Exposure & SettingsBeginner3 min read
Aperture and depth of field
The aperture controls light and how much of the scene is sharp at the same time. It is the control that most changes how a photograph feels.
Exposure & Settings
Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, metering and the modes that combine them.
Exposure & SettingsBeginner3 min read
The letters on the mode dial
P, A, S and M are not difficulty levels. Each hands you a different control and does the arithmetic on the rest.
Exposure & SettingsBeginner3 min read
ISO and noise
ISO buys brightness when there is not enough light, and pays for it with noise. Knowing when that trade is worth it is the skill.
Exposure & SettingsIntermediate3 min read
Metering, and why it lies
Your camera's meter assumes every scene averages to mid-grey. Knowing when that assumption fails explains most automatic exposure mistakes.
Exposure & SettingsBeginner3 min read
Shutter speed
How long the sensor is exposed decides whether movement is frozen or smeared. It is the most visible of the three controls.
Exposure & SettingsBeginner2 min read
The exposure triangle
Three controls decide how bright a photograph is, and each one changes something else as well. That trade-off is the whole of exposure.