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Aperture (AV mode)

What is it?

Put most simply aperture is, the size of the opening in a lens when a picture is taken.
When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your
cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene your wanting to capture. The aperture
you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in, the
smaller the hole the less light.

Settings?
The part of the lens that controls the size of the aperture is called diaphragm in optics. The
sole purpose of the diaphragm is to block or stop all light, with the exception of the light that
goes through the aperture. Aperture is measured in f-stops also known as f-numbers, for
example f/2.8, f/4, f5.6 etc.
Moving from one f-number to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in
your lens and the amount of light getting through.

The size of aperture has a direct impact on the depth of field, which is the area of the image
that appears sharp. A large f-number such as f/32 will bring all foreground and background
objects in focus, while a small f-number such as f/1.4 will isolate the foreground from the
background by making the foreground objects sharp and the background blurry.

Every lens has a limit on how large or how small the aperture can get. The maximum
aperture of the lens is much more important than the minimum aperture, because it shows
the speed of the lens. A lens that has an aperture of f/1.2 or f/1.4 as the maximum aperture is
considered to be a fast lens, because it can pass through more light than, for example, a lens
with a maximum aperture of f/4.0. thats why lenses with large apertures are better suited for
low light photography. Minimum aperture Is not as important because almost all modern
lenses can provide at least f/16 as the minimum aperture, which is typically more than
enough for everyday photography needs.

Why is this important?
Larger maximum aperture means that the lens can pass through more light, and hence, your
camera can capture images faster in low-light situations. Having a larger maximum aperture
also means better ability to isolate subjects from the background.
A large (1) and a small
(2) aperture
The aperture setting for this photograph
is f/4. This Is a largest aperture out of my
three photographs, this results in the
closet object, the chair, being more in
focus than the others. It also resulted in
the background being out of focus.
The aperture setting for this photograph
is f/8. This is a smaller aperture than the
image above resulting in the chairs being
all in focus and the background including
the objects within it are out of focus.
The aperture setting for this photograph
is f/16. this is the smallest aperture out of
the three images, resulting in most of the
image becoming in focus. Instead this
aperture setting excludes parts of the
photograph that are in focus and not in
focus.
f/4
f/8
f/16
Shutter Speed (Tv mode)
Shutter speed, also known as exposure time, which stands for the length of time a camera
shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. If the shutter speed is fast, it can help
to freeze action completely, if the shutter speed is slow, it can create an effect called motion
blur, where moving objects appear blurred along the direction of the motion. This effect is
used quite a bit in advertisements of cars and motorbikes, where a sense of speed and
motion is communicated to the viewer by intentionally blurring the moving wheels. As there is
more time for movement to be recorded by the camera a tripod by be needed to avoid
camera shake.

Slow shutter speeds are used to photograph lightings or other objects at night or in dim
environments with a tripod. Landscape photographers intentionally use slow shutter speeds
to create a sense of motion on rivers and waterfalls, while keeping everything else in focus.

Faster shutter speeds freeze movement in a photograph. When a fast shutter speed is used a
shorter time passes from the moment the shutter opens until the moment it closes. This
results in less time for movement to be recorded by the camera. Using a fast shutter speed
can capture moments that the human eye cannot and will ensure a sharp image.

Shutter speeds are typically measured in fractions of a second, when they are under a
second. For example means a quarter of a second, while 1/250 means one two hundred
and fiftieth of a second or four milliseconds. The longest shutter speed on most DSLRs is
typically 30 seconds.

