subject: Digital Photography Instruction - Understanding the ISO, F-Stops and Shutter Speed [print this page] Digital Photography Instruction - Understanding the ISO, F-Stops and Shutter Speed
I remember getting my first SLR, and flipping through the manual and wondering what they were talking about. There are three things that you really need to understand about your camera to get good quality shots, and these three things work together. The most important piece of digital photography instruction I can give you, is a basic understanding of the ISO, the F-stops, and Shutter Speed.
In my opinion the easiest to understand is the Shutter Speed, so I will start here. Basically, just like the name says, the shutter speed determines how fast the shutter opens up to allow the light to come into the camera. Shutter speed is usually expressed in fractions. Each fraction represents the amount of time the shutter stays open. For example, a shutter speed of 1/4 means that the shutter will stay open for a quarter of a second, and a shutter speed of 1/2000 the shutter will be open for one two thousandth of a second. Now if you are out in the bright sun you are going to want a faster shutter speed, as you will not need much light. If you are taking pictures in a darker area, you will need the shutter to stay open a bit longer. One piece of advice, the longer the shutter is open the greater the chance for a blurry picture. The camera will pick up on the slightest shake of your hand with a longer shutter speed. You will want to use a tripod if taking pictures in the dark, such as fireworks.
The next part of digital photography instruction I will share with you is understanding the ISO. ISO stands for International Standards Organisation. Basically it has to deal with how sensitive the camera is to light, with lower numbers of ISO being not so sensitive and larger numbers getting increasingly more sensitive. What does this all mean? Well, if you are in a well lit spot or can use a flash you are going to go with a low number ISO on your camera, if you are in a darker area and cannot use a flash you will go with the higher. The higher ISO can give you a more grainier look to the picture, but it is usually not very noticeable. ISO to a digital camera is what film speed is to a film camera. When using film you would usually use a film speed of 100 when shooting outside, and 400 or 800 for inside pictures. The great thing about using a digital camera is you can change this setting from shot to shot, as apposed to having to wait until you need to change the film.
Finally, I will discuss the F-stop also known as the aperture. Your f-stop determines two things when taking pictures. It determines how large the opening is on your shutter, which determines how much light can get in. The higher the number the smaller the opening. So, each click to the next higher number means that the opening lets in half of the light. For a bright area use a higher number, and a dark area use a lower number. The F-stop also determines the depth of field, which basically has to do with the distance from you to your subject, and the focal length of the lens. The smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field. This means that each time you click to a smaller f-stop more area behind your subject will be clear. So, if you want to take a nice large landscape picture you will want to use a very small f-stop. If you want an image with the subject close and in focus with the background blurry use a larger f-stop.
These three things work hand in hand for getting a good quality picture. I had the opportunity to work with a wedding photographer, and it took me a while finally figure out how to get them to work together. Once I did, I was able to take some beautiful pictures. Figuring out the proper ISO, shutter speed, and F-stop will give you the opportunity to take pictures without using the flash, which gives you a beautiful natural shot. Now that you have the basic understanding of these things go to http://www.squidoo.com/digitalphotographyadvice to get some photography advice on getting good pictures.
