The Working CameraBy: Mat Seifried

Exposure

Over Exposed Under ExposedCorrectly Exposed

In digital photography, exposure is the unit of measurement for the total amount of light permitted to reach the electronic sensor during the process of taking a photograph.

- http://www.webopedia.com

What Effects Exposure

● Shutter Speed

● Aperture

● ISO

Shutter Speed Shutter speed refers to the length of time that the shutter is left open at the time of taking a photo.

Film camera shutter

Shutter speed affects the amount of light/exposure in the image. You can manipulate the image with shutter speed to show things like motion blur. A high shutter speed is good for capturing fast moving subjects, the faster the shutter the less blur in the image but more light is required.

1/80Fast

3.2Medium

25Slow

ISO 200 F 29

ApertureAperture affects the background blur or bokeh in an image. The larger the aperture the more blur effect. The aperture is measured in something called f-stops, a small f-stop(1.4) has a wide aperture and creates a lot of bokeh in the image where a large f-stop(10) does the opposite. Depth of field is commonly associated with your f-stop/aperture setting.

Aperture is a space through which light passes in an optical or photographic

instrument, especially the variable opening by which light enters a camera.- Google Definitions

Exposure is also affected by aperture, the sensor gets more light with a small f-stop and vice-versa with a large f-stop.

F 18Small

F 10Medium

F 5.6Large

ISO 200

Shutter0.4

ISOBy increasing your camera’s ISO speed or by using a faster film you can increase the amount of light in the image. This increase in light has a trade off and when ISO is high you will experience more image noise or distortion. Noise in an image is caused by the increase in sensor or film sensitivity and works much like the “gain” setting on a guitar amp, the higher the amp gain the louder the sound but causes more audible distortion.

ISO refers to the sensitivity of the camera’s film or sensor in regards to light.

ISO 100Low

ISO 400Medium

ISO 6400High

Shutter1/15

F 5.6

The Big 3 CombinedHere is an example of a properly exposed image taken on a digital SLT(Single-Lens Translucent) camera, very similar to a regular DSLR.

The shutter speed is appropriately set to compensate for lighting while also keeping the image sharp.

The f-stop/aperture creates a nice depth of field to better distinguish the subject from the background. *Not represented well by white background

ISO sensitivity is kept as low as possible to reduce noise in the image.

Shutter1/50

F 5.6

ISO 400

White BalanceAnother factor that contributes to the overall exposure and quality of a photograph is it’s white balance. The white balance helps the photographer compensate for the environmental light by correcting it where the image does not reflect the correct lighting in the shot.

White balance is a function of a digital camera used to compensate for different colors of light being emitted by different light sources.

- http://www.webopedia.com

Notice the “before” image to the right, it is dull and incorrectly coloured because of the indoor lighting. The “after” image shows the white balance fix making the image more natural to what the photographer would have seen with his eye.

White Balance ContinuedHere are some examples of different white balance settings.

Daylight Shade Cloudy Icondecent

Shot with artificial light indoors Shutter 1/50 || F 5.6 || ISO 400

Conclusion

Long Shutter

Now that you know more about these common camera settings go out and experiment. Utilizing these settings can result in many unique images. Here are some examples!

Large Aperture

Sourceswww.google.ca/imageswww.tumblr.comhttp://www.all-things-photography.com/iso/http://www.diffen.com/difference/DSLR_vs_SLR_Camerahttp://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/content/what%E2%80%99s-best-f-stop