Camera settings

Often photographers, especially the less experienced, ask, what settings should I use?

The settings to use depends on what you are attempting to do. 

This link may give you some help, 

Later I will add some clarification to the document.

In my Nikon D5500 with a 18-200mm 3.4-5.6 aperture for general walk around I start with f/8.0 at 1/320s shutter speed. I would have my ISO to auto with minimum shutter speed 1/60 max iso 1600. Auto White Balance and Manual mode. Spot focus and metering.

Knowing that my thumb wheel uses 3 clicks to change expose 1 stop I will adjust shutter speed since that is the easiest.  If I want more or less depth of field, more or less light I will hold my exposure compensation button and use the thumb wheel.

Resolution

I've heard and read about resolution and a lot of the talk is a little grey. Maybe this article will help.

Resolution

bokeh, aperture, focal length

I like to shoot, at times, basically portrait/macro style, photos with a lot of bokeh. The convention wisdom is use the largest aperture available. But we need to keep focal length in mind.

A few days I was taking what I call "a walk around" shoot. My camera settings were, M, Auto ISO 100-1600, f/5.3, 800s. I took a photo of a flower filling the frame focal length 112mm. A little later I took a photo of a garden rabbit. But the focal length was 18mm, f/3.5.

The bokeh on the flower was great but everything in the garden rabbit was all in focus, no bokeh.

So the convention is a faster lens would give a greater bokeh one needs to consider the focal length too. I am shooting with a Nikon D5500 using a  18-200mm Nikon lens.