Understanding Aperture, Depth of Field and ISO

DSLR cameras are complex.  There are loads of settings that can be fiddled with to get the perfect shot.  They have very good automatic modes, but you need to know how to use the manual settings for particular types of shot as the camera can't always guess what you're after.

There are three main settings to get used to: F-stop, ISO and Shutter Speed.  There are loads of resources on the web that describe the relationship between these settings.  I found the following videos really useful to understand them (there is no video specifically about shutter speed here, but it is covered within these videos):
A guide to F-stop
A guide to ISO
A guide to depth of field

I decided that the best approach was to stick the camera on manual mode and experiment with the settings to get used them.  I sat and did this when I got a bit of spare time and didn't care about whether I wanted to keep the shots, so the pressure was off!

I recommend you do the same.  About an hour of experimenting later and I have a much better understanding of what settings give good results, so I don't have to hunt so much for settings when taking a shot.

I'll post some pictures later so you get an idea of what I did.