Shutter- Shutter on a camera determines the amount of time that your film/sensor is exposed to light. Think of it as a curtain. When you press the button to take a photo, it tells the shutter to open. It is a measurement of time in fractions of a second.
In order to talk any further about Shutter, we must first take a look at what all those fractions mean.
A shutter speed of 1/4 means that the shutter is in the open stage for a period of one quarter of a second, whereas a shutter speed of 1/2000 means it is open for only one two thousandth of a second. The longer the shutter is open, the more light is hitting the sensor.
Setting the shutter at 1/250 of a second instead of 1/125, the shutter stays open for half of as long. The relationship is halves and doubles. Setting your shutter’s speed at 1/60 of a second instead of 1/125 of a second the shutter stays open for twice as long and so on.
Shutter also affects motion blur. Let’s say you are photographing a running dog. Would you freeze the action better at 1/125 of a second or 1/500 of a second? The answer is 1/500 of a second. That shutter speed is exposing your subject and its movement for a shorter amount of time. If your shutter stays open longer the more motion the sensor detects resulting in unwanted blur.
Aperture- The aperture is the measurement of light through an opening, in our case, the lens. The lens has a diaphragm inside allowing it to move, opening and closing the amount of light that is passed through it. The F stops represent the measurement. Why do we use F for the language? It comes from a math equation due to the history of changing lenses. The focal length (f) over the diameter of the diaphragm's opening is equal to the aperture.
Yes I could give you a long history and math equation of how we got the f in the measurement but it at this point will do nothing but put a lot of words and phrases into your head and overwhelm you.
Remember this. The higher the f stop number (f22) the smaller the lens opening. If you open your lens up to f22 not a lot of light will be allowed into the lens. The lower the aperture f 2.8 the bigger the opening in the lens the more light enters.
Remember we are learning light, the camera is just a tool to measure and control it. Photography actually means writing with light. So it’s best we understand how it comes into our camera, how to measure it and manipulate it.
If you are one of those people who love long equations and want the full history check out a few links I listed below. If you are happy with my “ remember this” for now, read on. If not play with math and get you some good history back up.
http://prophotoman.tripod.com/fstop.html - I like the commentary of this link, due to the fact we were all beginners and felt inadequate on a few occasions.
ISO- Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light. ISO is The Organizational Standard of measurement. Talking about digital cameras the ISO represents the camera’s sensor sensitivity. An ISO of 100 is less sensitive to light. The lower the ISO say on a bright day the cleaner the image and less grain. You are telling your camera you have enough available light, so the sensor is less sensitive to the light you expose it to once your shutter opens. A higher ISO of 800 will tell your camera that you do not have enough available light and the sensor will be trying to pick up all available light once you open the shutter.
I have not said or written anything that you can not find in a general search online. I just wanted to make it very clear why we need to learn these. Once we have an understanding we can create the images that we want.
I am never asked anymore why I love photography and chose it as my profession. I love photographing things in a way that one would not normally see it. It takes someone knowing how to compose and manipulate light to show someone how to see the world according to you!. This is one of my main reasons I tell everyone to keep the camera in auto mode and work on composition. Find how you like to photograph and represent yourself as a photographer. That is the edge! The rest of the learning comes in time. It would be harsh to try and teach anyone Shutter Speed/Aperture and ISO right out of the gates if they don’t find what they love about photography first. My next segment will be about composition before I move onto the modes in the camera, ya know that little dial on the top ? yeah that one! This will give you time to keep practicing with the basics and studying all your images. Yes study your images, don’t just throw out a bad photo with out knowing why it came out bad!! So start playing with settings and take your journal!!
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