Back to Photography

 

Camera Settings

All images taken from: photographylife.com 

 

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed changes the brightness of your photo and can create effects like freezing or blurring motion.

 

Short exposure (faster shutter speed captures less blank) to longer exposure (slower shutter speed captures more light)

From left to right:  1/100 seconds,  1/25 seconds, 1/8, 0.4 seconds

 

A shutter is similar to a shutter on a window that can open and close, letting in light.

• When light is let in, it passes to a sensor inside the camera or phone.
• The longer you leave the shutter open (like leaving curtains open) the more light comes in.
• The shorter you leave the shutter open (closing it quickly) the less light comes in.

 

Difference between Digital on a Phone and Film/Digital Cameras

• On a camera, when you click the shutter a door opens & lets in light, which travels to a camera sensor. The the door or shutter closes.
• On a phone camera, this is done digitally so you don't see anything opening and shutting physically but light is still let in to pass to a sensor.

 

How Fast or Slow can you Go?

1/8000 of a second	Very quick open & shut of shutter	lets in only a little light	image is dark
30 seconds	slow open & shut of shutter	lets in a lot of light	image is light

 

 

 

• Shutter speeds can range from 1/8000 of a second to 30 seconds (see above).
• You can have such a range because some places are lighter than others. 
• At night, you want a longer shutter speed, letting in more light vs during in the day, when you would want to let in less light.

 

For Objects in Motion

A fast shutter speed doesn't capture the movement, so an object will look sharp and like it's not moving. Good for sports or wildlife, for example.

A longer, slower shutter speed will capture motion blur of an object moving. Good for anything that moves.

Use this knowledge to create a sense of motion, if you want.

 

What is a good Shutter Speed?

• How fast is your subject moving? You'll need a faster shutter speed for something fast, vs. a turtle.
• How stable is your camera? Consider using a tripod. You can also attach phones to a tripod.
• How far zoomed in is your  lens? If you magnify something, you magnify the blurriness, too. Use Macro, if you need to.
• How close are you to subject, even a small amount of movement can result in lots of blur. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aperture and F-Stop

The aperture on your camera or phone camera is the hole that lets in light.

It can give you depth of field, where you can have a very detailed and sharp foreground and a blurred background. 

It can also make your images lighter or darker.

 

It acts just like the eye adjusts to a bright environment by shrinking the pupil, and to a dark environment by expanding the pupil.

The more you need to see light at night to be able to see, so does your camera, so the aperture needs to stay open longer at night.

During the day, it needs to open and close more quickly to limit the light.

 

Portraits and objects like food are very effective with a large aperture in order to have sharp detail in the face and a blurred background. 

Landscape photography may use a small aperture so that the background is also sharp.

 

 

 

So how do we determine how large or small the opening is?

Cameras have a setting called an F-Stop.

It can be a bit confusing because you would expect the larger the number, the larger the hole, however:

The lower the number, the more light is let in or larger the hole.

The higher the number the less light or smaller the hole.
F-Stops can range from f/1 up to f/32. 

 

 

 

Please see more examples including suggested apertures at https://photographylife.com/what-is-aperture-in-photography

 

Here is the same image taken with different F-Stops (written in the corner).

 

 

 

ISO

ISO stands for International Standards Organization and is about the speed of the film.

It can also brighten or darken a photo.

 

• It can range from ISO 25 (the slowest) to ISO 1,600 (the fastest).
• The faster the film is, the more quickly it responds to light coming in.
• If you double the ISO film speed, you can decrease the aperature by one F-stop OR shutter speed.

 

If you are using a digital camera, what does this all mean? You're not using film.

• Digital cameras have image sensors that use a number that is an ISO equivalent.
• So if you set to a faster ISO, you'll get a grainer  or less sharp image. 

 

So why don't we use slower film?

The higher the film, the larger the 'grain' which makes an image look not as sharp.

So photographers prefer slower film.

Most film sold for everyday photography would range from 200 - 400 ISO.

 

How do you set it?

On your phone camera, get out of Auto mode and go to Manual. You will probably see a menu with options where you can change different settings including ISO.  It is best to stick to the lowest ISO of your camera (typically 100 or 200) when you can as it will minimize extra noise or graininess. 

 

 

 

BOTTOM LINE ADVICE

If you are in a dark environment, try a low ISO and use a longer shutter speed. 

If an object is in motion, use a higher ISO and a faster shutter speed to reduce blurriness.

If you want to create a depth of field (sharp object, blurry background) use an aperture setting (F-Stop) that's lower, like F-2.8 or 4.

If your subject is blurry, raise your ISO and use a faster shutter speed until the motion blur disappears.