I think I am beginning to understand the compromise

[jeveretts]

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I read the manual of my 60D, I understand what I am looking at in the viewfinder, and see how the three settings affect each other. It truly is an exposure triangle. If you need any one of the three settings at the edge due to conditions, you must compromise with the other two. Now I completely understand why faster lenses are better, they give you more overhead of compromise, by giving you a faster aperture, you limit the amount you have to compromise at iso and shutter speed.
Oh.. photography will never be the same.

 

[Overread17 5]

Aye just don't forget that with the aperture you're also changing your depth of field. If you're at f1.8 your depth of field is going to be very thin, that can make it very hard to get the shot as any tiny mistake in focusing, or even just a naturally more 3D objects will render part of it out of focus. So sometimes that faster aperture gives you options, but you've still got to factor in the depth of field.

The bonus is that when using a lens with a wider maximum aperture you've always got more light to provide the viewfinder and the auto-focus sensors, being a big help when shooting in dimmer conditions.

 

[table1349]

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I read the manual of my 60D, I understand what I am looking at in the viewfinder, and see how the three settings affect each other. It truly is an exposure triangle. If you need any one of the three settings at the edge due to conditions, you must compromise with the other two. Now I completely understand why faster lenses are better, they give you more overhead of compromise, by giving you a faster aperture, you limit the amount you have to compromise at iso and shutter speed.
Oh.. photography will never be the same.

Well who would have ever thunk that R.T.F.M. might do some good. Now if all newbies would learn the same thing.

 

[IzzieK]

A lot to think about don't you think? Just put your camera on auto or program and you're off and running, no more questions.

 

[agp]

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I read the manual of my 60D, I understand what I am looking at in the viewfinder, and see how the three settings affect each other. It truly is an exposure triangle. If you need any one of the three settings at the edge due to conditions, you must compromise with the other two. Now I completely understand why faster lenses are better, they give you more overhead of compromise, by giving you a faster aperture, you limit the amount you have to compromise at iso and shutter speed.
Oh.. photography will never be the same.

Well who would have ever thunk that R.T.F.M. might do some good. Now if all newbies would learn the same thing.

Hahahaha

Not laughing at the OP for not having read the manual. But just laughing at this exchange of words.

 

[TCampbell]

You may enjoy the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It pretty much starts out by explaining exactly what you've discovered... but takes it a step further. As Overread explains... as you change the exposure settings to keep the needle centered, the equivalent exposures actually do result in images which look different BECAUSE you are changing things such as the depth of field.

For any given shot you are about to take, there are many many combinations of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO which will achieve the same exposure on the sensor... but ONE of those combinations will look better than the rest.

Now that you understand how you can play the exposure triangle trading game... the next step is to learn WHY you'd want to play the trading game to get a better looking result.

incidentally... there is a 4th factor that never seems to get mentioned. Do not forget that you CAN actually change the amount of light falling on your subject... either by adding your own light via flash or reflectors... or by simply MOVING your subject to a location with better lighting (and better background.)

 

[timor]

I think there are better books, than camera manual to understand basics of photography. And better at that to, but it takes a little of time to use them...
(Oh my... late just by seconds. As usual.)

 

[Derrel]

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I read the manual of my 60D, I understand what I am looking at in the viewfinder, and see how the three settings affect each other. It truly is an exposure triangle. If you need any one of the three settings at the edge due to conditions, you must compromise with the other two. Now I completely understand why faster lenses are better, they give you more overhead of compromise, by giving you a faster aperture, you limit the amount you have to compromise at iso and shutter speed.
Oh.. photography will never be the same.

Yes, you've realized something important. With slow-aperture, consumer-type lenses (say f/3.5~5.6 variable aperture zooms, or even worse, f/4.5~5.6 models) one often "runs out of aperture" as the light level drops, and then one must resort to slowing the shutter speed down and or elevating the ISO level to settings where image quality is visibly lowered. As the light level reaches very low levels, slow-aperture lenses mean the users MUST resort to very slow-speed shots, or bringing in flash lighting, or not shooting pictures at all.

