you work it from the bits so you've got:
[128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1] (this is one byte - each individual piece is called a bit) and to get a number (say 17) you put a 1 under the bit to add up the numbers that make 17. in this case, [0(128)0(64)0(32)1(16)0(8)0(4)0(2)1(1)] everywhere else with a 0 indicated means that you dont add those numbers.
So 16 and 1 have a 1 under it so you add them together and you'll get 17. And you just keep doing that for all the numbers to get your binary numbers.