The Holy Trinity
Ok, so let’s start with this: Yes I am a Christian, no I’m not going to shove my religion down your throat! This post is about the Holy Trinity of PHOTOGRAPHY!
*This might be geared towards newer photographers more so than the more seasoned veterans, however, we can all use a healthy reminder of how simple photography can be when you break it down to the basics!*
When you look at a great photo, it usually has 3 main aspects to it. Great photos can be of a really interesting subject or they could be of a normal everyday subject, however, the differentiation is found in the composition, detail, and exposure. While all three are crucial to putting together an awesome photo, this post focuses on the latter as it is the most technical. You can take the most amazing photo, but if it isn’t exposed properly, you’re left with a lackluster snap that just doesn’t do the trick. How many times have you seen a photo that is either over or underexposed or even just has partially over or underexposed parts and it’s simply not impressive despite being an otherwise decent shot? I can say it happens a TON and if you take the time to look, you can see it happen all the time on Instagram and Facebook.
So the real question here is how do we nail the exposure every time without having to “figure it out” (typically via trial and error) which can be time consuming? If you said “put it on Auto and let technology do it’s job,” please go sit in the corner and think about what you did. Kidding…. kind of. As a photographer, being able to successfully navigate manual mode is what is going to help you stand out amongst your peers and also allow you to focus on the creative aspect rather than the technical. This undoubtedly becomes second nature and after a little while, you won’t even really need to think about the adjustments you’re making!
So the question is, “How do I nail my exposure every time?”
Truthfully, it’s quite simple and comes down to a balancing act between 3 specific settings.
Shutter Speed
Aperture
ISO
To understand exactly how they work in conjunction with one another, we have to look at what each one does.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is simply the amount of time you set for your shutter to stay open. When you take a photo, that audible “click” that you hear is your shutter opening and closing. The longer the shutter stays open, the more light it collects for the image. Depending on what you’re shooting or what type of effect you’re aiming to achieve will determine how long your shutter needs to stay open.
The number you’re seeing when you set the shutter speed is the length of time the shutter stays open. For example, if you are trying to take a photo that seemingly “stops time” by freezing a fast moving subject without any sort of motion blur (think a football player running at full speed) you will need a very quick shutter speed such as 1/1000 which is one thousandth of a second. If you don’t use a fast enough shutter speed, you will introduce a ton of motion blur. On the flip side, if you are attempting to make a long exposure photo (think of the photos with cars at night and all of the light trails) you would need to keep the shutter open longer probably in upwards of 2 full seconds.
Aperture
Aperture is a numerical value that corresponds to the size of the opening in a lens where the light passes through in order to capture the image. Aperture is often referred to as the “f-stop” as it is shown as an f followed by a number (f/1.8, f/8, f/22, etc.) What happens with the adjustment of this setting is the smaller the number is, the larger the opening. That might seem a little backwards but you will get accustomed to it over time. The benefit of this depends again on your goal. If you are attempting to take a portrait and have your subject be in focus while the background is nice and blurred or achieve a ‘bokeh’ effect (example) then you would want a very low aperture such as a f/1.8. Meanwhile, if you’re goal is to achieve a starburst effect from a bright light source, then you’d want to crank your f-stop up to something very high like an f/22. A good rule of thumb is the lower the aperture, the more light is being let in and the higher the number, the less light.
ISO
This is the simplest setting out of the triad and generally I like to leave it for last. ISO is nothing more than a setting created to introduce artificial light into an image. If you are shooting with a quick shutter speed and a high f-stop, your image is likely going to be very very dark! ISO is the fix for this. The lower the ISO, the darker the image. Very easy to remember. Be very careful though, depending on your camera, you might be limited to how high of an ISO you can reach before getting a lot of noise in your photos! Noise is easily one of the most irritating aspects of photography as it can ruin an otherwise perfect photo. For this very reason you want to keep your ISO as low as possible in pretty much every situation.
Now that we’ve covered what each of those settings are and what they do, all that’s left is to take a look at the balancing act required for a good photograph and how each setting interacts with the other.
My general approach when exposing an image is pretty straight forward.
Decide on what shutter speed I am looking for. Again, depending on the amount of motion involved, I’ll determine how fast or slow my shutter speed can be.
Decide on whether I want a shallow depth of field (blurred background or bokeh) or not. If I don’t need or want a shallow depth of field, this step acts as a lighting tool as opposed to a styling tool.
If I know that my aperture can be high or low, I will give priority to the ISO and set it as low as possible and go back and adjust my aperture to even out the image.
This works for almost every scenario that you’ll encounter. The important thing to remember is to have a vision of what you want to create. Once you know what kind of photo you want and what type of style you want to shoot with, you’ll know more or less the ballpark of where your settings need to be.
All in all, it really is that simple. The only way to get better now that you have a basic understanding of how these settings play together… is to go out and shoot!
