Photography Exposure Trifecta

PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSURE TRIFECTA

Hello, I am still John Reed with the best online video resource in the history of the world!!!! Pixelmania.

When learning some of the basics of photography, many time we are jam packed with a ton of terms and content then left to figure it all out when we are by ourselves shooting in an environment that may be trickier to photograph than we thought. I don’t want to discount the Trial and Error discovery method when shooting, but why start with Error and work backwards to successful shots?

So, our numero uno topic of the day is……Exposure. Here’s a little FYI for ya.

Exposure is the combination of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings that determines how much light will be recorded at the focal point on your subject.

In other words, exposure require three parts: the Exposure Trifecta of Shutter Speed, Aperture or F Stop, and ISO. These ingredients control the amount of light you will receive into your photograph.

Simple enough… See you next time.

Oh, you want a little more information? Well, okay.

This can be an intimidating subject to a new photographer, but after this episode, you will feel much better suited to make these adjustments on the fly to get those properly exposed shots.

The first portion is shutter speed. We explored this segment in our last episode on Action Photography. Using shutter speed will allow you do something we call motion control. We want to control the action and motion of our subject in our shot first and foremost.

If the other settings are setup for a balanced exposure using a medium shutter speed at the Indianapolis 500, chances are you will catch a really well lit 195mph blur.

If the other settings are setup for a balanced exposure using a medium shutter speed at the Indianapolis 500, chances are you will catch a really well lit 195mph blur.

Instead of boring you with the standard talking head lectures, we are going to show you the real life applications to knowing these settings. So, lets skeedattle. [Look off camera] What? That’s a word.

Nothing is more frustrating than watching a tutorial that fails to explain the details in place of forcing you to follow along. For today, however, I am going to do just that. We are going to set our White Balance to Auto. We will give you a great episode explaining this setting, but we want to focus on exposure first.

We are using the studio for our shots because of the ability to control lighting. This is an easier first step for you the viewer instead of making multiple adjustments depending on clouds or light sources that might change. This is our control.

We will begin with a stationary object with limited motion. [Look off camera] Limited motion? It doesn’t move at all! Who writes this ju… oh, wait.

Here is our list of equipment. Camera is kind of a given, but it does top the list at number one.

Number two, a vase or vaz if you prefer. Really anything that will remain motionless.

Number three, a table or stand for your vaz.

Number four will be your tripod from the last episode.

An area to consider, as well, is your light source whether natural or produced from a manufactured source.

We are using one large light to help give an accurate example compared to what lighting you might be shooting with.

The next step is to now set your shutter speed. We are going to use 1/60 which will allow in more light. We will address moving subjects in a bit.

Next, we will adjust our aperture or F-stop. Time for our handy dandy FYI.

Aperture is an opening in your lens that is used to control the amount of light passing through the lensof your camera. Typically, this is constructed as an expanding and contracting iris that opens and closes in a circular motion.

Here is a visual aid to better to explain that iris.

So, the smaller the opening, the less light is allowed through, right?

This, of course, is where shutter speed comes back into the picture. If the iris controls the amount of light allowed into the camera, then the shutter can open a shorter or longer amount of time to use more or less of that available light.

This can be a little confusing so I will add clarity with a big word that is easy to understand: reciprocity.

Give me that FYI page one more time!

Reciprocity is the recipricol relatioship between shutter speed ands aperture. For example: a properly setup photograph with a 1/250 shutter speed aperture setting of f/8 we produce the same exposure as a 1/125 at f/16.

Here is a visual that you will want to write down.

So if we have a great shot here, and we adjust our shutter speed to here, we need to move our aperture to here to acheive the same results. Remembering this diagram will help you daily as you are shooting in differing circumstances.

Before we move on to ISO, it is time for a break from the huge amount of content we just threw at you. Let’s apply it.

Remember our vase… or vaz. We are setup to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/60 and my aperture or f stop is set to f/4.0. For the sake of simplicity, my ISO is set to 500. I will explain ISO in a minute.

Here is my shot. You will notice my metadata or photo facts at the bottom.

If you are thinkin that I need an f stop of f/3.5, then you are correct.

Take a look at these other shots I took while adjusting using reciprocity.

Notice the settings displayed at the bottom of each image.

The similarities are scary, huh?

That is because reciprocity works. So now that we have worked a little with that, it is time to address ISO. Once we have covered that, we will be back to the studio to shoot with our model and some other fun items.

ISO is a measurement of a film’s speed or light sensativity. The higher the ISO, the more sensative the film. The sensativity of digital camera sensors is also rated using the ISO scale.

The reason I left ISO until the end is because we want to set our shot up the best we can first and then use the ISO to adjust the sensativity to light. If we adjust our ISO first, then we are going to throw off our actual settings because the sensor is allowing more light to be read than is actually present.

If we were only a little dark on a shot, pushing the ISO up one setting level might be all it takes to make a perfect shot. If we were to start with an ISO of 3200, our shutter speed and aperture would give us a false exposure.

This is probrably the perfect time to adress over usage of ISO. Sometimes, despite the settings on your camera, an event might require a great deal higher ISO setting. Ince the shot is taken, you will notice’noise’ or abrassions on your picture. This is caused by to high an ISO setting. Sometimes, for example a family outing, getting the shot is more important than the perfection of the image, then fire away. Otherwise, this means that you need more light.

Before beginning out example shoot, let’s review…

So, we have talked about Shutter Speed, we have covered Aperture, and we have addressed the use of ISO. Lets jump into our shoot.

We have our model Erin, here. Say hi, Erin. Such a nice gal. And we are going to adjust our shutter speed to 1/100 since Erin will have more opportunity for motion than our vase, I mean vaz.

We will set our aperture to f/4.0 and you will notice that we have added more light to this shoot. One reason is for better composition, but we also did that because our shutter speed is faster but the minimum aperture on a standard lens is usually f/3.5. Now, we adjust our ISO to 600, and we start shooting.

Periodically in this shoot, I adjusted using reciprocity to reinforce its function in photography. Also, I will adjust my ISO slightly, when neccesary.

And here is our final product for both our vaz and our model shoot.

Well, that is it for us here at Pixelmania. We hope that you will put into practice what we have learned, today. Never just take my word for it. Learn on your own. WHo knows, you might find something that works better for you.

From Pixelmania, I’m John Reed.