Basics of Photography - Camera’s Manual Settings

There are three pillars of photography. One is Aperture and the other two being Shutter speed and ISO.

Aperture

If you look at the lens, you can see the opening where light comes through. When you adjust your aperture settings, you’ll see that opening gets bigger and smaller. The larger the opening, or wider the aperture, the more light you let in with each exposure. The smaller the opening, or narrower the aperture, the less light you let in. Why would you ever want a narrow aperture if a wider one lets in more light? Aside from those situations where you have too much light and want to let less of it in, narrowing the aperture means more of the photograph will appear to be in focus. 

For example, a narrow aperture is great for landscapes. A wider aperture means less of the photograph will be in focus, which is something that’s generally visually pleasing and isn’t seen as a downside. Aperture is represented in f-stops. A lower number, like f/1.8, denotes a wider aperture, and a higher number, like f/22, denotes a narrower aperture.

Shutter Speed

When you press the shutter button on your camera and take a picture, the aperture blades take a specific amount of time to close. This amount of time is known as shutter speed. Generally it is a fraction of a second. If you’re capturing fast motion it needs to be at most 1/300th of a second. If you’re not capturing any motion, you can sometimes get away with as long of an exposure as 1/30th of a second. When you increase your shutter speed—the length of time where the sensor is exposed to light—two important things happen.

First, the sensor is exposed to more light because it’s been given more time. This is useful in low light situations. Second, the sensor is subject to more motion which causes motion blur. This can happen either because your subject is in motion or because you cannot hold the camera still.

ISO

ISO is the level of sensitivity of the camera to available light. It is the digital equivalent (or approximation) of film speed. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light. A higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of your camera. The component within your camera that can change sensitivity is called “image sensor” or simply “sensor”. It is the most important (and most expensive) part of a camera. It is responsible for gathering light and transforming it into an image. With increased sensitivity, your camera sensor can capture images in low-light environments without using flash. But higher sensitivity has a negative side too – it adds grain or “noise” to the pictures. The higher you increase your ISO, the more noise you get.