ISO Aperture and shutter speed: A basic guide

[PhotoProZero]

Great job there Hershey!

In terms of whether f/2.8 produces more vivid colours....can we just say that it depends on the camera / Lens used or even your own picture style settings? My tamron tends to produce vivid colours than my prime at f/2.8..... just my 2cts...

Please dont slam me!!!! :sweat:

 

[hersheydesai]

Great job there Hershey!

In terms of whether f/2.8 produces more vivid colours....can we just say that it depends on the camera / Lens used or even your own picture style settings? My tamron tends to produce vivid colours than my prime at f/2.8..... just my 2cts...

Please dont slam me!!!! :sweat:

agreed.
In fact, now that you mention it, I haven't really noticed the difference in my wide lens...The colors only seemed more vivid when I shot from my 50mm prime.

but still, after all this doubtful controversy, its worth testing it out at least. I'll try photographing a crayon box tomm to see the subtle saturation changes. Its not longer about the f/2.8 issue anymore... I want to see if its happening only with that one lens, or with all lenses...

And, I don't slam.

 

[daredevil123]

There is only so much one can learn from reading.
Get off your butts and go take some photos. I advise everyone to shoot in manual mode at all times. It will help you learn your camera settings faster.

I appauld your willingness to share and teach. That is great even though you missed some key points that goes hand in hand with these topics, specifically the effect of aperture on DoF, as well as metering modes (matrix, center weighted, spot), which will affect how a scene is metered.

But I cannot agree with your piece of advice about using M mode at all times. Especially if it is just to turn the dials until the marker rest at 0 on the exposure scale in the viewfinder. By doing that, how is it different from using the A mode or S mode? If you are just going to zero out everything? And try shooting in Manual mode in a dynamic environment, eg. kids. You will be just torturing yourself.

Also, it is funny you find everything looks more colorful at F2.8. On the contrary, I find that the larger the aperture, the less colorful my final captured scene is. So I would hesitate to call that experience "truth".

 

[daredevil123]

well yes, technically it does depend on the situation. There will be times when the photographic opportunity is one of those split second moments.. You don't want to fiddle with the settings then.. just rush to shutter priority and snap.
But in general, when you go to basic outings like landscape or macro...times when you are relaxed and taking pictures at your own leisure...I strongly recommend to use full manual mode.
The reason is simple.
manual mode does fail at times and it is definitely better to shoot in A or S modes, but there are many instances when those fail too. At that time, only manual mode can save you...and considering it is technically the hardest mode to get used to...an early beginning helps out a lot.
For those who are used to it, its quite easy to quickly adjust the shutter and aperture to get the right shot, but for beginners, it takes time for them to get used to their camera's light settings. Manual mode makes them more familiar with the camera's internal metering simply by forcing them to finetune their own settings for that 'ideal' exposure.


There have never been any rules for photography. All the notes, all the guides, all the 'rules' are merely tips...little guidelines which you should, at first, learn and follow until you reach a point where you know when to break the 'rules' once in a while.

When A or S or M mode fails at capturing the scene in the desired exposure, it is not the fault of the individual modes, but more or less the lack of understanding on the part of the user in how the metering modes works (matrix, centered, spot).

Even in A or S modes, fine tuning is available via EV compensation. Which is the same as adjusting shutter speed or aperture value in M mode. No difference.

One cannot discard the "science" and technicalities of a camera's operation, if one aims to know the camera well to control it totally to make beautiful pictures. Why? Everything is related. How matrix sees the exposure, how center average sees the exposure and how spot metering sees the exposure. By understanding specifically how they work, you will be able to make a very quick decision on what is the exposure to go for, and how much to compensate.

For example. if you are shooting a sunrise, matrix metering will give you an exposure that will most probably underexpose the foreground more than blowing the highlights. But by how many stops? So you adjust and shoot, adjust and shoot till you see what you like? That is one method. Or you can just spot meter the bright area, and meter the dark foreground, and know the difference in exposure. That will let you know on the spot what GND to use, and also if using black card technique, how long to shake the black card. For people wanting to take a natural picture with no filters or black card, they can also decide an exposure in the middle ground so as to get a balance between the two. Or to gauge how much they can pull back or lift up in PP.

