Digital SLR Camera Settings

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There are three basic settings on your digital camera that combine to make an image look just right - the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO. Altering any one of these settings will affect the amount of light captured by your camera, in turn affecting the exposure of the image. If you know how to handle them, you can master manual and semi-automatic modes and take your photography to the next level.

Aperture - The Size of the Hole

Inside your camera's lens, there's a little circular door called a diaphragm. This opens wide or closes narrow to limit the amount of light that passes through the lens into the camera. The size of this circular opening is the aperture.

If you open up the aperture really wide (i.e. f/1.8), you're going to let a lot of light in. This makes for a brighter image. Close the aperture to a really small value (i.e. f/11), and you heavily restrict the amount of light coming in. Usually, you'll sit somewhere in the middle and you need to adjust the aperture a little bit one way or the other to get your exposure just right.

The range is determined by your lens. Cheaper lenses will have a maximum aperture of f/5.6 - which isn't very far open. More specialized and (often) more expensive lenses will open up to f/2.8 or farther, allowing you to capture much more light when you need to. These specialized, expensive lenses are often called "fast lens" or "fast glass.

Shutter Speed - How Long the Door Is Open

Inside your camera, there's a little door called a shutter. This covers the camera's sensor and prevents light from coming in, unless you're actively taking an image. You press the button, the shutter opens, the shutter closes, and an image is created.

The shutter speed is a measurement of how long this door stays open. If you leave it open for a while (i.e. 1/15th of a second), you let in more light. If you leave it open for a split second (i.e. 1/2000th of a second), you let in very little light. Shooting in bright sunlight usually calls for a really quick shutter, whereas the limited amount of light indoors means slower shutter speeds.

ISO Rating - Digitally Enhancing the Light

The final component here is the ISO sensitivity rating. Your digital camera creates an image when the sensor senses light coming in. The ISO rating affects how sensitive the sensor is to the light, essentially allowing you to digitally enhance the amount of light that's captured.

A low ISO rating (i.e. ISO 100) will not amplify the light. This is fine if you've got plenty of light to work with. If you're shooting in a low light situation, though, a high ISO rating of ISO 3200 or ISO 6400 will ramp up the light and brighten your image substantially.

Endless Combinations

The key concept to remember that there are an endless number of combination's that will give you the "correct" exposure - i.e. the right amount of light. When you leave your camera in automatic mode, it picks one of those combinations for you.

For example, the camera might find that f/2.8, 1/250th of a second, and ISO 100 is appropriate. But f/4.0, 1/250th of a second, and ISO 200 would give you the same level of light. As would f/2.0, 1/500th of a second, and ISO 100.

The trade-off here is that these settings also affect other things. If your shutter is too slow, you can blurriness. If your aperture is really wide, you have a shallow depth of field and can only focus on a tiny area. If your ISO is too high, you get a lot of noise (speckly bits) in your photo. You can and should read more about depth of field

As the artist/photographer, you need to know how to adjust these settings so that you get both the proper exposure and the proper image. The camera is great at predicting exposure - but it's not so great at determining the proper depth of field, acceptable levels of noise, etc. That's best left to the eye of a seasoned artist - you.

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Brian is the author of Digital Photography How To and a partner in the studio Olinda Gibbons Photography. He also teaches high school, where he helps train students in photography and graphic design.

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