good cameras, iso aperture, shutter speed?

Question by Alex Smith: good cameras, iso aperture, shutter speed?
i’m really into art and i just started learning digital photography.
I understand what ISO and aperture and shutter speed basically do but i was wondering
what are the “normal” settings for these functions.
and also what is a good camera for me to learn how to manually set these functions with.
thank you so much:)

Best answer:

Answer by joedlh
There is no normal.

ISO governs light sensitivity. Too high leads to noise in the image. Too low leads to blurred movement or dark images because of insufficient light.

Aperture describes how much light enters the chamber. It also governs depth of field.

Shutter speed governs how long the light impinges on the light sensitive medium (film or digital sensor). Long intervals lead to motion blur, which is sometimes desirable, sometimes not.

The three together control exposure or the proper amount of light needed to get a good image.

Add your own answer in the comments!

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4 Responses to good cameras, iso aperture, shutter speed?

  1. Andy S says:

    By asking what the normal settings of these functions are it shows you do not truly understand what they do. There is no normal setting as it is individual for each image taken depending on the available light and the final result of the image

    Correct Exposure depends on many factors and the only way to learn is by getting hold of your camera and trying them out.

    Any Digital SlR witha manual function will be good to learn how to use the.

    have a read here for more details on exposure http://bit.ly/eawO0R

  2. b0b says:

    ISO (sensor sensitivity = how good the camera eye is in light)
    native is usually 100 ISO but some Olympus cams it is 200. Using the native ISO is best for lack of digital noise (akin to ‘grain’ in film days)

    Aperture widens (more light) as shutter speeds up (less time he light gets thru)

    For a given ‘correct’ exposure you therefore usually have several choices;
    on a sunny day outdoors f 11 at 125th of a second at ISO 100 may be the right balance.
    But you can choose f8 at 250th seconds, same ISO
    Or f4 at 1000th second, by cranking the ISO to 200 (which is usually not a noisy problem zone in modern cameras).

    The latter will give you a narrow depth of focus (nearby and in the distance will be fuzzy)
    The first will give almost everything in focus, but if the subject is moving quickly, it may be a bit blurred, especially if your hand holding technique is not perfect and the lens has a long focal length.

    So all these balances take a lot of trial and error and experience to balance for a given subject.

    Read a load of books, m8

  3. photog says:

    There is no “normal” setting.
    It all depends on the prevailing lighting conditions and the effect that you want the picture to have.

    An entry level dslr will do you initially.

  4. FRED says:

    To learn about photography you need to understand the basic fact that an image is simply the exposure of light onto a sensitive surface from which the image thus captured can be reproduced. In pre-digital days this was the film which digital has changed to a CCD that captures the image in an electronic format.

    The quality of light is essentially a combination of the 3 factors that you mentioned :

    ISO : represents the sensitivity of the film / CCD receiving the image. In digital terms it also affects image quality because the higher the ISO number (image sensitivity) the greater the potential for noise (aka film grain). The problem of noise can be reduced by buying the higher priced cameras where the software can handle the processing required to obviate noise but the level at which noise disappears depends much on the ambient light of the subject.

    APERTURE : represents the quantity of light being allowed onto the film / CCD noting that the lower the “f” number the wider open is the lens. This governs depth-of-field which actually improves the higher the “f” number (i.e. the less the quantity of light being allowed).

    SHUTTER SPEED : represents the length of time that light will be allowed to pass onto the film / CCD. This is important when taking photographs of moving objects when the image must be taken sufficiently fast to “freeze” the action..

    In simple terms the combination of shutter speed and aperture control the amount of light allowed onto the film / CCD whilst the ISO controls the quality of the light allowed. Together all 3 combine to create an image with known light and image quality.

    The “normal” settings will depend on the subject matter ranging from the extremes of architectural subjects where detail is important thus utilises a slow shutter speed and high aperture value ( minimum aperture) to give high depth of field whereas photographing high speed movement requires a fast shutter speed with consequent lower aperture value (maximum aperture) to concentrate on the moving subject.

    The combinations you require will be found by (a) trying the various combinations to find which gives best results for your satisfaction (b) talk with photographers already photographing the subject to find out what combinations they use / recommend in any given situation (c) look at books / magazines on the subject to find out how photographers composed their image(s) and the techniques used to create the particular images and (d) submit images to forums / persons for honest opinions and guidance on how to improve your picture-taking.

    To a certain extent the camera choice will depend on the subject matter and that is best found by talking to the staff in a camera shop / camera club where images can be shown and discussed. If possible try and find an old-fashioned shop where staff are happy to discuss this rather than visit a shop where the important factor is the sale rather than selling you the camera that fits the need.

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