Shooting with a DSLR camera is a more difficult process to learn than I first imagined. There are a lot of variables involved. Understanding how they all work together to create the right exposure is taking some time and lots of practice.
I have a Canon t5i which I bought used at a nearby shop along with an 18-135 lens which is standard, with a little extra zoom than the original kit lens of 18-55. As a beginner, here's some of what I've learned so far.
#ISO: Your ISO is the first thing you should set. It ranges from slow: 100, 200, 400, 800,1600....to really fast, which on my camera is 12800. ISO is the first factor in controlling light and generally you can expect to be around 400 outdoors (unless it's quite sunny, then you may need to slow it down to allow less light in) and about 800 indoors. The lower the ISO setting is, the lower the grain (or noise) will be. Very little noise is pretty important for photography as an art form. However, for #photojournalism, where we are most concerned with stopping the action and capturing the moment, dealing with a little grain in order to have the right amount of light exposure is OK. Especially if you consider taking photos somewhere like inside a high school gym. With that type of lighting you may need to be at 1600 or more.
The second factor that controls light is your #shutterspeed. This setting controls how motion and light work together. The slower the shutter speed opens and closes, the more light is allowed in. Less light enters through fast shutter speeds. The shutter speed is measured in stops of fractions of a second and ranges on my camera from BULB, 30", 15"...all the way up to 1/4, 1/8...1/15...1/30, 1/60, 1/125/ 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000,1/4000.
For photojournalism, we keep the shutter speed at 1/30 or faster. Anything else you would definitely need a tripod for to manage camera shake. A slow shutter speed creates #blurred or #panned action. A fast shutter speed (1/500 and up) stops the action but has low light exposure. When you move your shutter speed to a smaller fraction (greater denominator), you will need to adjust your other light options. We'll talk more about that in a minute. However, know that in photojournalism it's better to have a slightly pixelated photo from a fast ISO than it is to have a blurred one from too slow a shutter speed.
The third major component to light and exposure is your #aperture. This is controlled through your lens and how much you allow it to open, allowing light to reach the image sensor. Once you set your ISO, you can decide if you want to set your shutter speed or aperture next. This is determined by whether you want to control #motion or #depthoffield. Depth of field is the range of sharpness your photo will have from front to back. A photo with a lot of sharpness from front to back has a wide depth of field. A photo that is sharply focused on a subject but has a blurry foreground, background or both has a shallow depth of field.
Three factors will affect your depth of field: your lens aperture (opening), your focal distance and your focal lens length. We're going to look at aperture which is measured in f-stops Though your camera, like mine, may have a few in-between stop options, these are the common full stops.
f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32.
You can remember the stops by recognizing that every other number doubles. This is because changing the lens aperture one full stop either doubles or halves the amount of light as the stop before. The higher the number in f-stop, the lower the light because the lower the aperture, or lens opening. f/2.8 will let it much more light than f/16. However, that same 2.8 that is letting in lots of light, will have a shallow depth of field. As your stops move toward higher numbers, the light lessens but the depth of field increases.
Even though there is a lot more for us to learn, understanding the relationship between these three factors is a key place to start. The relationship between these factors is called #reciprocity and it works like this. Again, set your light first through your ISO using your gray card or the gray pavement (if you're outside) to get the correct #whitebalance. As you take shots, and need to make adjustments based on what the motion is or where you're subject is, for every stop you take away from shutter speed or aperture, you need to add that stop in on the other one in order to keep your exposure balanced. This is true if your light doesn't change.
Let's say you want to speed up your shutter speed from 1/30 to 1/60 to prevent blurring of your subject. Well you've just decreased the light coming in ( because its a fraction, the higher number is actually a smaller number) So now you need to increase light by one stop through your aperture, perhaps going from f/11 to f/8. You now have the same exposure value with a slightly shallower depth of field and a slightly sharper image. Obviously, the more stops you move on both, the greater differences you will see as far as depth of field and sharpness. But they will be essentially the same photo in terms of exposure (light).
It will take some practice, (for me especially!) to memorize these moves so they become second nature. The worst thing is missing the moment because you're messing around with all of this. So practice, practice, practice, when the shot is not important. That way you'll be ready when it is!
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