Very noob question

gasparebjj

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ok so I understand the different setting and how they work (SS, Aperture and ISO) , but im not really sure which ones are the appropriate settings to adjust when shooting. Is there a certain guideline or rule of thumb to follow?
 
No rule of thumb

Aperture generally helps control depth of field
Shutter speed helps freeze or allow movement in photos
ISO helps increase shutter speed if you want to freeze things and light levels are low

At the moment I'll assume you want everything sharp, select aperture priority for a few days and see how the lower numbers allow faster shutter speeds and create less depth of field, higher numbers do opposite
 
ok so I understand the different setting and how they work (SS, Aperture and ISO) , but im not really sure which ones are the appropriate settings to adjust when shooting. Is there a certain guideline or rule of thumb to follow?



What you should eventually find is that every situation, every scene and every idea you have is unique in some way. After that realization sets in, two things will happen if you are typical of student photographers.

First, you will somewhat develop your own methods of working with your camera and with your subject.

Two, you will see each leg of the exposure triangle as contributing to holding up the other two.

If you think back to your school years and how you were taught to work with triangles, you'll easily see changing one value affects the other two. This is how the exposure triangle operates as you adjust your camera to accommodate the vision you have created for "this" scene.

Experience will teach you which value of the triangle is the most relevant to your perceived photo. Of course, you must develop the "vision" of a photographer before you can understand the value of each exposure value in turning out that vision.



In other words, what are you shooting? How do you see the scene playing out, whether it's a scene that is rapidly changing or a scene that is essentially static?

What are the lighting conditions? Light is your most significant material. Your camera provides the tools to work with and to sculpt the light.

How will you work with the existing light? Should you add supplemental light? Should you change your location or the location of your subject?

Eventually, you will have these (and other) questions in your head as you approach a potential shot. The answers you produce will largely inform how you will "work" with your camera.

Low light suggests "these" answers. Bright light says you will most often use another technique.

Large depth of field suggests "this" answer.

Capturing or stopping movement indicates another answer. Suggesting motion requires yet another technique.



All of this is what you are (eventually) calculating in your mind as your vision of the photo develops from the scene in front of you.



As I mentioned in another thread recently, I was reading an article by one photographer who suggests ISO is the value you set first and adjust last. In many cases, this makes sense.

You should be very aware of the prevailing light and the conditions it presents to you as a photographer. General lighting conditions will quite often make ISO values the most important and easily the most accessible value at your disposal.

Overall, ISO is in many ways the most benign of the three exposure values. Modern DSLR's are capable of high quality at much higher ISO values than would have been possible even five years ago. The digital noise we associate with higher ISO values is relative to print size. If you are printing at, say, 5 x 7, noise is less an issue than if you are printing at 20 x 24. There will be little noticeable effect of raising ISO to a reasonable value in most student situations. And not raising ISO will severely limit your use of the other two exposure values.

IMO a student photographer can do little wrong by setting your DSLR to "auto ISO" and then limiting the maximum value to aprox. 1200-1600. This will give you the greatest latitude when working with your other values. As you become more experience with your camera and its capabilities in various setting, you can adjust that maximum value up or down.

Of course, always pay attention to what you camera is doing and make shot by shot adjustments as you feel appropriate.



Quite often, your use of either aperture or shutter speed will depend first upon your selection of how to meter the light within the scene. Now you are beginning to refine your vision of how the final product will look based on knowledge and experience.

Of course, the very simple rules of closing down the aperture to affect depth of field hold. As does the concept of opening the aperture to allow in more light.
Fast shutter speeds are usable in brightly lit situation whether that light comes from existing light or from supplemental light sources. Faster shutter speeds will freeze motion and avoid camera shake blurriness in your shot.

Slower shutter speeds will allow the available light to enter the lens for longer periods of time. They can be used to imply motion but they are also somewhat less usable to the student unless they have developed good camera techniques or they mount their camera on a tripod or similarly stable mount.

As you further develop your skills, you'll want a few accessories for your kit which will make these various adjustments more flexible in their application. They will provide more options for you to consider and each option may change exactly how you work for any one scene.

