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What is exposure? |
Examples of exposure |
What is shutter speed? |
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What is aperture? |
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What is depth of field ? |
All links below are animations so be patient for them to load before viewing.
What is a histogram? |
If you have read through the above information completely and feel confident that you are ready to shoot and not waste time with the Canon Rebels you may check one out for the period. You should have a specific scene in mind before checking out the camera and tripod.
Let’s work with the Manual Mode (M) on our cameras.
There are two ways in which you can control the amount of light that gets to the film/sensor. The first way is by adjusting the SHUTTER SPEED. The shutter speed is a measure, in fractions of a second, of the amount of time the shutter remains open. On most digital SLR (SLR= Single Lens Reflex) cameras there is a scroll wheel that you rotate to determine the shutter speed. You might have to push another button while you rotate the wheel. Some cameras have buttons you can push to raise or lower the shutter speed. Find out how to set the shutter speed.
The second is the APERTURE, the variable opening in the lens through which light passes. Light enters the lens through the front, passes through glass (or plastic) elements (lenses) but before it reaches the sensor, the amount or volume of that light is limited by the aperture. The aperture is also controlled by a scroll wheel, a scroll wheel-button combination or by buttons. Find out how to set the aperture on your camera.
Ok, so one way you can practice with the shutter speed and aperture, to see what they do is the following:
Set the shutter speed to 1/250 (or between 1/60 -1/250). Set the aperture to 2.8 or whatever the largest aperture is (smallest number). Take a picture. Change the aperture to the next number (4 in this case). Take a picture. Repeat for the other aperture values. Look at the images.
Set the aperture to the smallest opening (largest number). Let’s say 22. Set your shutter speed to 1/4 second. Take a picture. Set the shutter speed to 1/8 second. Take a picture. Repeat for the other shutter speeds.
This will help to give you an idea of what’s happening when you change settings, and some practice changing them. It is helpful to know where the settings are so you don’t miss photographs while trying to figure out what to do!
I also wanted to talk about “bracketing”. Bracketing is when you shoot three images, each with a different exposure. The first is shot underexposed. The second you shoot as the meter tells you, and the third you shoot overexposed. So, to bracket with shutter speed, if I’m using an f-stop of f/16, my meter tells me the scene requires a shutter speed of 200. I will shoot one image with an f-stop of f/16 and a shutter speed of 100, a second image with the f-stop of f/16 and the shutter speed of 200, and a third image with the f-stop of f/16 and a shutter speed of 400.
Image 1: f/16 @ 1/100
Image 2: f/16 @ 1/200
Image 3: f/16 @ 1/400
You could also do this by bracketing the aperture, such that you shot as follows:
Image 1: f/11 @ 1/200
Image 2: f/16 @ 1/200
Image 3: f/22 @ 1/200
Bracketing will help you determine the best exposure.
Exposure bracketing means that you take two more pictures: one slightly under-exposed (usually by dialing in a negative exposure compensation, say -1/3EV), and the second one slightly over-exposed (usually by dialing in a positive exposure compensation, say +1/3EV).