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Ashley Morgan, one of the new Alices to grace the MTP
ISO 1000, f/2.8 at 1/320th second |
For several years, I was the photographer who relied on the automatic modes to help me properly expose an image. Scratch that, I relied solely on Aperture Priority mode for all shooting conditions. It wasn't until I decided to get serious about sports and concert photography did I realize I was severely limiting my ability capture decent photos. In a previous post, I discussed how important it was to have the appropriate shutter speed to stop motion. There are multiple ways to properly expose an image and depending on your shooting conditions certain settings are more appropriate than others. In this post, I want to help you use a base line reading from your automatic modes to get you to the settings necessary to capture the image you need in Manual mode.
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The wonderful Dani Kerry as Alice - shot at ISO 1000,
f/4, 1/250th second |
The exposure triangle consists of 3 separate and controllable features in your camera: Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture. The chart below breaks down each individual component of the triangle by one stop. Strangely, I believe wikipedia describes a stop in the most appropriate way: "stops are...unit[s] used to quantify ratios of light or exposure, with each added stop meaning a factor of two, and each subtracted stop meaning a factor of one-half". Each jump to right in the chart below means you gather twice as much light, while a move to the left means you gather half as much light.
Shutter Speed
1/4000th
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1/2000th
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1/1000th
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1/500th
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1/250th
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1/125th
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1/60th
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1/30th
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1/15th
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1/8th
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Freezes motion & gathers less light -----------------------> Introduces motion/blur & gathers more light
ISO (sensitivity of camera sensor to light)
100
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200
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400
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800
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1600
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3200
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6400
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12800
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25600
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51200
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Clean images & gathers less light ----------------------------------> Grainier images & gathers more light
Aperture
f/32
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f/22
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f/16
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f/11
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f/8
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f/5.6
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f/4
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f/2.8
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f/2
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f/1.4
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Greater depth of field & gathers less light -------------> Shallower depth of field & gathers more light
