Online photography lessons & affordable photograhpy seminars for photographers of all skill levels

As you may or may not know, I frequently host very rudimentary photography classes in the community. These are for clubs, organizations and even schools. I’m not good at many other things so this is something that I can do togive back to the community that I love so much. On that note, if you are reading this and think that a photography class (intro or advanced) would be great for your club or organization then shoot me an email at inlightinworkshop at gmail dot com.

As a matter of fact, I will be teaching an Introduction To Digital Photography class at our local Gilda’s Club of Western New York today from 6:00pm-8:00pm. This class will be talking all about the basics of digital photography and is heavily geared towards point and shoots (what to look for, how to use one, etc…)

Way back when, I got the chance to try out Prezi which absolutely blows Microsoft’s Powerpoint out of the water. If you do ANYTHING that involves public speaking or giving presentations then I would highly stress that you try out Prezi.

Anywho, I embedded the Prezi Presentation for everyone to check out at their own leisure.

~ Enjoy!
Mike

Who could imagine that these three terms could stump so many people? I don’t know about you but I wanted to control the camera ASAP when I starting off and didn’t want my camera to control me. So turn your camera off auto ‘P‘ilot and let me help you get a grasp on shutter speed, aperture and ISO once and for all. Ready to turn that dial to Manual mode???

First off, these three settings are meant to be used in conjunction with one another. It is one big balancing act where you focus on one setting over the others in order to do different effects with your image. They are to photographers what various paint brushes are to painters.

I will talk about each setting in the order in which they should be addressed before you take a photo.

ISO: Also known as ASA back in the film days. This is the first setting you should address when you pick up your camera. The ISO is something that you set based upon what you see. If it is real bright and sunny outside then you will want to use a LOW ISO number like 100. As the natural light around you gets darker, maybe you are in the shade or indoors, then there is less ambient light so you will need to use HIGHER ISO values like 400, 800 or more. The ISO is a setting that you control based upon your surroundings. In case you care, the ISO is your film’s (or digital sensor’s) sensitivity to light. The lower the number means the more light needs to be used to affect the exposure. Just remember, that the higher the ISO is, the crummier the image may look due to noise and grain to being introduced.

Aperture: The next setting you should move to is the Aperture. Aperture is a the one trouble setting that is VERY hard to understand. The aperture is measured in f-stops. The higher this value is means that less and less light is entering the camera. The higher the value also means that more and more of what you are photographing will be in focus. If you are still confused then just remember that your Aperture should be set to a number that is equal to or greater than the number of people you are photographing. If you are taking a picture of your dog or child then you can use an aperture of f/1.4 or higher. If you are shooting both your dog AND child then you should use f/2.8 or higher. If it is a family portrait of FIVE family members then you should set your camera to f/5.6 or greater… Get the picture? This should hopefully help you demystify the elusive aperture!

Shutter Speed: This is all that’s left now that you have two of the three settings figured out… This is the home stretch. The shutter speed is what freezes or blurs motion. Sometimes you want your image to convey motion or sometimes you want everything as sharp as a tack. Since two settings are already figured out all you really need to care about it looking at your the light meter that you can see in your viewfinder.

TANGENT: The light meter is your bread and butter. It is simply an indicator of how your image is going to look if you take the picture with those settings. If the needle on the light meter is too far to the negative then your image will be too dark and vice versa if the needle it to the plus. I typically aim for +0.3 or +0.7 for the most part.

So with this in mind, set the shutter speed to either a higher number (to center the light meter if you have too much light) or lower one (to let in more light) until the needle in the light meter is centered. The only thing you need to check is if the shutter speed is less than 1/60″ of a second. Anything slower will introduce camera shake and your image will suffer. Just make sure your over 1/60 and you should be good to go for just starting off. If you simply cannot keep your shutter speed over 1/60″ then this is a good indication that you don’t have your ISO set up properly. Go back to the drawing board and use a higher ISO and go from there.

Still need more light? Move to a brighter location or throw a flash on your camera.

Hope this helps!

Do yourself a favor and check to see if your camera has a feature called Auto ISO. It is really cool especially if you shoot in Aperture Priority (Av) mode.

So to backtrack a little bit, Aperture Priority mode means that all you have to do is select your desired aperture and the camera figures out what proper shutter speed it should use to give your a decently exposed image. Now I say “decent” because it isn’t always dead on. By default, the camera exposes for what it assumes is 18% gray. If you have a light skinned bride in a white dress then you want her to appear light or white in the image. That is where Exposure Compensation comes into play. If you need your image is under exposed (check the histogram) then dial the exposure compensation up to +0.7 or so. Vice versa if the image is too bright.

Now you still have to set your ISO but that can be a pain OR your shutter speed may end up getting set by the camera so that it is way to slow and causes camera shake or unwanted motion blur. This is where AUTO ISO comes in handy. When you enable Auto ISO on your camera, you also set a minimum shutter speed that you do not want to go slower than. For me, I toy between 1/60″ and 1/80″. You also get to pick what your minimum and maximum ISO should be. This is beneficial if your camera doesn’t have awesome files at higher ISOs. Simply set the maximum ISO to the best high ISO files that your camera can produce. For me, I have no problem going to ISO 6400 on my D700 as long as I can ensure my images will not be under-exposed even in the slightest.

So after you set your Auto ISO up then it is time to rock and roll. What goes on in the camera is that it takes your minimum shutter speed into consideration when it’s figuring out what value to use. IF the needed shutter speed is slower than your minimum then it automatically bumps up your ISO to let in more light for you and thus, allowing you to shoot at faster shutter speeds.

Hope this helps. Please comment below if you use Auto ISO and share your thoughts. Enjoy and be inLIGHTin’ed.