Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to learn the ins and outs of using your manual settings on your camera? If so, then this is the place to look. I’ll be doing a short series that will introduce you to using manual settings on your camera for your photography. I’ll be discussing key terms, what they mean, and what they do for you in photography. I might even throw in some examples! So, pick up your camera, turn your settings to manual, and lets get started!
1. Let’s Start with Exposure
What is Exposure you ask? Well, exposure is basically the amount of light that is captured over a specific amount of time. The amount of light captured is controlled by the Aperture, while the specific amount of time that light is captured is controlled by the shutter speed. In layman’s terms, your Exposure is the process of recording light onto your digital sensor or onto your film (if you’re using an SLR.)
2. Aperture? What’s that?
The Aperture, or your F-stop, is the setting that controls how much light hits your sensor or film. Basically, the hole in your lens that opens (to let more light in) or closes (to let in less light) is your Aperture. It works quite similarly to the iris in your eye. The larger that the hole (Aperture) gets, the more light you will have hit your sensor. The smaller that the hole (Aperture) gets, the less light you will have hit your sensor.
3. F-Stop was Mentioned, what’s that?
Ready to have your mind blown? This part gets rather tricky and still confuses me from time to time. F-Stop is your Aperture number, if you will. The confusing part though, is that the HIGHER the number (F-Stop), the LESS amount of light gets recorded to your sensor or film. Confused yet? So, if your Aperture (F-Stop) is f2.8, that means that you’re letting in a LOT of light, whereas if you’re Aperture (F-Stop) is f22, that means you’re letting in far LESS light. So, now you know what people mean when they’re talking about their cool new lens that gets to f1.2. It means their lens will allow in a lot of light, and will be great for low light photography. Another interesting fact about your Aperture (F-Stop) that I should mention, is that your Aperture (F-Stop) controls the Depth of Field in a photo. See our next step to learn more about Depth of Field.
4. Depth of Field, what does that entail?
Depth of Field (DoF) is quite simply the amount of an image that is in focus. An image with a very shallow Depth of Field (DoF) would be an image where only a small part of the image is in focus, and the rest of the image is blurred. The blurring, we call Bokeh, and creates an awesome atmosphere for many different photos. Similarly, an image with a very deep Depth of Field (DoF), would be an image where everything in the photo is in focus. See the following photo as an example.
Does the image above have a deep or shallow Depth of Field (DoF)? If you answered shallow, then you’re correct! The flower girl is practically the only thing in focus, whereas the kilts of the groomsmen behind her are blurred pretty well.
Before we go any further with this series, I want you to take what you’ve learned today and put it into practice. I recommend you memorize your F-Stops that you have available. Some lenses won’t lower numbers such as f1.2, but some will. Check your lenses out, and see how big and smal your F-Stops go. Then, take some pictures, trying the different numbers, and really see for yourself what happens with the Exposure and the Depth of Field. It’s best to take a picture of multiple items, and only focus on one, to see the true difference. And since how we’re only just beginning, I recommend that you set your camera to Aperture Priority (AP or AV). This will allow you to play around with your Aperture (F-Stop) while the camera automatically selects the appropriate shutter speed based on the amount of available light. Don’t worry if your photos are slightly dark, as when you shoot in AP/AV mode, photos tend to be slgihtly underexposed.
In the next installment of this series, we will explore Shutter Speed and capturing/freezing motion. Check back soon for our second installment, and until then practice what you’ve learned here and have fun doing it!
