WHAT IS… SHUTTER SPEED, APERTURE AND ISO?

We wanted to pop on the blog and help anyone who would like to get OFF those auto “point and shoot” settings! Why? Because there is so much more your camera can do! Let’s get into the basics of camera settings and how they work together. So for this segment, we wanted to share about the terms shutter speed, aperture and ISO mean and how they work together. I like to use the analogy of an eye to explain:

First up… Shutter Speed.

The shutter of your camera is like your eyelid as it covers your eye. The shutter is the door inside of the camera that opens and closes to expose your camera sensor. The longer it is open, the more light it lets in. On a camera, you can set the speed of the shutter to open and close again fast or slow. The slower the speed, the longer the shutter is open, letting more light in for exposure. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second or seconds.

Aperture.

The aperture is like the pupil of your eye and it is the opening in the lens of the camera that allows light to pass through to the sensor. The wider the aperture, the more light passes through and the narrower the aperture, the less light passes through. Aperture is measured by a number called an “f-stop”. The lower the “f-stop” number, the wider the aperture, the more light passes through and the higher the “f-stop” number, the narrower the aperture and the less light passes through. Aperture can control the “depth of field” and sharpness in a photo: wider apertures (low “f-stop” number) will create a shallow effect, where as narrow apertures (high”f-stop” number), will result in sharpness from foreground to background.

ISO.

ISO measures the sensitivity of the light that reaches your camera sensor. Your retina is like the camera sensor. It is the part of your eye that determines the brightness of the light entering your eye. ISO refers to the level of sensitivity of the camera sensor to the light. Lower ISO numbers indicate a lesser sensitivity to light so that lower ISO numbers may be used in bright light situations, whereas higher ISO numbers may need to be used in darker light situations. The higher the ISO, the less light is needed for exposure, however the higher the ISO, the quality of the image is decreased. Generally, it is important to use the lowest ISO possible to capture the image.

Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO all work together to create properly exposed images and are not independent of each other. One setting choice will affect the other two. Making a choice about which one to prioritize is usually determined by the type of photo you are shooting. For example, if you are capturing high speed action, you will want to use fast shutter speeds. If you want to capture a close up still image with a shallow depth of field (blurred background), you will want to use a wide aperture. If you want to photograph a scene in a very dark room, you might want to use a higher ISO, even if the quality of the image is lower (High ISO’s can become “noisy” and that is another blog subject!). If you want to capture a wide landscape scene with focus on everything, you will want to use a narrow aperture.

Manually operating these settings in photography to obtain the results you want can take lots and lots of practice. During our Covid-19 “Stay At Home” quarantine, practicing using manual settings on your camera might be a super fun activity! If you decide to accept the challenge of learning these, I would love to hear how you are doing! Happy shooting!

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