Seeing that more light can fall on the sensor when adjusting the shutter speed the camera will
automatically adjust your aperture setting to find one that is small enough to achieve a correct
exposure. This will increase the depth of field in your image.
In this image on the right you can see
the effect of a longer shutter speed.
When the shot was taken the car was
moving too fast for the camera to get a
clear still shot of the car. This is because
the lens was open for of a second
before is closes its lens resulting in
capturing the movement of the car and
because the car was moving fast it
makes the image look blurry.
The shutter speed set when this image
on the right was taken was 1/200 of a
second. This is a lot more clear than the
photograph above and you can clearly
make out that the object in the image is
a car. The lens is open for less time in
this image resulting in a less blurry
image.
This shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second
results in the lens opening and closing
very fast. The car in this image will have
to be going a lot faster for this setting to
capture a blurry, fuzzy photograph. With
this shutter speed the camera takes the
photograph so quick that it doesnt
capture the movement of the car due to
the fast speed the shutter opens and
closes.
1/4
1/200
1/2000
ISO settings
What is it?
The ISO setting on a DSLR camera is changing how sensitive the camera is to light. 100 ISO
is the least sensitive and 3200 would be the most sensitive. When you double to the ISO for
example 100 to 200 you are increasing the sensitivity of your camera sensor by 1 stop.

The main purpose?
Purposes for ISO settings would be in poor photographing conditions for example a badly
light environment. If you were to increase the ISO
setting it would help you get the image you wanted
because you will get a brighter exposure. If you
were photographing in a well lit environment where
there is too much light exposure, you could lower
the ISO setting on your camera to try and reduce
the brightness and help you get the image you
want. If the wrong ISO setting is used or if the ISO
setting is too high for the environment it creates
noise within the image. You can recognise noise
within an image as the image will appear fuzzy and pixelated and overall unprofessional. It is
mainly noticeable when zoomed into a image taken with the wrong ISO setting. It is mostly
recognisable in photographs that have a large area of a similar colour for example ground or
the sky.

Settings
The ISO settings on DSLR camera will appear as ISO 100 or ISO 400 etc. on most DSLR
cameras the stings will range from 100 to 6400.
The ISO setting of 100 has very little
effect to the overall image. The lowest
ISO setting has been used for this
photograph resulting in very little noise
which is hardly visible. This setting in the
environment has very little effect to the
final outcome.
The ISO setting of 1600 has a slightly
more visible effect on the overall image.
This being the small amount of noise in
the photograph but this is only visible
when zoomed into the image. This is
because the ISO setting is letting too
much light exposure in for the light
needed in the environment the image
was taken.
The ISO setting of 3200 has a noticeable
difference on the overall look of the
image. The noticeable difference is the
amount of noise visible in the
photograph. There is a large amount of
noise in this image in comparison to the
other images with a smaller ISO setting.
You dont even have to zoom in to see it.
This is because the camera is letting too
much light in for light needed this is due
to a very high ISO setting.
100
1600
3200
White Balance
What is it?
White balance is a setting on DSLR cameras which you adjust to get the colours in your
images as accurate as possible.

The main purpose
White balance has an auto and manual setting on DSLR cameras.
Here are some of the purposes of White Balance settings youll find on cameras:

Auto this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. Youll find it
works in many situations but its worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.

Tungsten this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors,
especially under tungsten lighting for example bulb lighting. It generally cools down the colors
in photos.

Fluorescent this compensates for the cool light of fluorescent light and will warm up your
shots.

Daylight/Sunny not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly normal

Cloudy this setting generally warms things up a touch more than daylight mode.

Flash the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode youll find it
warms up your shots a touch.

Shade the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this
mode will warm things up a little.

The settings
Commonly there are 8 different settings in white balance mode. Depending on the white
balance chosen, depends on how much the setting will influence your work.
The white balance mainly effects the colours in the photograph and the appearance of the
white within the image. In the four photographs I took you can see this difference between
the effects. Tugsten white balance seems to cool down the colours in the image. The
cloudy white balance seems to warm things up. The shade white balance also seems to
warm things up a little. Lastly the white fluorescent white balance normally compensates
for the cool light of fluorescent light but in my photograph it seems to cool the image down,
if not make it feel clearer.
Tungsten light White fluorescent light
shade cloudy
Original image
Cropped