In fact new to trying to take good pictures overall. I moved up from a point and shoot to a Digital (almost SLR). I bought a Sony HD 20.
Congratulations...digital should be able to accomplish everything you could with film P&S cameras, but with lots of ability to do more as you grow to learn the controls and functions.
What happens when you change the f-stop?
Quick and dirty is this: The F-stop, or Aperture, is the iris of the camera, restricting or opening to let more or less light in. Your camera likely has a range of F2.8 to F8 or 10...that's about normal for that type of camera. the numbers work contrary to what might seem intuitive, in that a wide open aperture that lets in the most light for when the scene is darker or you need more light, is the LOWER number, F2.8. The smallest aperture, typically used when there is plenty of light and you need to restrict it a bit, is the BIGGER number, or F8 (on a DSLR type camera, lenses will usually have a much wider aperture range, that can run from F1.2 to F24 or more...small sensor cameras like yours don't have as wide a range).
How do I work the camera to receive a depth of range picture?
The aperture also has an effect on your 'depth of field'...the more wide open the aperture goes (lower number), the 'shallower' the depth of field becomes. So if you want to take a photo of something close, and have the background be more blurred and out of focus, you need to use a very large aperture. If you want maximum depth of field, where everything is in focus at all ranges, you need to choose a smaller aperture. Remember though, when you go to smaller apertures, the depth of field will expand, but the sharpness overall can start to reduce because you are taking a photo of a scene through such a small opening, the light can only transmit a limited amount of detail through to the sensor.
Also, with a big-zoom camera, the zoom itself can help you create the shallower depth of field effect. The basic idea is: the farther you are from your subject, and zooming in close, and the farther that subject is from the background, the better. If you use your biggest aperture, and get some distance between your subject and the background, then back up yourself and zoom in to your subject, you can get a more exxagerated background blur. Small sensors are at a disadvantage here versus a DSLR because the smaller sensors naturally have a very large depth of field...great when you want landscapes and scenes with everything in focus, but challenging when you want to selectively shoot with some background blur.
I noticed that the ISO is on auto, but the F stop and something else change when I move the camera (see can't you tell that I have no idea?).
Sounds like you are using the 'green camera' mode. This is 'full auto', where the camera does all the work, and you cannot participate at all. My suggestion to you is to get to know the Program Auto mode, or P mode. It's usually right next to Auto mode on the dial, and functions almost identically in that the camera still chooses everything. BUT, with P mode you do have the option to make some changes on your own. You can change the ISO from auto to any manual setting, you can override the camera's shutter and aperture combination, you can change the white balance, change the focus mode, change the metering mode...it basically just gives you the option to change things if you want, or just stick with the camera's selections.
When you move the camera around the scene, it is using the metering points to pick up the light in the scene, and adjust shutter and aperture for a proper exposure. Typically, the shutter speed it will try to attain is somewhere in the vicinity of 1/125 second, and it will use the aperture needed to attain at least that speed. If it cannot with aperture alone, it will then go to the ISO setting, and raise that. However, there may be times when you know better than the camera - for example, you are putting the camera on a tripod and taking a nice slow shutter shot, so you don't need a high ISO or wide open aperture. The camera will meter the darker scene, and want to crank the aperture open and the ISO high...and the shot won't be very nice. So being able to manually override and tell the camera what you want is much nicer.
I strongly recommend to catch up on the very basics, try some camera instructionals online or some photo books. Once you get the basic ideas, you can also try some test shots of your own, by placing the camera on a level surface and taking the same shot multiple times, but changing one parameter each time (ie: take one photo each at every aperture stop). That will let you see visually exactly what each of those changes did to the photo.
And of course, you can always ask here or on a dedicated photography board about any particular function of your camera.
Hope that helps!
