CAMERA BASICS: EXPOSURE

Exposure is, in my opinion, the second biggest thing you need to know how to accomplish properly
when shooting.  The first being composition and you can read more about that in my article The Angle of
Your Dangle.

Shooting in an automatic mode on you DSLR or video camera is not something I’d suggest, however if
you’re using a consumer camcorder, many times they will not have manually adjustable features.  In an
automatic mode, many times you will blatantly see the auto-exposure adjustments being made in the
shot by the camera.  Now, of course, there are exceptions to this, especially in a budget-film situation. 
One example is going from a shot out a window on a bright sunny day to an interior shot of a guy sipping
his coffee.   In a high-production scenario the light would be mitigated with more interior lighting and
diffusion on the window.

ISO is the first form of exposure we will talk about.  ISO stands for the International Organization for
Standardization and this mostly means jack to us because it was created back in the days of film and had
to do with film speed.  Unless you went to film school and know how to shoot with film cameras and/or
have an enormous budget, you won’t be shooting with film.

What you do need to know is what the range of ISO numbers mean.  Basically, the higher the number,
the more light you will let into the sensor, it will be “brighter.” The lower the number, the less light you
can let in.  The caveat is that the higher you go in number, the “grainier” the image will look; it will lose
sharpness.  There are optimal ISO settings for certain cameras and most Canon DSLRs work best around
800 ISO.

Different models of cameras have different ISO ranges.  Know what range your camera has on it and
how far you should push it.

Shutter speed plays the second role in exposure.  Put simply, there is a mechanical door that opens and
closes every time you snap a photo.  This door, the shutter, can move faster or slower depending on
your needs for the shot.  The faster the shutter speed, the better you will be able to capture fast-moving
objects without any blurring effect.  The slower the shutter speed, the more blurring and “ghosting” you
will get.

In sports photography they always use higher shutter speed to “freeze” the action in the image.  In many
time-lapse applications, you “roll” the shutter by slowing it down to get some blurring to avoid a
staccato look.

In addition to speed, light allowance for shutter speed follows the opposite rule of ISO.  The higher the
shutter speed (i.e. 1/1000), the less light is let in and the lower the shutter speed (i.e. 1/60), the more
light is let into the image.

Aperture, also called f-stop or Iris on true video cameras, is the final setting you must know to get your
exposure correctly set.  If you look down the barrel of your lens you can see a star-shaped hole. It’s
made up of six overlapping blades that create the star-shape.  This “hole” can open and close to various
diameter sizes.  When the aperture is fully open, more light comes in.  When the aperture if closed, less
light comes in.
Again, the light allowance rule is opposite of ISO.  The higher the aperture (i.e. f/22) the less light is let in
and the lower the aperture (i.e. f/2.8) the more light is let into the image.

The sole function of the aperture is light allowance.  Now different lens have different aperture/f-stop
capabilities.  The lenses that are “faster” than others have a lower aperture/f-stop ability (i.e. f/1.4).