“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it.”

Every day, there are tons of great pictures that you could be taking of your family, but who has the time to learn that new DSLR!  This will be a two part posting that will give a few tips about what mode is best to use to photograph your child in quick situations.  Of course you can always use the automatic mode for anything, and the camera will do the choosing for you, but this doesn’t always get the result you want.  When you learn how to use the different modes on your camera, you can get much better results.  In order to use the modes though, you have to know how three things work together….Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO.

What is Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO

Shutter Speed:  how fast your camera can take a picture (key:  the faster the shutter speed, the less light is entering the camera)

Aperture:  how wide is the opening in the lens when photographing  (key:  how much light is able to get into the camera because of how wide the aperture is)  **You must read the prior posting on aperture/f stop for this to make sense!

ISO:  In a nutshell, ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light.  (key:  if you need more light, you bump up your ISO)

Everyone learns differently, but here’s how I practiced in the beginning.  I put my camera in fully manual mode (usually an “M” on the dial) and practiced until it was second nature how these three things worked together.  When practicing, I always shot without the flash so that I could see how the natural light was coming in through the camera.  The key to doing this is learning how to read your meter on your camera.  Look through the eye piece and you will see a bunch of numbers and a meter at the bottom, which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to you at this point!  All of these things are important.  You’ll need to get out your manual to see exactly how your camera is set up, but the numbers will correspond to those three important things:  shutter speed, aperture (f stop number) and ISO.  The grid at the bottom is your meter.  When the line on the grid is to the left of center, then your pic is too dark.  When the line is to the right, then your pic is overexposed and is too light.

First, set up a still object with average lighting.  Shoot at a really fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second (slow would be 1/2), a medium aperture or f stop number of f16, and ISO of 200.  You’ll probably see that your picture is too dark.  That’s because the settings you’ve put in the camera are all preventing light from getting in the camera (fast shutter, small opening in lens, and low ISO).

How do you fix it:

One way is to bump up your ISO…look at the meter inside the lens and start adjusting your ISO (usually adjusted by a rolling scroll or it may have it’s own dial).  You’ll see the meter moving as you bump up the ISO to let more light in the camera.  When the meter is directly in the middle, the picture should be properly exposed.  Take the picture.  This way is the easiest but not the best way to lighten up your picture because the higher your ISO, the noisier your picture.  Noise makes the photograph kind of speckled, and you don’t want that.

The second way is to slow down your shutter speed.  (Sidenote:  the numbers of your shutter speed are done in fractions…1/500th of a second, 1/2 of a second…by knowing this, it makes sense why 1/500th of a second is a much faster shutter speed than 1/200th of a second, for example).  Move your ISO back to 200 and start to slow your shutter speed (notice your meter again, you are always trying to get the line right in the middle).  Making your shutter speed slower will let more light in.  The key is that if you get the speed too slow, then your picture will be blurred because either your subject or the camera will move.  When you have really slow shutter speeds, you always need a tripod or at the very least a table on which to set the camera.  When you are photographing something relatively still, you can probably hold your camera steady enough at about 1/60…when you start to get down to 1/20th of a second you’ll probably see some blur in your photo because you’ll be moving as your holding the camera.   Make the speed as slow as you need to get the light correct and take a picture.  Your picture may be too blurry…if it is, I’ll tell you what to do in a minute.  For now, try the third way.

The third way is, you guessed it, adjusting your aperture.  Put your shutter speed back on 1/500th of a second.  Making your f stop number lower, makes the aperture wider in the camera, and thus lets more light into the camera.  Put your aperture to the lowest point it will go (this will be different for every camera but it will probably be somewhere close to 5).  If your meter is still to the left of center that is telling you that the most your camera is capable of in this light setting is not enough light to take this picture correctly.  What can you do?…YES!  Adjust your ISO up a little bit to let more light in the camera.  What’s another way to let in light?…YES, lower your shutter speed.  Play with these settings until you have the shutter speed fast enough so that there’s no blur, and the ISO as low as you can get it.  Get your meter in the middle, and take the picture.

HERE’S THE KEY:  What kind of picture are you taking?  Is it your child playing in the yard?  Is it a baby sleeping?  Is it your dog playing frisbee?

If it is a fast object–>shutter speed is most important for a clear shot, so you will set that to what you need (probably over 1/300 for a fast moving child) and adjust your aperture and ISO to let more light into the camera.

If it is a still object or portrait–>aperture is probably most important because you might want to focus in on one area like the face and make the rest of the background blurry.  With that wide/low aperture, you might be letting in too much light, so you have to speed up your shutter and lower your ISO to keep some of the light out.

Is it a person standing in front of a sign and you need the background clear too–> then aperture is important again because you need the background clear along with the subject in the foreground.  Make it a mid to high f stop number, lower your shutter speed to let more light in and up your ISO.

Your goal is to balance the shutter speed and aperture while having the lowest ISO possible so your photograph isn’t noisy.   See the example of noise below.  Notice the speckled quality.  This is because the ISO was set very high to get enough light in the picture.  Sometimes, you want noise in a picture for an artistic touch to make it desaturated and antique looking like this one, but most of the time, you want to try to avoid noise.

Happy shooting!  See you tomorrow to learn which quick settings are best so that you can save yourself some of this extra work!!