Playing around with aperature and shutter speed

So, my darling SIL forwarded me this great little tutorial on practicing with an SLR camera in manual mode.http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/blog/index.php/2010/06/23/focus-on-photos-shooting-on-manual-a-brief-look-at-aperture/. So, I went outside while the kids were swimming and tried a couple of her suggestions. First off, I won't even pretend to act like I know even a smidgen about camera's. Let alone my new Nikon D5000. But I'm learning [slowly!] about a few of the features and how to get a semi decent picture. The way I understand it is Aperature, Shutter Speed, and ISO all have to do with the amount of light your camera lets in. If they are out of sinc with eachother your photo will be over-exposed, under-exposed, blurry or focused and everything in between.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but the way my tiny brain has comprehended Aperature, or f -stop, is it controls the amount of focus you want in your photo. The lower the number the less focus. So, If you want to focus on only one thing in your photo you would use a smaller aperature number. If you want the whole scene to be in focus you would use the highest aperature.

I these first few pictures I used a 4.5 aperature. The lowest number I can get with this particular lens. I wanted only my children to be the focus.

Now lets talk about Shutter Speed. The way my funky brain comprehends this one, is it controls the amount of movement in the photo. The faster the movement the higher the shutter speed number. The slower the movement the lower the number. For instance, if a herd of horses was galloping by and you wanted them all to be in focus with no action blur you would set your shutter speed number high. For a still life photo the shutter speed number would be low. I also found out today that it also does some adjusting with how light or dark your photos are. I will get into that another time, though.

If you can see it, the photo's above were a little lighter and maybe a tad less focused. Here were the settings for those Aperature 4.5

Shutter 1250

ISO 500

These next pics' settings are Aperature 4.5

Shutter 1600

ISO 500

So, I only adjusted the shutter speed [tips from the tutorial!] and I think they had a little more depth to them. I also love that the shutter speed captured the water in mid air!

I hope that I'm not totally off about the way my brain comprehends all of this. I think I automatically look for easy ways to learn things that tend to boggle my brain! I hope this helps some of you and I will be adding more as I learn!

Have a great day everyone!

~Cheech