Digital Photography Guide – Understanding the ISO, F-Stops and Shutter Speed for high quality pictures like a pro

For beginner photography, getting the new SLR camera at the first time can be a lot of fun. As beginners, a bit confusing with lots of setting and rich of camera features are common for mostly newbie. Basically there are three areas that you should understand with the DSLR camera: the ISO, aperture or F-stops, and shutter speed. By understanding this digital photography guide, you will shoot like a pro.

Understanding Shutter Speed

Digital photography guide #1 is about shutter speed, the easiest element to understand. As discussed in the previous article about the exposure – the basic principle in exposure technique, shutter speed in one of the elements of exposure triangle. Shutter speed will determine how fast the shutter opens up to allow the light around the object in target to get into the camera sensor.

In digital camera, shutter speed is usually expressed in seconds or fractions of seconds that represents the amount of time the shutter stays open. For example, a shutter speed of 1/4 means that the shutter will stay open for a quarter of a second, and a shutter speed of 1/2000 the shutter will be open for one two thousandth of a second after you press the shutter button. If the source of the light is abundant such as daytime when the sun is shining brightly, you need a faster speed.

If you are taking pictures in a darker area, you will need the shutter to stay open a bit longer. One piece of advice, the longer the shutter is open the greater the chance for a blurry picture is as the result of the camera shake due to handheld. It is therefore, in taking the pictures with longer shutter speed, you need a steady tripod. See also low light photography.

ISO Speed

Digital photography guide #2 is dealing with the ISO Speed. ISO speed identifies how sensitive the camera sensor is to the light. The lower the number of the ISO speed, the camera will be less sensitive to light. On the other hand, with the larger the number of ISO speed, the more sensitive the camera sensor will be to the light. In practical situation when the subjects are in a well lit spot or can use a flash you are going to go with a low number ISO on your camera. On the other hand when your subjects are in dark area, low light, and no flash, then you need higher ISO number.

Unfortunately, with the higher the ISO number, the more noise will look – even though it is not very much noticeable. ISO in digital photography is similar to film speed in film camera. In film camera you would use ISO 100 for daytime or outdoor shootings. For indoor shots, you need ISO 400 or ISO 800 such as night photography activities. The good thing with digital camera is that you can select which ISO speed you need according the lighting conditions.

F-stop or Aperture

Digital photography guide #3 is about the F-stop also known as the aperture. F-stop setting in your digital camera determines how large the opening of the shutter is which determines how much light will get into the camera sensor. The rule is that the higher the F-stop the smaller the shutter opening which means the depth of field area is broader.

For example, in landscape photography where you need the detail of the broad area, typically you use small aperture such as f/13 or f/22. To focus only small area of the subject while the surrounding object is blurry, you need large aperture or commonly called with the open lens term such as f/1.8 or f/2.8. The smaller the aperture is the greater the depth of field. This means that each time you click to a smaller f-stop more area behind your subject will be detail and clear.

By understanding these three things with this digital photography guide, they work hand in hand to create high quality photos. This guideline is a basic step in mastering the photography techniques. The next step you can learn how the lighting will affect your photo results. Read more about how to trick the light here. After that you also need to upgrade your knowledge with composition rules in photography and also understanding digital photo coloring.

Ki Grinsing

See also:

• How the bright and the dark background affect the exposure?
• How to compose the photo according to rules of thirds
• Understanding digital lenses – the terminology