Lens aperture, shutter speed and ISO are the three primary adjustments available to achieve a properly exposed photograph. These settings can also affect the image quality and artistic effects of your photography.
Lens Aperture
The aperture is the size of the opening in the camera lens at the moment a photo is taken. Aperture is measured in fractions, so the larger the number, the smaller the aperture opening. Shutter speed and aperture are the two primary controls for limiting the amount of light that hits the camera sensor. Aperture also controls the depth of field. A small aperture will produce a photograph with almost all objects in focus. A large aperture will produce a photograph with a small amount of the objects in focus. This will give you control over what you want in focus. That is why I primarily use the aperture priority camera setting in my photography.
Typical apertures include: f1 f1.4 f2 f2.8 f4 f5.6 f8 f11 f16 f22 f32 f45
Camera Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter remains open when a photo is taken. Shutter speed and aperture together determine just how much light hits the film or camera sensor. The shutter speed is also a fraction, just like the aperture. A shutter speed of 500 is actually 1/500, or “one five hundredth of a second. To hand hold a camera, the rule of thumb is a 50mm lens can be hand-held at 1/60 of a second. A 200mm lens at 1/200 of a second and so on. To achieve this you can adjust the apertures or the ISO settings.
Typical shutter speeds: 30s 20s 10s 4s 2s 1s 1/2s 1/4s 1/8s 1/15s 1/30s 1/60s 1/125s 1/250s 1/500s 1/1000s 1/2000s 1/4000s
Camera Sensor ISO
The sensitivity of film or camera sensor is measured by ISO, and the larger the number, the more sensitive the camera sensor. ISO 100 needs a lot of light, like outdoors on a sunny day. ISO 1600 doesn’t need much light. However, higher ISO means more grain in the film and more noise in digital. Digital images borrow the ISO scale to measure the sensitivity of film. Just like the grain that’s added to film at higher ISO settings, more “noise” is added to digital images at higher ISO. In general, as ISO goes up, quality goes down. Some of the new mid to high-end D-SLR have improved the noise levels at the higher ISO settings up to ISO 1600. Some of the new cameras have ISO settings between 100 and 102400.
Typical ISO settings: 50 100 200 400 800 1600 and high ISO 3200 6400
Conclusion
My basic camera settings I use related to this article are: ISO 100 for best image quality and set camera to aperture priority. Also, use a tripod when ever possible. All three settings work in concert and affect proper exposure. All have their advantages an disadvantages, so experiment with all of these settings and you will become a better photographer.
Reference
Hear is a nice Exposure Chart
Doug Niedermiller Photography
About Doug Niedermiller
Hello Doug,
Thank you for the great article. I have recently become a fan of 100 ISO/Aperture Priority/f/8 setting on my Canon Rebel and I have seen a huge improvement in my photographs. Also, learning about my camera’s “Sweet Spot” was great also advice!
Thanks again,
Lawrence
I so surely appreciate this info. -I have a passion for aperture and macro with ISO creating light and or adjust it in the dark…
Thank You Doug
P.S. Keep it coming
Doug, thanks for your tips, for some many of us that don’t have the resources of going to seminars, training clases, etc. your tips from your experience fill those needs very well
thanks again
@donpatos
Nice concepts, sometimes I shot in manual mode in my old Nikon D70, with the attached flash can’t controller the light in both outdoor and indoor.
Integrated flash is cool, manual mode also, sometime my pics are over-exposed, and do corrections with Lightroom.
You web site is cool, I hope learn more from you.
Regards.
Hi ficovh
Thank you for the kind words. I am glad you enjoyed my website.
Here are a few things you might try.
The D70 has the few features that might help you with exposure.
First thing, I would shoot in the RAW file format. RAW files have all the information and will even have more detail in the shadows and highlights that are lost in the JPG file format. JPG files from your camera discards a lot of useful information that can help in post processing. I see you use Lightroom which supports RAW files. After you adjust them in Lightroom, just export them as JPG file format as needed.
Use the histogram on your camera and try to keep the graph somewhere in between ether side of the histogram box. This will give you the best exposure possible. If the graph goes beyond the right or left it will be over or under exposed. This is called clipping.
Consider using the exposure compensation function in Aperture-Priority or Shutter-Priority. Use this function if your Histogram is clipping. In manual mode this can be done by adjusting the Aperture or Shutter so that you compensate by over or under exposing as needed to get the Histogram not to clip as much as possible. Just note that if you have really bright or dark spots in your photograph you may not be able to remove all the clipping.
One more option to consider is the exposure bracketing function. In this function you will take 2 or 3 frames (I set to mine to 3 frames and +/- 5EV in increments 1/2) 1 would be properly exposed, 1 over exposed and 1 under exposed. Then in Lightroom pick the one with the best exposure.
Check you’re manual on how to use these functions or if you don’t have a manual go to Nikon’s website http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/dslr/D70_en.pdf for an online manual
Good luck
Doug Niedermilleer