A Simple Guide to Photography

Today we are going to talk about some of the main settings on a dslr camera that you should know. If you know this you can take our photos to the next level by using manual mode.

• A Camera

Think of an eye. If it is in brighter light it is smaller and if it is darker it is bigger. Aperture basically controls the amount of light let in. If you have an aperture of 4.5 (See the first image.) there would be more light let in and so the ISO and Shutter Time would be smaller. This generally means that you would get less shake in the photo but have a smaller DOF (Depth Of Field). If you had a aperture of 29 (See second image) you would have to have a higher ISO and higher Shutter Speed. You will probably get more shake but you also get a wider DOF.

ISO is setting that sets how sensitive the camera is to light. A Lower ISO means that it will be darker. A higher ISO means that you will have a brighter image. Today's digital cameras will adjust the Shutter Time and the Aperture to get a reasonable image. A higher ISO will give you a crisp image (First Image) while a bigger ISO will normally be very grainy (Second Image). I used the settings ISO 100 and ISO 12800. Try to keep the ISO reasonably low. If you are taking a photo you will need a higher ISO.

Shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open. In the first image the shutter speed was 1/250 of a second, the second image was 1/2000 of a second. The Shutter Speed can be used to make images brighter or darker. Beware that the longer the shutter is open the more shake you will get. You should put your camera into shutter priority mode and work out what shutter time is the longest that you can use while holding the camera. Anything over that you will need to use a tripod. When doing astrophotography you sometimes need to keep the shutter open for 15 minutes plus!

You Have Learnt:

Shutter Speed,

ISO,

And Aperture.

Now Go And Take Some Photos On Manual Mode.