photo lingo

[ShroomSJS]

Please teach me the different terms in photography. I just bought a Canon D10. It is not a SLR, just a point & shoot, but I love it! There is alot you can do under program mode. Please tell me what some of the different settings are or point me to a good site that can help me learn.

ISO (I know the higer # is used for fast action pics)
f2.8, f8, f4.9 (what is this??)
exposure time 1/640, 1/800, 1/500

My camera also has option for evaluative, center weighted average, and spot. What is this for?

[I Am Luna]

This is just a quick and simplistic detail as I can get:

ISO - How sensitive the sensor/film is to light. The lower then number, the less(or slower) sensitive it is to light. The higher the number, the more(or faster) it is sensitive to light. So...daytime, use ISO 100, inside a room 400, nighttime street 1600 or 3200 or 6400...you get the idea.
-if you want to shoot fast shutter speeds to stop motion, in daytime, use iso 400 with a small aperture( f/5.6 or f/8 )

F-Stop. This is the number of how big or small your aperture is or...how big or small the hole is inside your lens to allow light in. The lower the number(or faster) the bigger the hole is inside. The higher the number(or slower) the small the hole is. So at night, you'll want to use a big aperture or fast f-stop, like f/1.2 or f/1.4 or at max, f/2 so you can get lots of light into your sensor/film so the shot will expose correctly.

Exposure time. This is how quick the shutter is open allowing the light to fall on the sensor/film to expose the shot. 1/60 is probably the slowest you want to go hand held. 1/200 is usually the norm to stop motion.

A combination of the above three have a direction relation to exposure. Using them to get a certain shot. With a point and shoot, you really don't have to worry about this stuff because your camera is made to....point and shoot. Entry level dSLR and SLRs have all the power to let you modify each to get the shot you want.