You have a new camera, and you are now beginning to use it for taking photographs, but the problem is these pics don’t match the images in your mind.
A few of them are underexposed, others overexposed, and then there are some that are not in focus.
What’s happening? Why is every pic you take just not hitting the mark?
This, my dear beginner, is very much the story that repeats every time a novice gets their hands on their first camera.
There is a long road to travel before you can get your pics right. The first goalpost is understanding the photography basics for beginners —the ISO, shutter speed and the aperture. Together these three vitals are called ‘The Exposure Triangle’.
Today’s article, a beginner camera guide, is going to answer this vital question: What is ISO, aperture and shutter speed? And how do I get each of them right to get perfect pictures?
What is ISO, aperture, and shutter speed: Photography terms simplifie
These three are a vital part of what’s called the ‘Exposure triangle’ in photography. It is a combination of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed that determines if your picture has perfect exposure —it’s not too dark or too light, in other words.
These three taken together tell the sensor in your camera how to record the composition viewed through the camera lens on film or digitally.
I hope our digital camera guide is making sense to you all. Now, I am going to be digging a bit deeper into these photography basics for beginners individually so that you guys can learn camera settings to take perfect pictures.
What is the aperture?
In simple terms, a camera aperture is a hole or opening in the camera through which light enters it. But in a complex world of modern cameras, a camera aperture is a multi-bladed device that’s arranged inside the camera body with a view to change the size of the opening in the camera lens through which light enters.
Different cameras come with different aperture sizes. My favourite camera, the iconic Canon, has an aperture range of F4 – F22.
What this means is that the maximum aperture of my camera is F4. At F4, the lens is fully open, and the aperture is not visible. At the maximum aperture, the maximum amount of light can pass through into the camera lens to hit the sensor and create an image.
The minimum aperture of my camera is F22. What happens when I select this F22 is that the aperture closes down, and this reduces the amount of light that can enter the camera to hit the sensor through the lens.
A pro tip to remember how apertures work:
The higher the aperture number, the maximum the amount of light that enters your camera, and vice versa.
Or
Maximum aperture, like F4 equals the maximum amount of incoming light to the camera sensor.
The minimum aperture, like F22, equals the minimum amount of light transmission into the camera to the sensor inside.
Let’s move on to the second part of the exposure triangle now, i.e., the shutter speed.
What is shutter speed
The length of time the shutter is opened to let the camera sensor record light is known as the shutter speed.
The thing to remember here is that less light is captured by the camera sensor when the shutter speed is increased because the shutter is open for a shorter period.
And more light is captured by the camera sensor when the shutter speed is lowered because the shutter remains open for a longer period.
Most cameras have the following shutter speeds:
- 30 seconds
- 15 seconds
- 8 seconds
- 4 seconds
- 2 seconds
- 1 second
- ½ second
- ¼ second
- 1/8th second, etc.
This is a great range. And as you can see, once more, the progression is linear. The shutter exposure time is cut in half, or a full stop, if you adjust the shutter speed from 1/250th second to 1/500th second. This indicates that half as much light is now reaching the sensor.
What is ISO?
ISO is the sensitivity of the camera film to light.
International Standards Organisation is the full form of ISO.
In the days of film, you could purchase films with different ISOs. DIN and ASA were also present. But the method that stuck was the one developed by the International Standard for Organisations to measure camera film sensitivity.
How is ISO used in photography
The way ISO is used in photography is crucial.
ISO is a standardised method for determining how sensitive camera film is to light. The ISO of the standard camera film was 100 in the good old days when digital cameras were not the norm and cameras had camera films.
For overcast days, photographers used to use a ‘quicker’ or more light-sensitive ISO 400 film that would give a correct exposure even in low light.
When you needed to shoot sports on low light, you used an even ‘quicker’ ISO 1600.
Then came the incredibly quick ISO3200 film. These were the primary ISOs…
The thing to remember for this beginner camera guide is that the sensitivity to light increases with the ISO number. And, vice versa, the sensitivity to light decreases as the ISO number decreases.
In the present digital age of cameras, the ISO is the sensitivity of the camera sensor to light.
The optimal ISO range for a digital camera is between ISO100 and ISO25,600. This is my Canon 6D’s ISO range too.
In general, better image quality is achieved with a lower ISO.
Learning camera settings to understand how the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed relate to each other
For this you shall have to understand the ‘Stop’. In simple terms, it is a measurement of adjustment of light. The amount of light that reaches the camera sensor is doubled or halved with a one-stop adjustment.
A stop can be applied to the shutter speed, the aperture and the ISO.
Let me explain in some detail:
When you reduce the aperture from F4 to F5.6, or one full stop, on your camera, you actually halve the amount of light reaching the sensor.
The same logic applies to ISO. The ISO is the sensitivity of a digital camera sensor to light, as we know.
What happens when you change the ISO from ISO100 to ISO200? You are making a change of one stop by actually doubling the sensitivity of the camera sensor to light by making this adjustment.
How that affects you, the novice, is that if you double the ISO, only half the light is required to achieve the same exposure.
Shutter speed is the time that the shutter remains open, allowing the camera sensor to be exposed to light.
So, if you change the shutter speed one stop—from 1/250th second to 1/500th second, you reduce the time that the shutter is opened by one half.
This effectively reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor by half.
Finally…
The brightness of an image is determined by the combination of the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. The exposure will be accurate if everything is configured properly.
I hope we have been able to make you understand at least the photography basics for beginners in this ‘beginners camera guide’ today. I also want to say that the only way to truly understand them is by taking photographs by the dozen each day by using different apertures, shutter speeds, and ISO settings.
FAQs
1. What is the most important camera setting for a beginner to learn first?
Aperture is a great starting point because it directly affects the depth of field or the amount of your image that is in focus, apart from keeping the exposure right.
2: How do I ensure that my image quality is good?
Better image quality is achieved with a lower ISO. So, we suggest you start here.
