ISO, aperture and shutter setting - How to implement?

[clickerz]

Hi, I'm a newbie here as well as in this arena. I have read about digital photography and so much so about the manual configuration such as ISO, aperture and shutter settings and it makes me wonder how do we actually apply them. I mean the question I'm asking is more about how to implement what was learnt. Do you guys actually remember what ISO, aperture or shutter value to use at a given situation? Or is it just by trial and error?

But if it's by trial and error, it definitely takes time. Won't we miss the precious moment? :think: I believe practice and experience would help a lot but being a newbie, any tips on how to cope with going for the right setting instantanously to get the best picture at the right moment?

 

[cantaresg]

The basic relationship that you need to know is actually the aperture and shuttle speed.

Aperture: This is given by the f number. The smaller the number, the bigger the aperture. This number controls the depth of field of your image. Simply speaking, if you want the background to be clear, you will use a small aperture, such as f/ 22, but if you want the background to be blur, you use a large aperture, such as f/1.4. The more you want the background to be blur, the larger you should set the aperture.

Shutter speed: This controls how long the shutter window opens. When the number says 30, it actually means 1/30s. When it says 0.3, it means 0.3s. If it says 3", it means 3 seconds. The longer the shutter window opens, the longer the sensor is exposed to light. It is important that if you want the picture to be sharp, you need to use a short shutter speed, say 1/60s. However, if you wish to record movement of objects, or you wish to do panning (please read on this separately), you need a relatively long shutter.

ISO: This controls the sensitivity of the sensor to light. The larger the ISO number, the more sensitive it is, but note that the noise also increases with increasing ISO number. Typically, you control the aperture and shutter speed. But suppose if you are not able to get a fast shutter speed to prevent camera shake, or freeze the motion of the object, you need to increase the ISO. Otherwise, keep the ISO as low as possible.

If you are mounting on tripod, and prepared to do long exposure, then typically you only need to be concern about the aperture. Use the exposure meter with the camera to gauge what is the aperture and shutter speed that you need to obtain a good exposure. Usually I set to Av mode, and choose aperture size, while allowing the camera to decide on the shutter speed. When the shutter speed is too slow, I will increase the ISO.

 

[blazer_workz]

Hi, I'm a newbie here as well as in this arena. I have read about digital photography and so much so about the manual configuration such as ISO, aperture and shutter settings and it makes me wonder how do we actually apply them. I mean the question I'm asking is more about how to implement what was learnt. Do you guys actually remember what ISO, aperture or shutter value to use at a given situation? Or is it just by trial and error?

But if it's by trial and error, it definitely takes time. Won't we miss the precious moment? :think: I believe practice and experience would help a lot but being a newbie, any tips on how to cope with going for the right setting instantanously to get the best picture at the right moment?

Try to believe on ur camera metering first..u won't go so far off..
..then u will learn how to see to do exposure compensation..

 

[eastwest]

The basic relationship that you need to know is actually the aperture and shuttle speed

Aaaaarrrggghhhhh...not the return of the shuttle!

 

[catchlights]

Hi, I'm a newbie here as well as in this arena. I have read about digital photography and so much so about the manual configuration such as ISO, aperture and shutter settings and it makes me wonder how do we actually apply them. I mean the question I'm asking is more about how to implement what was learnt. Do you guys actually remember what ISO, aperture or shutter value to use at a given situation? Or is it just by trial and error?

But if it's by trial and error, it definitely takes time. Won't we miss the precious moment? :think: I believe practice and experience would help a lot but being a newbie, any tips on how to cope with going for the right setting instantanously to get the best picture at the right moment?

first, go and find a book about basic photography from national libabry, sit down and read, when you done with the book that and understand what it says, most of the questions here are gone.

there is no short cut, start learning about the basic theory.

 

[cantaresg]

Aaaaarrrggghhhhh...not the return of the shuttle!

Opps.

 

[night86mare]

Hi, I'm a newbie here as well as in this arena. I have read about digital photography and so much so about the manual configuration such as ISO, aperture and shutter settings and it makes me wonder how do we actually apply them. I mean the question I'm asking is more about how to implement what was learnt. Do you guys actually remember what ISO, aperture or shutter value to use at a given situation? Or is it just by trial and error?

But if it's by trial and error, it definitely takes time. Won't we miss the precious moment? :think: I believe practice and experience would help a lot but being a newbie, any tips on how to cope with going for the right setting instantanously to get the best picture at the right moment?

er

iso, try to be as low as possible, unless you like noise or intend to convert picture to B&W, then won't be so bad

for me i find aperture setting more important - relation is depth of field
if i want more depth, then i use smaller aperture (larger f-stop), i want shallow dof, then i use large aperture (smaller f-stop)

then shutter speed would form the last part of this equation of light - how much is needed to ensure that a proper exposure with the details you want captured properly

with more practice, you will learn, no worries, and react a lot faster as well

and the same retort , as always, to the idea that there is only one decisive moment, i quote roger hicks from amateur photograpy:

"If there really were only one decisive moment, one would only ever take a single photograph of any subject."

 

[ykia]

To answer your question, it seems from your last sentence you are likely to be in an action shot, where the subject is moving or you are moving or you have a brief view of the subject (eg. through a window).

In such cases, you want to achieve as high a shutter speed as possible and the other considerations remain secondary.

Most cameras can achieve relatively noise-free images at ISO400, so start with that in mind.

Next set your aperture to a wide enough setting to get your shutter up to 1/250 or higher to freeze the subject. Outdoors in the day, this will be anywhere between F/4 to F/8 for a good high shutter speed.

With the above 2 fixed, you can focus on setting your shutter speed at the very last moment to catch the subject.

Hi, I'm a newbie here as well as in this arena. I have read about digital photography and so much so about the manual configuration such as ISO, aperture and shutter settings and it makes me wonder how do we actually apply them. I mean the question I'm asking is more about how to implement what was learnt. Do you guys actually remember what ISO, aperture or shutter value to use at a given situation? Or is it just by trial and error?

But if it's by trial and error, it definitely takes time. Won't we miss the precious moment? :think: I believe practice and experience would help a lot but being a newbie, any tips on how to cope with going for the right setting instantanously to get the best picture at the right moment?

 

[Bored Dad]

To me, in a gist, firstly is that you must be pretty familiar with the various aspects and function of the various settings. Then secondly, basically you will just have to ask yourself, what kind of photo you wish it to turn out to be, and what kind of result that you wish to achieve, then from there uses the best setting combination that you know to achieve the result you wanted.

 

[zac08]

There's no correct value. Coz the scenes constantly change....

You can keep up by checking your metering every now and then, this is something I do when shooting macros in the evening coz the light changes pretty fast.

I tend to start off with ISO 100 or 200 as I shoot with a flash. The speed is auto selected as 1/60 (my lowest shutter speed with flash) if the lighting is not that strong or it will increase with better lights. Aperture value is roughly at f8 as I need more DOF at a close range, sometimes I will drop to f11 or f16.

If I find the light dropping, I will then increase my ISO accordingly.

And when I do not need the DOF, I may choose to open the aperture up to f4 or f2.8 to increase the shutter speed. Practise more and you'll ge the hang of it.