Flash units, tripods and filters all fit into this category. Each changes how you think as a photographer. How you think affects how you work.



One technique which you may find useful is to sit down for an evening or two with your camera and the owner's manual. Study metering modes. Take multiple test shots using various legs of the triangle with various metering modes.

Understand focus points and how to change them. Notice the changes each shot makes to the idea you have of how to photograph a common object.

Repeat the exercise in bright sunlight and then in the fading light of sunset.

(Notice too that this same time of day will change significantly as the months and seasons pass. As a photographer you need to become sensitive to these changes and how they will affect your photography.)



Work in both aperture priority and shutter priority. With a DSLR all of these shots are free and you can save or delete any of them. With your owner's manual at hand (or a handy cheat sheet for your specific camera; Canon EOS Rebel SL1/100D For Dummies Cheat Sheet - For Dummies, you can easily make the changes you feel are needed to create the image you have in your head.

Spend some time on line watching videos. Place your camera's make and model into a search engine along with "tips and tricks". Now you will have instructional videos and lessons based upon a more experienced photographer walking you through your specific camera and how to get the most from that gear.

Walk out to a point in your neighborhood where you can see a busy intersection. Take test photos using the various legs. Try to stop the motion of the cars as they pass through the intersection. Try to suggest the speed of the cars as they pass. If you don't yet know how to do that, refer first to your owner's manual and then to your videos.



Keep a photographer's journal of what you are going to shoot, your ideas for that specific shot and the prevailing lighting and weather conditions of the moment. You can use the numbering system of your camera to keep track of each shot as it relates to your journal. Many modern DSLR's allow a few seconds of video with sound to be recorded before you take a shot. You can use this to keep your journal notes.



Then you sit down with your camera and you look and you compare. The more experience you have, the more capable you will be at seeing the differences between all of your test shots. Relate these differences to the section of the owner's manual which explains how to set the camera for that effect.

In time, you will begin to associate your experience with past shots to how you are seeing a photo as you approach a scene.


There really is no substitute for experience in this hobby.
 
boy that's a long one ... but detailed

FYI ...
here's some information on Depth of Field ==> Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

Shutter Speed ==> Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively

then use ISO to balance it all out, if you can, otherwise adjust one or the other or both or all.

It takes practice, and more practice, and more practice.
Then understanding depth of field really helps if you can use a 50mm/1.8 lens and a tape measure.
Shutter speed is easier to learn as it's related to movement.
ISO helps balance out the exposure though if too high can introduce noise. To compensate you can also add light, such as from a on-body or added flash / reflectors, windows/lights, etc.
 
Last edited:
gasparebjj said:
ok so I understand the different setting and how they work (SS, Aperture and ISO) , but im not really sure which ones are the appropriate settings to adjust when shooting. Is there a certain guideline or rule of thumb to follow?

Yes, there are some sort of variable but general guidelines. I'll try to be brief. Let's assume you want sharp, crisp shots, with most moving objects rendered crisply, without blurring. People walking, people moving their hands and arms, and so on, stopped in mid-motion, rendered crisply: at closer distances, ALL movement requires a faster shutter speed than the same movement that is recorded smaller in the frame (such as from farther away, or with a shorter lens length). In general, setting the shutter speed to a minimum of at least 3x the focal length used will stop most normal human motion, like people walking. So, with a 20mm lens length, guy walking, or man standing and gesturing to others, like at a sales podium for example, 1/60 second is the absolute lowest speed to get a fairly crisp, stop-motion rendering with a short focal length lens. Again, that is the barest minimum! With a 200mm lens, a speed of 1/640 second would be a good choice as the slowest speed to stop normal human motion. "Normal" as in everyday, regular stuff: not talking about Hussein Bolt sprinting the 100 meters, nor riding a bicycle, etc.

The BIGGEST problem that beginners have is a terrible,terrible mental block that makes them think that ISO 100 is always"the best" ISO to use. The internet has done a horrible disservice by promoting the idea that "the lowest ISO possible is the best ISO value to use". I disagree with that when using a modern, highly-capable d-slr camera, or when shooting bounce flash with a speedlight.

