For any beginner with DSLR, the first book that will be recommended to go through before trying their hands on manual mode is Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. This is one book that has never been easy for me to borrow from the library, since the "on hold" due has always been pretty long. But definitely worth the wait. I happened to read it for the second time recently and this post is on the words ( or close to) of the author of this book.
Shutter Speed, Exposure and ISO are the three key concepts that needs thorough understanding before one starts exploring and experimenting in manual mode. So those three put together is called "The Photographic Triangle" and the heart of the triangle is Light metering. I have always written about these three concepts a lot earlier, but they have never been combined back-to-back to make a lot of sense. So doing it here.
ISO: Ranges from 100 to 3600 or beyond. Setting the ISO to bigger numbers allows more light into the camera, making pictures brighter even with limited lighting. Say for example, inside the house/building, where the light is very low, popping ISO to 200 or 400 adds sense to taking indoor pictures, which might otherwise turn out underexposed.
But it has its cons, the grains. Bigger ISOs brings noise to the picture making it look grainy. Well, that is not a problem these days, since with a lot of ready-to-download free softwares like Noiseware, it doesnt take more than a couple of minutes to fix the noise and making the picture noise-free and smooth.
Exposure: It is the f stop number. It is all about how big is the lens opening to capture the details of the picture. The bigger aperture (smaller f number), it takes in every detail of a smaller area and the remaining (what we call here as background) becomes all blurry giving a beautiful bokeh. Same way, the smaller aperture (bigger f number), it takes in all the details - from the back to the front making it a no bokeh, all intact shot.
Exposure allows room for the concept depth of field or shallow depth of field. Any F stop that covers all the details in the shot from back ground to foreground has got a good DOF, and anything the makes the foreground - subject stand out from the background makes a shallow DOF.
Also, exposure determines the shape of the bokeh. Say for example a smaller f stop gives perfect circle bokehs ( shape of the lens as such), and anywhere inbetween like f 8 to f 11 gives hexagonal bokehs and anything beyond that doesnt render much bokeh in general.
Shutter Speed: This determines how long the shutter of the lens remains opened and thus says how much light gets in depending on the external light situation. The longer the shutter is opened more light enters and vice verse.
So going by common sense, during low light situations we keep the shutter open for longer time (like 30 seconds exposure or 10 seconds exposure) to allow in more light and during a bright sunny day the shutter speed is high to allow minimal light just enough to light the scene/shot.
After setting the ISO and aperture, adjusting the shutter speed back and forth while holding the click button half way down, the camera usually tells which is the right shutter speed for this kind of specific setting. But as always, there is this concept called "creatively right" shutter speed which might not have to be the right shutter speed suggested by the camera. That is when the room for creativity is squeezed out.
And the heart of the triangle is the "light metering" which is definitely very vast to write in this post.
I would again suggest any newbie to photography who is truly interested to go through this above book atleast once. It definitely throws light on the abcs of the photography with a very simple language and doesnt confuse with fancy terms at all.
Shutter Speed, Exposure and ISO are the three key concepts that needs thorough understanding before one starts exploring and experimenting in manual mode. So those three put together is called "The Photographic Triangle" and the heart of the triangle is Light metering. I have always written about these three concepts a lot earlier, but they have never been combined back-to-back to make a lot of sense. So doing it here.
ISO: Ranges from 100 to 3600 or beyond. Setting the ISO to bigger numbers allows more light into the camera, making pictures brighter even with limited lighting. Say for example, inside the house/building, where the light is very low, popping ISO to 200 or 400 adds sense to taking indoor pictures, which might otherwise turn out underexposed.
But it has its cons, the grains. Bigger ISOs brings noise to the picture making it look grainy. Well, that is not a problem these days, since with a lot of ready-to-download free softwares like Noiseware, it doesnt take more than a couple of minutes to fix the noise and making the picture noise-free and smooth.
Exposure: It is the f stop number. It is all about how big is the lens opening to capture the details of the picture. The bigger aperture (smaller f number), it takes in every detail of a smaller area and the remaining (what we call here as background) becomes all blurry giving a beautiful bokeh. Same way, the smaller aperture (bigger f number), it takes in all the details - from the back to the front making it a no bokeh, all intact shot.
Exposure allows room for the concept depth of field or shallow depth of field. Any F stop that covers all the details in the shot from back ground to foreground has got a good DOF, and anything the makes the foreground - subject stand out from the background makes a shallow DOF.
Also, exposure determines the shape of the bokeh. Say for example a smaller f stop gives perfect circle bokehs ( shape of the lens as such), and anywhere inbetween like f 8 to f 11 gives hexagonal bokehs and anything beyond that doesnt render much bokeh in general.
Shutter Speed: This determines how long the shutter of the lens remains opened and thus says how much light gets in depending on the external light situation. The longer the shutter is opened more light enters and vice verse.
So going by common sense, during low light situations we keep the shutter open for longer time (like 30 seconds exposure or 10 seconds exposure) to allow in more light and during a bright sunny day the shutter speed is high to allow minimal light just enough to light the scene/shot.
After setting the ISO and aperture, adjusting the shutter speed back and forth while holding the click button half way down, the camera usually tells which is the right shutter speed for this kind of specific setting. But as always, there is this concept called "creatively right" shutter speed which might not have to be the right shutter speed suggested by the camera. That is when the room for creativity is squeezed out.
And the heart of the triangle is the "light metering" which is definitely very vast to write in this post.
I would again suggest any newbie to photography who is truly interested to go through this above book atleast once. It definitely throws light on the abcs of the photography with a very simple language and doesnt confuse with fancy terms at all.
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