camera settings
The first step, before setting up your lights and subject, is mastering your most basic and important tool – your camera
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amera settings determine how much light we allow into our images and hold a decisive role in the shooting process. Whether working with artificial or natural light, it’s crucial to understand how to control your camera. exposure & stops
Exposure is a term used to measure image brightness, and indicates the amount of light that reaches the camera sensor during the shooting process. The exposure is controlled by three main camera settings: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Getting a correct exposure means registering every shade and detail in the scene without losing any information due to shadows that are too dark or highlights that are too bright.
Although most pictures look their best when their exposure is correct and balanced, photographers shouldn’t always shy away from over- and underexposure, as they can gift beautiful and creative results in unexpected circumstances. Both exposure settings and light are measured in stops. A stop represents a consistent increment or decrement of light. Going up or down one stop means to respectively double or halve the amount of light in the image. Light intensity, aperture, shutter speed and ISO all contribute to the changes in stops as they all contribute to the exposure.
Shutter speed
Only when the camera’s shutter opens does the light of a scene reach the sensor, and the picture is captured. The amount of time the shutter remains open for is termed shutter speed, and is measured in seconds – or, more commonly, fractions of a second – and, on average, can range from slow speeds of 30 secs to very fast values of 1/8000 sec, but when using lights for portraits you will usually be using a range of 1/60 to 1/200 sec.
Aperture
Inside every lens is series of blades that widen and contract to form a variablesized hole in the centre. This is the aperture, and it determines the amount of light that flows through the lens and reaches the sensor in a given time. The aperture is measured in f/stops, and every lens has a minimum and maximum aperture value. The lower the f/stop (eg f/2.8) the larger (or wider) the aperture and the more light that is allowed through the lens, making images brighter. The higher the f/stop (such as f/22), the smaller (or narrower) the opening and the less light that reaches the camera sensor, causing images to be darker.
Apertures not only determine how bright or dark an image can be, but (along with focal length and focusing distance) affects the image’s depth of field. Wide apertures capture a shallow depth of field, where only a very small layer of the image is sharp, and whatever is in front of and beyond this point will be blurry. Narrow apertures, on the other hand, create a deeper depth of field, so much more of the shot is sharp, with minimal or nonexistent blur. For portraits you’ll find between f/4 and f/8 will generally offer enough depth of field and sharpness, and also means you can keep lighting power fairly low for quicker recycling.
ISO
ISO describes the light sensitivity of your camera’s sensor. Unlike film, DSLRS allow an instant digital selection of ISO settings that typically ranges from 100 to 6400,
Photographers shouldn’t shy away from over- and underexposure, as they can gift creative results
with selected Canon DSLRS allowing users to go as low as 50 and reach peak values of 51,200 or even higher.
An ISO value of 100 is not highly sensitive to light and will tend to produce darker shots but of the highest quality, sharp and clear. An image shot with ISO100 will, therefore, require more light to be correctly exposed. An ISO value of 1600, on the other hand, will provide brighter images, and will require much less light to be correctly exposed, although may introduce some noise and decreased image sharpness. When using lights, you’ll find between ISO200-400 will be enough to brighten and darken exposures and backgrounds as necessary.