If you own slow, consumer-type lenses (f/3.5~5.6 zooms, for example), the first exposure control, step you need to do in a huge number of situations is to elevate the ISO to the ISO 250 to ISO 800 level if the lighting conditions are marginal. That is the absolute FIRST thing to do when working with "slow" consumer lenses. If the lighting is reallllllly dim, you might have to go to ISO 3,200 (but it might actually be better to use flash!). I'll just re-state this another way, for emphasis: The BIGGEST mistake many people make when using slower-aperture consumer zoom lenses is sticking to the lowest ISO values their cameras offer; refusing to elevate the ISO levels to the mid-level ISO range RUINS more images than almost anything else.

In a word....it's usually best to avoid the absolute margins: avoid shooting wide-open with the aperture; stop down an f/stop or two, if possible. Avoid shooting at the slowest speeds, like 1/15 second, unless you want movement or blur to be conveyed; avoid the lowest ISO setting and the maximum ISO setting, unless the light absolutely warrants those setting levels.
 
The BIGGEST problem that beginners have is a terrible,terrible mental block that makes them think that ISO 100 is always"the best" ISO to use.
refusing to elevate the ISO levels to the mid-level ISO range RUINS more images than almost anything else.
When I first started out, this was my mindset. Keep the ISO as low as possible. It's a painful realization, yet a good learning experience, to see now how many photos I've missed out on and how many photos I ruined because of this thought process.
 
In General:
How Aperture affects photos? (when others kept constant)
Wider (lower F-number) - More light so photo appear to be brighter, shallower depth of field
Smaller (higher F-number) - Less light so photo appear to be darker, deeper depth of field

How Shutter Speed affects photos? (when others kept constant)
Faster - Less light so photo appear to be darker, able to freeze motion (depends on speed of the motion)
Slower - More Light so photo appear to be brighter, more blur on photos.

How ISO setting affects photos? (when other kept constant)
Lower - Image "appears" to be less sensitive to light so photos look darker. But image has less noises
Higher - Image "appears" to be more sensitive to light so photos look brighter. But image has more noises.


Exposure or Exposure Value (EV) is the result of the aperture, shutter speed and ISO value.

i.e. Typical scene, cloudy bright is EV13 (Click HERE for Information about Exposure Value )
For EV13 can be Aperture = f/4, shutter speed of 1/500 and ISO 100.

This settings will create a correct exposure for cloudy bright day. But now, you want to create a photo in this environment but also take it with shallower Depth of Field. So you lower the F-number (wider the aperture) from f/4 to f/2.8 (1 stops of light or allow double the amount of light entering the camera). If we do not adjust other settings, the photo will be too bright (EV12) . So in order to maintain the same EV number (or say, same exposure or brightness of the photo) we need to cut down the light entering the camera. You can do it by using a faster shutter speed. So change the shutter speed from 1/500 to 1/1000.

So depends on what you like to do such as freeze motion (lower the shutter speed), deeper Depth of Field (smaller aperuter -> larger F-number) or combination of both, you adjust the settings accordingly.
 
In General:
How Aperture affects photos? (when others kept constant)
Wider (lower F-number) - More light so photo appear to be brighter, shallower depth of field
Smaller (higher F-number) - Less light so photo appear to be darker, deeper depth of field

How Shutter Speed affects photos? (when others kept constant)
Faster - Less light so photo appear to be darker, able to freeze motion (depends on speed of the motion)
Slower - More Light so photo appear to be brighter, more blur on photos.

How ISO setting affects photos? (when other kept constant)
Lower - Image "appears" to be less sensitive to light so photos look darker. But image has less noises
Higher - Image "appears" to be more sensitive to light so photos look brighter. But image has more noises.


Exposure or Exposure Value (EV) is the result of the aperture, shutter speed and ISO value.

i.e. Typical scene, cloudy bright is EV13 (Click HERE for Information about Exposure Value )
For EV13 can be Aperture = f/4, shutter speed of 1/500 and ISO 100.