Erich Salomon photos - Google Search

Eric Salomon became famous as a photojournalist who adopted the then EXTREMELY FAST-APERTURE "Ermanox" camera, to take indoor, available light photos of politicians and socialites, and so on, in an era when stiffly-posed, tripod-mounted images made with timed exposures of flash powder in trays, were the norm and what everybody was used to seeing, and had been seeing since the 1850's. Here is the man, and the camera, shown in a copy of a book I read as a boy! I remember seeing this shot and caption over 35 years ago!

http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00Q/00QKVY-60453584.jpg

 

[astroNikon]

I always tell people to learn what every function/feature does on the camera.

When I first got my d7000 the manual made no sense.
So I bought one of those d7000 books "Mastering the nikon d7000" by Young .. and it taught me the functions of the camera. Then the manual made alot more sense.

And learning how to use the camera after that is alot easier.

 

[480sparky41 40]

I always tell people to learn what every function/feature does on the camera.

When I first got my d7000 the manual made no sense.
So I bought one of those d7000 books "Mastering the nikon d7000" by Young .. and it taught me the functions of the camera. Then the manual made alot more sense.

And learning how to use the camera after that is alot easier.

Manuals are generally written based on the assumption that you know what it is and what it's supposed to do for you.... the manual is merely how to tell you how to do it on this piece of equipment.

For instance, the manual will only tell you how to change the aperture. It won't tell you much about depth of field, hyperfocal distance, image sharpness, etc.

 

[snerd]

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I read the manual of my 60D, I understand what I am looking at in the viewfinder, and see how the three settings affect each other. It truly is an exposure triangle. If you need any one of the three settings at the edge due to conditions, you must compromise with the other two. Now I completely understand why faster lenses are better, they give you more overhead of compromise, by giving you a faster aperture, you limit the amount you have to compromise at iso and shutter speed.
Oh.. photography will never be the same.

Well who would have ever thunk that R.T.F.M. might do some good. Now if all newbies would learn the same thing.

Hey! Some of us are just slow! I've read the manual 3 times over. It's my reading material at bedtime, on the throne, sitting around at ball games, you name it. But it's like looking at a blueprint............ it's Greek to me!! I'm a visual learner to a degree. Once I try using all the knobs and dials, the manual starts making a little sense. I've also read Brian Peterson's book! It just doesn't CLICK until later on while actually doing it! So OP, I know exactly what you mean!

 

[clickwell]

As a beginner it's always tempting to rush into the scene and then come back with a lot of concerns of the results from the settings we've just used. Often times we would neglect the obvious and instead start digging the internet for answers only to find out the advice was to read the manual. It happened to me too but that's ok there's always a first time. As what other gurus already mentioned and although I know it's not exciting going through its pages but believe me it's going to be worthy. Try to break it down to smaller pages anytime you feel like reading and quickly check on your camera how it actually works. You will remember more that way. Cheers!

Regards,

 

[jeveretts]

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I read the manual of my 60D, I understand what I am looking at in the viewfinder, and see how the three settings affect each other. It truly is an exposure triangle. If you need any one of the three settings at the edge due to conditions, you must compromise with the other two. Now I completely understand why faster lenses are better, they give you more overhead of compromise, by giving you a faster aperture, you limit the amount you have to compromise at iso and shutter speed.
Oh.. photography will never be the same.

Well who would have ever thunk that R.T.F.M. might do some good. Now if all newbies would learn the same thing.

Oh, don't go so hard on me, I have only had my 60D since Saturday.

 

[Dikkie2]

Oh.. photography will never be the same.

Since you arrived on this forum, this forum will never be the same anymore

Welcome !

 

[Wozza]

Seriously though, getting your head around this is a huge breakthrough! Once you twist your mind to the exposure triangle, everything else starts making sense and is easier to pick up. It just takes some experience now to get used to juggling it and knowing how far you can push each aspect without getting negative effects.