I am not sure about you, but I am not comfortable to make picure taking a crap shot. And when I teach others, I will want them to learn the right things, and not do trial and error.

Again, I think what you are trying to do is a great thing, sharing what you know. But as we are all here to share, I hope you take what I said in good faith, and know that I am also sharing, telling you what are some of the better ways to get certain things done. So we can all learn and improve.

 

[hersheydesai]

I appauld your willingness to share and teach. That is great even though you missed some key points that goes hand in hand with these topics, specifically the effect of aperture on DoF, as well as metering modes (matrix, center weighted, spot), which will affect how a scene is metered.

But I cannot agree with your piece of advice about using M mode at all times. Especially if it is just to turn the dials until the marker rest at 0 on the exposure scale in the viewfinder. By doing that, how is it different from using the A mode or S mode? If you are just going to zero out everything? And try shooting in Manual mode in a dynamic environment, eg. kids. You will be just torturing yourself.

Also, it is funny you find everything looks more colorful at F2.8. On the contrary, I find that the larger the aperture, the less colorful my final captured scene is. So I would hesitate to call that experience "truth".

I didn't explain the metering modes because, honestly...I have rarely used them myself. In fact the only time I have switched modes is if I use shutter priority. Otherwise its always been matrix metering.
Using the M mode doesn't mean you adjust the dials to reach zero. That will hold no value. Most of the times the picture doesn't even look good at zero, but that's objective of course. The M mode actually helps you learn when to under/over expose your image just a bit to get a perfect shot. M mode is not recommended for weddings or shooting kids etc. I mentioned it later in someone's reply that it should be used only when you have time to shoot peacefully, without any sudden changes in your surrounding, mostly landscapes or flowers etc.
And as photoprozero mentioned earlier, guess its not really the f/2.8 setting but more about which lens/camera combination you have.

For example. if you are shooting a sunrise, matrix metering will give you an exposure that will most probably underexpose the foreground more than blowing the highlights. But by how many stops? So you adjust and shoot, adjust and shoot till you see what you like? That is one method. Or you can just spot meter the bright area, and meter the dark foreground, and know the difference in exposure. That will let you know on the spot what GND to use, and also if using black card technique, how long to shake the black card. For people wanting to take a natural picture with no filters or black card, they can also decide an exposure in the middle ground so as to get a balance between the two. Or to gauge how much they can pull back or lift up in PP.

Well this is definitely new for me and I can't wait to try it out in the next sunrise shoot. Generally I always did the first part...adjsut and shoot until I saw what I like. After enough practice, it didn't take me too long to recalibrate my settings. After clicking the first shot, I would realize the error, and within the second or third shot would get the exposure spot on...earlier it would take much more
Also, another new thing to check out.. what you called the black card technique. Have used GNDs before, but haven't heard about black card so far.
Guess you learn something new every day after all. I appreciate all the advice. Will try to be more thorough next time. Thank you

 

[daredevil123]

I didn't explain the metering modes because, honestly...I have rarely used them myself. In fact the only time I have switched modes is if I use shutter priority. Otherwise its always been matrix metering.
Using the M mode doesn't mean you adjust the dials to reach zero. That will hold no value. Most of the times the picture doesn't even look good at zero, but that's objective of course. The M mode actually helps you learn when to under/over expose your image just a bit to get a perfect shot. M mode is not recommended for weddings or shooting kids etc. I mentioned it later in someone's reply that it should be used only when you have time to shoot peacefully, without any sudden changes in your surrounding, mostly landscapes or flowers etc.
And as photoprozero mentioned earlier, guess its not really the f/2.8 setting but more about which lens/camera combination you have.

Well this is definitely new for me and I can't wait to try it out in the next sunrise shoot. Generally I always did the first part...adjsut and shoot until I saw what I like. After enough practice, it didn't take me too long to recalibrate my settings. After clicking the first shot, I would realize the error, and within the second or third shot would get the exposure spot on...earlier it would take much more
Also, another new thing to check out.. what you called the black card technique. Have used GNDs before, but haven't heard about black card so far.
Guess you learn something new every day after all. I appreciate all the advice. Will try to be more thorough next time. Thank you

The spot meter is especially useful in landscape photography, and even much more so if you are using Nikon and not Canon.

In the end, total control is what we aim for. Leave no margin to error.