Here's a little dictionary of photography terms. Memorize these!!!! I recommend copying and pasting the following info to a word document and printing it out. Stick it in your camera bag for a quick reference when you're out in the field.
Aperture: The whole through which light enters the camera.
Depth of Field: How much is in focus.
F/Stops: The size of the aperture. f/2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. Remember these are all fractions so the larger the number the smaller the opening. Each progressive number represents 1 stop. As you move between stops, you are either doubling the light, or decreasing the light by half, depending on which way you are moving on the scale.
ie: f/2.8 is 1/2 the size of the entire lens and f/22 is 1/22 the size of the entire lens. When the aperture is wide open, 2.8 (or 1.4 if your lucky), light can enter from many directions so it has shallow depth of field, because of the many angles it enters the camera. When the lens is set at f/22, the opening is small, light enters only straight on and everything is in focus.
Who Cares? You do because the first artistic choice you will make is deciding what you want the focus of the image to be on. Do you want the viewer to notice one thing first, (shallow depth of field) or see everything at once (large depth of field).
Shutter Speed: The speed of the shutter, how quickly the shutter opens and closes. 1", 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000. Remember that these too are fractions, 1"= 1 second, 2 = 1/2 second, 4 = 1/4 second etc. so the lower the number, the slower the speed.
Who Cares? You do because, if your subject is moving, you need to decide if you want it in sharp (stopping the action) or blurry (showing movement).
ie: If you are photographing a car driving at a high speed, and you set the shutter speed at 2 (1/2 second), you will get a blurry car. If you set it at 500 your car will be sharp. You can also try panning, which is setting your shutter at a slow speed, maybe 1/15 and follow the car with your camera as you are pressing the shutter. The result is that the background is blurry and, if you're lucky, the car will be sharp.
ISO* or Film Speed: The sensitivity of the camera to light. 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400. Most cameras show you numbers in between these, those are either 1/2 or 1/3 stops, that's why you have to memorize all these numbers. If you want to know how to get one more full stop of light, you need to know which number to switch to. The same goes for f/stops and shutter speeds too.
Who Cares? You do because you will need to vary the ISO depending on the lighting situation of each image you take. If you are outside on a bright sunny day, you can set your camera on ISO 100 or 200. Inside at night you will need to increase it to ISO 800, 1600 or higher. (No fractions here). The higher the number, the larger the pixels are. The larger the pixels, the more light they can "see". The trade off is that, the higher you go (the darker the lighting situation) the more you notice the pixels (noise).
*ISO doesn't stand for anything. "ISO" is a word that represents the International Organization for Standardization. This organization is based in Switzerland and they set a lot of international standards, including the measurement system for film sensitivity (which translates to digital photography). The International Organization for Standardization uses the word "ISO" not because it's an acronym (that would be "IOS"), but because it comes from the Greek word "isos" meaning "equal."
Exposure compensation - (+/- button) Overriding the cameras exposure settings to add more or less light to an exposure.
Who Cares? You do, because if you are photographing something that is primarily black, your camera will try and make the scene middle gray. By overriding the exposure that the camera thinks is best, and under exposing the scene, you will get a darker, more true exposure. Remember that the camera is trying to balance the light in every scene to be middle gray. The same goes for photographing something primarily white. Have you ever photographed a beautiful white snowman only to have it come out looking gray? That's because you set the camera's meter at it's "happy place", right in the middle for the "perfect" exposure. Perfect if you like gray snowmen. What you should do is use that cute little button with the +/- and over expose the image by a stop or two and the snowman will be magically transformed into the perfect white.
CAMERA SETTINGS
Auto - The "cheaty" mode. The camera choses ISO, f/stop, shutter speed. You just point and push the button.
P - You choose the ISO and it chooses everything else.
M - My personal favorite, you pick everything.
A - Aperture priority. You choose the f/stop and ISO, it chooses the shutter speed. If the shutter speed blinks, it means there's not enough or too much light and you need to adjust your ISO accordingly.
S - Shutter priority. You choose the shutter speed and the ISO and it chooses the aperture. If the aperture blinks, see above.
There are lots of other little icons on the consumer cameras but you'll have to refer to your manual for them. I'd rather you use the options above to give you the most control over your images. Although there is no shame in sticking your camera in Auto mode if there is a fabulous shot (an eagle flying over a lake perhaps) and you need to get it quickly before it flies away.
WHITE BALANCE
These mysterious little icons buried somewhere in your camera's menu are very important. Since your camera sees light as color waves, you have to chose the right setting otherwise it will look like your child took some watercolor paint to your photographs. Light is measure in "K", or Kelvin. Typically there is a range of 2500 - 10,000 degrees. The higher the number the warmer the light, the lower the number, the bluer the light.
Settings (May vary slightly between camera manufacturers)
This chart shows the different types of light and what temperature they burn at. It's very useful if you decide to use your white balance setting on manual. Sometimes the icons just don't get it quite right.
*Above charts borrowed from http://www.slrlounge.com/tutorial-understanding-white-balance-color-temperatures-in-8-simple-steps
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