Camera Basics: Photography 101 Masterclass

What is Shutter Speed?

The first portion of the exposure triangle that we’ll talk about is shutter speed. As you’ve probably guessed, this is the speed that your camera will take a photo. Well, sort of. There’s a lot more to it actually. This is actually how long the shutter will stay open, allowing light to enter your camera’s sensor. The longer and slower the shutter the brighter the image. The faster your shutter, the darker the image. In other words, shutter speed is the amount of time it takes for light to reach your sensor.

Slow VS Fast Shutters

Shutter speed is typically indicated in a format that looks something like this: 1/125 or 1/500. What this means is that your shutter is open for 125th of a second or a 500th of a second.

When to use a SLOW Shutter

A slow shutter will show any motion that you may have in your image. Usually causing a blur. If your camera is on a tripod, this is a good technique for catching shots that require a brighter image such as images with stars or intentional blurring of vehicles during night photography, or light painting images at night.

When to use a FAST Shutter

A fast shutter is typically very desired by most photographers in most settings. This will allow you to “burst” images out quickly or freeze motion. However, this WILL DARKEN your images, so you’ll want to make sure your exposure is balanced accordingly.

Shutter Speed - Quick Tips

Tip 1:

As a general rule, try not to shoot a shutter speed in the number is lower than the number that represents the focal length of your lens. Unless of course you’re shooting on a tripod or want blur for artistic reasons. Example: I would never want to shoot a hand held shot with a 50mm lens while having a shutter speed lower than 1/50. (I would still prefer higher than that).

Tip 2:

You can create really cool images by shooting at slow shutter speeds and causing intentional motion blur. As a matter and fact, you should try shooting at night while cars are passing by. It’s such a cool effect!

Tip 3:

If you’re shooting in an environment where there is lighting or projection involved, be careful with your shutter speed. Too fast of a shutter will cause discoloration to an obnoxious degree or frozen light cycles, causing a “rolling line” effect in your image.

What is Aperture?

Simply put, aperture is how large the opening of your lens is. A smaller opening will let in less light, leaving more of your photo in focus as opposed to a larger opening (smaller number) will allow for MORE light into your photo and will cause your image to have a greater depth of field. Using a lens with a “fast” aperture of F/1.8 is often how photographers are creating images with bokeh.

Large aperture = Small f-number = Shallow (small) depth of field

Small aperture = Larger f-number = Deeper (larger) depth of field

What is Depth of Field?

The dictionary defines depth of field as following: the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that give an image judged to be in focus in a camera. Another way to look at depth of field would be the amount of bokeh or blur in the background as opposed to sharpness in the foreground.

Why Can’t I Find the F/1.8 Setting On My Camera?

This setting depends strictly on your lens! Most kit lenses have what will call a variable aperture. An example of this would be a lens that is marked as F/3.5-F5.6. This means that the largest aperture available on the lens depends on if you are zoomed in or not. We don’t recommend buying these lenses. However, they’re great for learning if it came with your camera. Another reason that you can’t find this setting is simply because your lens is limited to a higher number. When shopping for a lens, this becomes a big factor.

When to Use a Small Aperture

Keep in mind that a SMALL aperture is a larger F-Number. With that being said, we would want to use a number of about 3.5-4.5 to photograph a group of people. The reason for this is so that everybody will be in focus. There’s nothing worse than a shot where only two out of five people are in focus.

When to Use a Large Aperture

As opposed to the previous example, a LARGE aperture is a smaller F-Number. This means that less will be in focus, but we will have a greater depth of field. This is also exaggerated or “compressed” with larger focal lengths, but. We’ll get to that in a later video. Our example here would be if we wanted to photograph a single model and blur out distracting elements or even as a creative decision, achieving an image with beautiful bokeh.

What is ISO?

The technical name for ISO is International Organization of Standardization, which honestly doesn’t seem to make of ton of sense to me personally. However, ISO is basically a mix of the quality of your image VS the camera’s sensitivity to light. A lower ISO will result in a higher quality image with better colors and sharpness all while letting more light into the lens. Shooting with a higher ISO will result in more grain, less vibrancy in the colors, and typically a softer image. This will also allow your lens to be MORE sensitive to light. You should typically try to shoot with a lower ISO. However, on higher end cameras, a high ISO isn’t too much to be scared of. Modern tech is allowing us to shoot at higher and higher ISO’s while maintaining a stable image.

