Simulating SLR controls to learn photography

When one of my students asks me about a way to improve their renderings and overall work on 3d, the first thing I usually recommend to them is to go take a photography class. For an artist that works with 3d and especially architectural visualization, having some knowledge on photography is a huge plus. For people using some of the modern physically based render engines that have real camera parameters, this type of knowledge is even more important.

If you don`t have a clue about things like shutter speed, ISO or any of those technical terms about cameras, go take a look on a project called Camera Sim. It is a simple interface that tries to mimic the most important parameters of a SLR camera. This is great for people with no experience on photography. Just start changing the parameters and you will see the results on the image available at the Camera Sim.