Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO
APERTURE -
“The opening in the lens”
The larger aperture you have, the larger hole is open and the more light will get through. The smaller aperture, the less light. Aperture is measured in F-stops. The larger number associated with the F, the smaller the aperture is (Yeah, ok sure. Why not). The numbers either half or double depending on which direction you are adjusting your aperture. In relation to the shutter speed, if you are increasing your shutter speed, you should decrease your aperture in order to allow the same amount of light to get in. If you are decreasing your shutter speed, you should increase your aperture for the same reason. In relation to DoF (Depth of Field), When you have a larger aperture, the DoF will decrease to give you a shallow DoF. Alternatively, with a small aperture you will have a deeper DoF. I will review DoF more in detail in a minute.
https://digital-photography-school.com/aperture/
SHUTTER SPEED -
“The amount of time that the shutter/lens is open”
Shutter speed is basically the amount of time that you are allowing the lens to be open to capture the image. This will mostly come in handy when you are trying to capture things that are moving. If you are trying to take a picture of something that is moving quickly, you will want to have a fast shutter speed, that means you are decreasing the amount of time your lens has to capture the image. This seems counter-intuitive at first (at least to me), but when your object is moving fast, you don’t want your camera to pick up on too much of that movement. The movement will create a blurred photograph. There are times that this might actually be the result you are trying to create, such as visually creating movement in the water of a stream or waterfall. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of seconds, for example, 1/1000 of a second is obviously much faster that 1/30 of a second. It is recommended to use 1/60 or faster. In relation to aperture, see above. I really can’t seem to figure out how to change this setting on my camera.
https://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed/
ISO -
“The Measurment of sensitivity for the image sensor”
Iso is measuring how sensitive the lens is to light. If it is a bright and sunny day, you do not need you ISO to be very high. In fact, if your ISO is too high for the lighting you are working with, your photos will become over-exposed. On the contrary, if your ISO is too low when you are trying to shoot in a lower light setting, your photos will be underexposed. The risk to turning up the ISO in a low light setting too much, is that it will add noise, or a grainy quality to your photos. 100 ISO is the standard or normal level. If you are photographing something at night that is moving quickly, you would want to turn up the ISO as well as turn up the shutter speed.
https://digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings/
DOF -
“Depth of Field”
DoF is the acceptable sharpness within a photo of the object/s in focus. When you have a shallow DoF, the subject in the foreground will be in focus, while anything behind that subject appears blurry, you can accomplish this with a larger aperture. The simple version of this is ‘portrait mode’. If you want your photos to have a deeper DoF, to pick up sharpness and detail throughout the frame, you will want to have a smaller aperture. The lens your using can also effect your DoF, a longer lens will generally give you a shallow DoF, where as a short lens, gives a deep DoF. A shallow DoF is also how you would accomplish an effect such as ‘bokeh’ where the light sources are causing a halo or circle of light where the light is coming from.
https://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-depth-field-beginners/
DYNAMIC RANGE -
The Dynamic range of a subject will show you the difference between the darkest and the lightest part of the photograph. You do not want the dynamic range of your subject to exceed the dynamic range of your camera. You can visually see your dynamic range by using a camera’s histogram. The histogram is a graph that shows you the levels of lightness to darkness in the photograph. Changing your ISO/exposure levels, will help you to make sure you have a good dynamic range.
https://www.adorama.com/alc/8256/article/dynamic-range-photography-explained
