available light), again we will have to change one of our settings to compensate, or we will end up with a bucket that is either over or under filled.

Hope that makes sense.