- Aperture is the size of the opening in your camera lens that allows light to enter. The aperture mechanism works like the iris of your eye, opening and closing to allow more or less light to enter the camera. The size of the opening is referred to as f-stop and is marked as fractions, e.g. 1/1.4, 1/5.6, 1/22 -- the smaller the fraction, the smaller the opening. Lenses vary in f-stop capability. A lens that opens up to f-1.4 is considered a fast lens, while f-5.6 is considered slower. More...
- Shutter speed is the measure of how long light is allowed to enter the camera. You can think of a shutter working similarly to an eyelid blink. The faster the blink the shorter amount of time light comes into the camera. Common shutter speeds are 1/60, 1/500, and 1/1000 of a second.
- Light sensitivity, measured as an ISO rating, is an indication of how your camera responds to the light that is captured. A higher ISO rating means higher sensitivity. With the higher sensitivity comes another trade-off, called noise. Noise shows up as “speckles” in your pictures. Use very high ISO settings only when necessary.
The nearly endless combinations of aperture setting, shutter speed, and ISO affect how your camera captures an image. Along with your composition, distance to your subject, and type of lens these three attributes help you create the mood and, most importantly, the exposure for your photograph. Fortunately for you and me, modern cameras can automatically determine these settings. Most cameras offer a choice of settings or scenes for the different kinds of pictures we shoot, and higher end cameras allow us to make adjustments to one or more of these settings to capture the perfect image.
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