High ISO= More grain and a more sensitive image sensor, resulting in a lower quality image.

Low ISO = Less grain and a less sensitive image sensor, resulting in a higher quality image.

When to Use a High ISO

So if a high ISO causes an unflattering image, why even bother? First off, like anything with photography, we will want to avoid the extremities of any of these settings. Secondly, a shot with a little grain in it is way better than the shot that doesn’t exist. Sometimes this really is the only option you have.

Alternatives & Fixes

This is typically when we will want to use a flash, if permitted in the location we’re shooting. Flashes will allow you to keep your ISO lower, while giving you more light shaping options that we will cover later. Another fix for when you just can’t use a flash or don’t have one on you is noise reduction in Adobe Lightroom. This is typically a last-stitch effort and should be used in moderation. Just be careful to not use the built in noise reduction in the camera. This noise reduction is baked-in and should be avoided since we can add it later if desired. The last thing you want to do is have an image that you can’t fix.

What is a Stop of Light? Just like a ruler or a tape measure, exposure is measured in a way that allows us to either communicate or compensate properly. This unit of measurement is called a “Stop of Light” What your meter will show is completely relative to the mode that you have it set to. However, some photographers like to shoot slightly over or slightly under the meter, based on their taste and post production workflows.

Photographer John Rowell explains this better than anyone I’ve seen to date. http://www.john-rowell.com/blog/2017/...

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A Common Misconception

A very often misunderstood factor when dealing with white balance and color temperature

Is that they do not mean the same thing.

What is Color Temperature?

Color temperature is simply the color of the light. Light color is measure by “degrees” or “Kelvin”. We will attach a chart that helps illustrate this better. For example this better, we know that a match or flame from a candle is somewhere between 1700K-1900K, meaning the light that it puts off is very orange or “warm”. However, a flash or LED light is somewhere around the 5,500K range.

So, here’s where people get confused…

What is White Balance?

Photographers and videographers alike often assume that the white balance is the same as the color temperature. This can cause your numbers to be very dramatically off. White balance is strictly a camera setting that allows you to compensate for the color temperature in a given situation, making “white appear white” rather than too blue “cool” or even too orange “warm”. So basically, the camera’s white balance number is considered to be the target neutral, NOT the actual temperature of your lighting.

Setting White Balance

Though shooting in RAW allows you 100% forgiveness in the even you are to mess this up, I suggest learning how to nail this in the camera. This will not only allow for quicker editing, but make you a much better photographer as time progresses.

Stay Away From Auto

Auto white balance actually works pretty well outdoors but you should still avoid using it as a general practice. Auto white balance indoors however, is a disaster and should be avoided at all costs.

Adjusting Your White Balance Manually

Most every camera will let you manually adjust your white balance by manually selecting a Kelvin value. This is usually accessed in a live view mode, which most modern cameras will always have. This allows you to look at your screen and set the white balance to the scene that you’re shooting. Slow down and get this right. Especially if you decide to shoot in JPG, as it will NOT be forgiving of this.

Talking Oranges

Since white balance can be up to the artistic vision of the photographer, we’re allowed a good range that would be considered “right”. Basically that means that there isn’t always a “perfect” or “correct” white balance. That being said, please please please white balance in a way that is flattering to your subjects skin. Orange or Warm skin doesn’t look good on anyone. Skin that is too orange is a sure fire way to tell an amateur from a professional.

It’s Easier Than It Seems

We’ll cover more advanced methods of dealing with this issue in a later course, but shooting in mixed lighting can be very difficult and requires a little bit of knowledge to create a good looking image. Here’s a two tips to help you balance your colors. Keep in mind that you can only change the overall white balance and not certain areas, therefore meaning you need to be intentional with watching out for mixed lighting.

Tip 1: Use The Windows and Turn off The Lights.

Yes, as photographers, we want and NEED light. However, bad light is well… bad. Using a window to shoot and killing the orange glow of tungsten lamps and light bulbs will save the day and sometimes, skin tones.

Tip 2: CTO Gels and Flashes

This will be discussed as a staple in a later course on lighting. Simply put though, your flash sometimes will come equipped with a CTO or “Color Temperature Orange” gel that will allow you to match the color temperature of your flash or LED to the color temperature of the ambient light in the room. Creating a more flattering image.