How to Use Camera Settings For Your Digital Photography

Are you tired of having a hard time programming the right settings on your camera? This article will show you the basics to knowing how to use your camera to take great shots. When you follow this advice, you can focus more on composing shots, not worrying about if it’s going to be blurry or overexposed.

There are many settings on your camera and I’m going to dissect the most important ones for you. They are

– Shutter speed - Aperture - Focus - ISO

Here’s how a camera works. You have a light sensitive medium or film inside your camera. The shutter speed opens letting light in through a hole called the aperture. This hole can be changed in size to let in a different amount of light. The shutter remains open and lets the light expose the film for however long you set it in the camera. After this, the shutter closes and you take your next shot.

Shutter speed As mentioned above, the shutter controls the amount of time light is let in. It is measured in seconds or fractions of seconds. The longer the shutter time, the more light in. This is great for dark scenes that need more light to be seen. Faster shutter speeds, on the other hand, are good for very bright scenes like at the beach. When you use a long shutter speed be sure to use a tripod. Shutter speeds slower than 1/60 should have a tripod since the shutter is open for a long time and if the camera moves, blur will occur.

Aperture This control is the opening in the camera. It controls how much light is let in. You can change it to have a very small hole or a very large hole. A large hole is something like f2.8 and a small hole is f16. They both have different effects on your shots. A large hole will give you a shallow depth of field where your subject is in focus but the background is blurred. A small hole is for everything to be in focus and is great for landscape shots or large fields that need everything in focus.

In general, the smaller the aperture, the more likely you’ll need a tripod. Why is this? Because the hole is smaller and less light is let in. This means the shutter speed (the amount of time the light is let in) must be set to a longer time.

Both the shutter speed and the aperture are mutually exclusive and effect each other. If you use a small aperture, you need a long shutter speed. If you use a large aperture, you’ll need a shorter shutter speed.

Focus The focus is something that is very important for shots. If you have blurry shots its either because your using a slow shutter speed without a tripod or just aren’t focusing right. Manual focus is the best focus and is also more difficult.

ISO The ISO on your camera controls the sensitivity to light of your film. An ISO of 800 is a very sensitive film. This means that you will be able to use it in darker scenes where less light is available. An ISO of 200 is much less sensitive and is good for scenes with plenty of light such as the beach.