Masterclass In Photography PART 2: Creative Camera Settings

In this section you'll learn about the hidden superpowers inside manual exposure settings, which do more than make an image brighter or darker. Shutter and aperture are also creative tools and ISO is the bridge between them.

For example, you might choose a shutter aperture combination for maximum depth of field and movement blur, but these settings are unlikely to be the correct exposure so you'd adjust that using ISO.

(If you've completed A Masterclass In Photography PT1 you'll know how to do this. If not, search for my name Mike Browne and you'll find it)

Download your support notes & exercises:

There's tons of additional material to support different learning styles and some important exercises designed to give you experience.

It's really important you do this exercises yourself because watching me do it is not enough. You have to experience it for yourself. It's in your exercises sheet for this section and I want you to play with this technique at every opportunity so it becomes second nature.

Please Note: If there's a larger distance between you and your chosen subjects, you might not be able to blur foreground or background. I'll explain why and give you exercises around this annoying phenomenon later in the course. Patience my friend.

For now, find something you can photograph from a closer distance and it'll work. The closer you are, the greater the effect will be...

Depth of field is aperture's Superpower, so if you want to blur a background or have front to back sharpness, your aperture becomes the primary exposure control for that photo. You choose and set an aperture to give you the look you want first, then use shutter speed and ISO to achieve the correct exposure.

Do you want just a hint of blur on the sea - or do you want to freeze every water droplet of a breaking wave still in the air? Shutter Speed's creative Superpower is the ability for you to portray movement in your photos.

This exercises is designed to help you get your head around doing that...

The Superpower of movement control belongs to your shutter speed right? So whenever you want to portray movement, shutter speed becomes the primary exposure control. You set that first according to how much movement you want. Once chosen, you then use apertures and ISO to get the exposure correct.

Shutter and Aperture are chosen for creative reasons. ISO is like a set of scales which balances those creative choices so you can have the look you want and the correct exposure.

Good on you. There are only 5 camera settings you need to master. Sure there are many more than 5, but you only need 5 and you're good with the 3 most important now. If you've completed A Masterclass In Photography PT1 as well, you have them well and truly mastered.

Now we're going to look at being more creative with exposure, arguing with the light meter and some very useful features that will ensure you always get the exposure you want...

How many times have you photographed something bright such as a snow covered scene or white sand beach and the photo's come out dark and dull looking? Here's why it happens - and what to do about it.

Sometimes you have to argue with your camera because it cannot think for itself. It doesn't know how bright or dark a scene actually is. It can only make its best guess based on its exposure algorithm and you have to disagree with with what it claims to be the correct exposure.

This is why it was so vital you become camera competent and shoot in manual easily and efficiently.

I'm often asked which metering mode is best. There isn't one, there's a choice about which is most appropriate for the photo you're taking and/or which you prefer to work with.

Histograms are not complicated. They're quick and easy to read and use and will ensure perfect exposure every time. In this lesson we're going to explain them and how to use them.

Download the slides from this lesson so you can refer back to them...

In the last lesson we covered the theory and how to read a histogram. Now let's go use it in the real world and let it guide us when we want to argue with the camera's light meter.

On a DSLR camera you cannot display a histogram in the eye piece as you compose a photo, as I've been doing on my mirrorless camera. The information and how you read it is exactly the same, you just have to work slightly differently on a DSLR.

Highlight warnings or 'blinkies' as they're sometime known tell you if and where there are blown highlights in a photo. This warning can be useful because you cannot always tell just by looking at the LCD screen.

Please Note: Blown highlights are not necessarily bad. Think of sun sparkling on water or street lights at night. These highlights blow out naturally to our eyes so don't try to stop them.

Now you fully understand how exposure works and the relationship between shutter, aperture and ISO, let's explore a different way of managing exposure with semi auto modes. You have to learn manual mode first because when the camera gets the exposure wrong, or you want to do something creative, you need to know how to do it yourself.

In Aperture Priority / Aperture Value (different name for the same thing) you choose an aperture and the camera sets a shutter speed to give what it 'thinks' is the correct exposure.

When you're working with depth of field and aperture becomes your primary exposure control, Aperture Priority / Aperture Value can be a quick and easy way of controlling the camera.

Now you know how exposure works, ask yourself what happens to the shutter speed as you increase and decrease aperture size? If the camera is choosing a shutter speed based on your choice of aperture, would it be possible to control shutter speed in Aperture Priority / Aperture Value mode?

Let's find out...

Shutter Priority / Time Value: You set a shutter speed and the camera sets an aperture to give the 'correct' exposure.

When you're working with movement and shutter speed becomes your primary exposure control, Shutter Priority / Time Value can be a quick and easy way of controlling the camera.

Could you use Shutter Priority / Time Value mode to 'trick' the camera in the same way we did a couple of lessons ago?

Let's find out...

P for Program mode chooses both shutter and aperture for you. This means you have no control over creative their Superpowers, however there are ways to override the light meter and adjust exposure. (We'll look at these in the next two lessons.)

This is what sets P mode apart from full auto.

As you know, camera's think the world is mid grey - and by now you should be able to quickly and easily recognise a mid grey tone in your environment. Auto Exposure lock (AE lock)is a button that locks exposure for a tone of your choice.

AE lock has no effect in Manual mode, because when you choose manual you're telling the camera to butt out and leave you to control everything yourself.

Exposure compensation allows you to argue with the camera's light meter and make a photo brighter or darker than the camera 'thinks' it should be.

Exposure compensation has no effect in Manual mode.

Controlling exposure (arguing with the light meter) when shooting in a semi-auto mode is quick and easy with Exposure Compensation. You're effectively telling the camera to make an image either brighter, or darker than the light meter thinks it should be.

(Exposure Compensation has no effect in Manual mode.)

Remember - cameras set exposure according to the amount of light reflected by your composition. As you change composition, it's likely the bright and dark elements included in it will change too - and as they do the camera will change exposure with them; even when it does not need to.

Auto ISO can cause exposure problems because it is controlled by what the camera 'thinks' is a correct exposure, which is always mid grey. Therefore you might want to make a photo brighter or darker and adjust shutter speed or aperture accordingly, but auto ISO will over ride what you do by automatically adjusting ISO to force exposure to be what it 'thinks' is correct. This makes exposure control impossible.

There are often times shooting in Manual mode is much faster than using a semi auto mode because once set, you don't need to change it and can forget about it until you move on - or the light changes.

If the light falling on your subject is not changing, there is no need to set a new exposure for every photo in that area until it does.

So what's Next For You?

Want to continue this journey into photography with me? Check out the other parts of A Masterclass In Photography by

• Copy/paste this link: https://www.udemy.com/user/mike-browne-8/

• Search for my name Mike Browne

• Or visit my instructor bio page to find all parts of this series of courses.

Hope to see you again soon...