You're Tutorial on the important stuff
Aperture
Aperture means the amount of light that is let into the camera, often referred as the depth of field.
Depending on your setting, you could choose to focus on one particular object in the viewfinder, or you could choose to focus on everything in your viewfinder, it's really up to you.
Aperture is measured in F stops, and typically the smaller the number, the wider the hole. This means more light is let into your camera, allowing you to focus on multiple objects in a given shot, like focusing on a crowd of people instead of an individual.
The higher the number of F stops, the narrower the hole, which means less light is let into the camera, therefore allowing you to pinpoint certain objects in your viewfinder, for instance a particular face in a crowd.
Shutter Speed
Shutter Speed is how quickly the shutter in your camera opens and closes when taking a photograph. It could be the difference between a crisp shot and a blurry one, this is because the longer the shutter stays open, the more light is allowed in, basically creating motion blur.
Shutter speed is measured in seconds, and a good example of a shutter speed ideal for sport is 1/ 1000, a shutter speed ideal for the exact opposite could range up to 4 whole seconds.
You may feel that it is absolutely necessary to have your camera set to a fast shutter speed every time you use it, however, using a fast shutter speed allows less light into the censor, therefore creating an image that is usually very dark to the eye. This can be fixed by editing software, but the general rule of thumb is that in Good lighting/good weather conditions, it's ideal to use a fast shutter speed.
I.S.O Film Speed
I.S.O or Film sensitivity, is how your camera reacts in different lighting conditions.
I.S.O is measured in simple numbers, and range anywhere from 50 to 6400
Using I.S.O, you could choose to shoot in very dark conditions, but to have a picture that is worthy to look at, you will need to adjust your I.S.O setting to a high number (so your sensor will be very sensitive to light) therefore having a picture that is not too dark because of the lack of light in your environment.
If you were shooting on a bright sunny day however, it would be necessary to lower the I.S.O on your camera (100 -300), making the censor less sensitive to light, therefore having a photograph which is not too bright because of your surroundings.
As a rule of thumb, the lower the number, the less sensitive your camera will be to light, the higher the number, the more sensitive your camera will be to light
Bonus: White Balance
White balance is how your camera understands light reflection, this is something we see everyday and don't often think about, different colours reflecting of different objects.
Digital cameras have no way of understanding how different lighting will effect how things look, we are immune to this as our brains do it for us , but cameras need to be told that objects on a cloudy day are going to look different than they would on a sunny day, otherwise an object such as paper, may appear as blue, when in fact it's white.
White Balance is often measured in simple terms, automatically.
Here is a sample list of settings that are generally available on most cameras, and why we use them is explained opposite.
- Auto(matic) – this is where the camera makes a guess on a shot by shot basis.
- Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized as a little bulb, it is very ideal for shooting indoors It generally cools down the colours in your photos.
- Fluorescent – this is the opposite of tungsten and will warm up your shots.
- Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up, ideally for cloudy days.
- Flash – the flash on your camera is usually a cool light, so in Flash WB mode ,you’ll find it warms up your shots a little.