I haven't read the owner's manual for this camera but I can tell you about those buttons.
I mentioned yesterday that the AE-L (in this case AEL) button locks in the exposure setting so you can recompose and refocus. Another way to do this is to hit the AF button.The difference between these buttons and pressing your shutter button half way is that the shutter button when pressed half way resets exposure and focus. These buttons let you maintain one while resetting the other.
The AE-L button will lock in the exposure while you refocus. The AF button just refocuses while leaving the exposure settings alone. Doesn't that sound like the same thing only different? It is. In fact I recommend using the AF button since you know it's always going to adjust only the focus and has no way of changing the exposure.
The best way to learn, as always, is through trial and error which, thanks to digital technology, will only cost you the time to try different shots and settings. Try shooting in plenty of light so you can have a huge depth of field. Then expose for something at a distance and refocus for the depth of field. You do that by refocusing on something about halfway between your nearest and farthest objects of interest. Then try the same thing exposing for the closer objects.
Another of those buttons on the back lets you choose the focus point in your view. You can have the camera sample most of the screen for sharpest contrast or tell it to pick a point in the middle of the screen or top, bottom or side. I most often find that I want to make sure one part of the picture is in focus while exposing for the entire image. Look at my work on pictureneworleans.com and you'll see that I incorporate perspectives that require a big old depth of field. In a later post I'll discuss the exposure settings for that kind of shot both day and night.
Tomorrow I'll talk about using the metering adjustments offered by some of those buttons on the back.
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