Pre-set modes like "Sports" and "Night Portrait" make it easy for us to just point and shoot. If you're learning about photography, one of the first things you will learn is that if you want more creative control, you must learn how to use the aperture and shutter speed settings. If you're not sure which cameras have these types of settings, some compact digital cameras have them but most bridge cameras and all DSLRs have them.
At first it may seem it a little confusing using manual camera settings, but the improvement in the quality of your pictures wil be well worth it. And with all of your great new images, you'll have lots of fun selecting different styles of wood photo frames and metal picture frames that make each picture stand out.
Photography 101 – Introducing Aperture
The aperture of a camera works a lot like how the iris of a person's eye works. Similar to your irises and how they widen or narrow to let in more or less light through the pupils, the camera's lens diaphragm narrows or widens to let in less or more light in through the lens. The aperture is the size of this opening.
Aperture lets the photographer (or the camera's exposure computer if it's set to automatic) increase or reduce the amount of light that gets through to the sensor, thus helping determine how bright or dark the picture will be.
The camera aperture also controls the image's depth of field.
To better understand how this works, make a fist with your hand and hold it in front of your eye. Then slowly open your fist. See how everything is in focus when the opening in your hand is small? But when it's open wide the object closest to you is sharper than the background?
A small aperture is great for taking pictures like landscapes where you want everything in focus.
When you use your camera's Aperture Priority setting you can set the aperture to whatever f-stop number you want. These f stop numbers represent ratios meaning that the larger the f stop number, the narrower the aperture. So when the f stop setting is larger on your camera, then there will be a larger depth of field.
The reason the setting is called "priority" is that when you set the aperture, the camera adjusts the shutter speed so that the exposure is just right. In other words, in the wider scheme of exposure, the aperture setting will have priority, while shutter speed plays a supporting role.
Photography 101 – Introducing Shutter Speed
While the camera aperture controls the amount of light that hits the image sensor, the shutter speed controls the length of time the camera allows in the light.
If you've ever seen really old pictures, you'll notice that they are rarely smiling. Shutter speeds used to be so slow that people would have to remain very still for several minutes in the early days of photography. No wonder they had such a serious look!
The shutter speeds most commonly used today are 1/500th of a second to 1/60th of a second. The Shutter Priority setting lets you choose speeds (within the camera's range) specifically for the effect you want.
If you use a shutter speed slower than 1/60, you should use a tripod or some type of camera stabilizer because when the shutter is open that long, even the slightest jiggle can create fuzzy pictures.
To freeze action, set the camera's Shutter Priority to a fast speed, which is what Sports mode does. You can be a lot more selective with this manual type of setting. For example, a soccer game may require up to 1/500 to freeze the action, while if photographing a pet sitting quietly, a shutter speed of around 1/125 will freeze the small actions, like a slight twitch of the tail.
Using manual settings like Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority give you more creative control, which means better pictures that you can display in nice picture frames.