This settings will create a correct exposure for cloudy bright day. But now, you want to create a photo in this environment but also take it with shallower Depth of Field. So you lower the F-number (wider the aperture) from f/4 to f/2.8 (1 stops of light or allow double the amount of light entering the camera). If we do not adjust other settings, the photo will be too bright (EV12) . So in order to maintain the same EV number (or say, same exposure or brightness of the photo) we need to cut down the light entering the camera. You can do it by using a faster shutter speed. So change the shutter speed from 1/500 to 1/1000.

So depends on what you like to do such as freeze motion (lower the shutter speed), deeper Depth of Field (smaller aperuter -> larger F-number) or combination of both, you adjust the settings accordingly.

Nice to see reference to EV numbers. That's ultimately a more logical way to think about what's happening. Minor point: EV values are just shutter speed & f/stop combinations -- the two camera controls that determine exposure. Regardless of the camera and lens an EV value is a constant exposure value. We select an EV based on ISO and the intensity of the available light.

Here's an EV table. (mouse over the EV numbers)

Joe
 
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Think of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed like thinking of a manual car
You have 3 pedals, accelerator, brake and clutch.
You need all 3 to make car work and each does a different task yet if one will not function you cant drive the car.
Learn the basics and you will understand, there are lots of good videos on youtube explaining these basics.

Good luck
 
In General:
How Aperture affects photos? (when others kept constant)
Wider (lower F-number) - More light so photo appear to be brighter, shallower depth of field
Smaller (higher F-number) - Less light so photo appear to be darker, deeper depth of field

How Shutter Speed affects photos? (when others kept constant)
Faster - Less light so photo appear to be darker, able to freeze motion (depends on speed of the motion)
Slower - More Light so photo appear to be brighter, more blur on photos.

How ISO setting affects photos? (when other kept constant)
Lower - Image "appears" to be less sensitive to light so photos look darker. But image has less noises
Higher - Image "appears" to be more sensitive to light so photos look brighter. But image has more noises.


Exposure or Exposure Value (EV) is the result of the aperture, shutter speed and ISO value.

i.e. Typical scene, cloudy bright is EV13 (Click HERE for Information about Exposure Value )
For EV13 can be Aperture = f/4, shutter speed of 1/500 and ISO 100.

This settings will create a correct exposure for cloudy bright day. But now, you want to create a photo in this environment but also take it with shallower Depth of Field. So you lower the F-number (wider the aperture) from f/4 to f/2.8 (1 stops of light or allow double the amount of light entering the camera). If we do not adjust other settings, the photo will be too bright (EV12) . So in order to maintain the same EV number (or say, same exposure or brightness of the photo) we need to cut down the light entering the camera. You can do it by using a faster shutter speed. So change the shutter speed from 1/500 to 1/1000.

So depends on what you like to do such as freeze motion (lower the shutter speed), deeper Depth of Field (smaller aperuter -> larger F-number) or combination of both, you adjust the settings accordingly.

Nice to see reference to EV numbers. That's ultimately a more logical way to think about what's happening. Minor point: EV values are just shutter speed & f/stop combinations -- the two camera controls that determine exposure. Regardless of the camera and lens an EV value is a constant exposure value. We select an EV based on ISO and the intensity of the available light.

Here's an EV table. (mouse over the EV numbers)

Joe

I learned about photography in 2008 after I purchased my first DSLR. I forgot how and where I found the information online, but after I read about the EV number and table, everything just make sense. In the beginning, I even print the EV table out and kept that in my camera bag. Understand the EV number also help me using flash(es) later.
 
ok so I understand the different setting and how they work (SS, Aperture and ISO) , but im not really sure which ones are the appropriate settings to adjust when shooting. Is there a certain guideline or rule of thumb to follow?
Well, with a Nikon DSLR, I usually do:

- Set minimum shutter speed I want in the Auto-ISO submenu, which otherwise uses ISO 100 as minimum ISO

- Get into Aperture priority and set lowest f-number; change to high f-number for groupshots etc.

- If I need to control shutter speed instead, I switch to Shutter priority.

Not all cameras offer this kind of fine control though.
 

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