Hi folks,

I am back from my wanderings in the digital wilderness. I was on the forum some months ago, hoping to have someone magically find the right camera for me, but to no avail, i had to go off and do my own leg work (thanks for the suggestions though...)

I am setting up my own aerial digital photography business for archaeology in Ireland. i spent 2 months tracking down the right laptop computer (now I know too much about computers) and the next 2 months following learning about digital cameras, I learnt a lot, but not as much as about laptops.

I will be flying to the UK to test my equipment on 2'nd of June and have been under massive pressure to keep on schedule.
Schedule since December:-
1. Full time start your own business/business appraisal training program.
2. Study for Excavation Licence Interview with the State (serious questions on legislation, archaeology, policy, techniques, public relations...)
3. Learning to use excel.
4. Write and submit a business plan, to bank loan standards.
5. Adobe Photoshop CS8 (a friend is attending an evening class 2 nights per week, I am copying his notes and doing the lessons in my own time.)
6. Organising/cajoling/downright hassling friends and family to get the equipment built for the aerial photography.....
7. Sourcing equipment for construction, suppliers and marketing the product.
8. Practicing with my Sony DSC V3, after all, if I can't use it, all the rest is for nothing!

Now to the crunch. Can you fill in the gaps in my digital education? I just can't do any more study than I already am. So I am looking at new ways to let my battered brain take in info! Typing into the forum is a thankful rest from reading books....

OK summary of what the v3 needs to do for me
* Shoot brownfield sites from 20-50m above (that means earth/soil tones)
* Shoot in mixed lighting conditions (but no night shots)
* I will be using a remote control rig, so camera will have to be set, let up, then hauled back in if I need to change the settings.
* Shoot to publication standard at A4 (shouldn't be a problem
* Will probably be shooting in jpeg, due to the timelag for tiff/raw and limited quality difference (unless you can convince me.... ;)
* Not end up taking crap, grainy, auto shots at F8.

Next on my agenda is my confusion, plenty of that...
Can anyone give me an idiots guide to the various aspects of digital photography? There seem so many parts, I will list my questions

1 What do the different ISO's do?
2 Ditto aperture?
3 Shutter speed?
4 EV?
5 How to get any sense out of raw, sony imaging software is limited, do i have a function in Photoshop CS8, that i don't know about?
6 Due to the fact that my equipment will be wind buffeted, what should i be aiming for to get the best pictures? Shutter speed, aperture, iso?

Most of the above I kind of understand, but don't understand how they go together. I would think that best pictures would be taken for me on ISO 100, with high shutter speed and largest aperture, but please explain it to me, I think I might be missing the point...

If anyone actually makes it to the bottom of this encyclopedia, without falling asleep. congratulations!

Nik B