Transcripts
1. Camera Basics Overview: Hello, Welcome back to another tutorial. In this class, we'll be going over shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. All these three functions do different things. So you can't adjust one without adjusting the others to get a great photo, to get better with your camera and go fully manual. You need all these three settings to work together. We'll go through each of these three different parts of the camera, the nostril, you how to use them altogether. And by the end of this class, you'll know what each of these functions do and how to use them to take better photos. All right, for this class, you're going to need your camera and a lens. And if your camera doesn't already have it in, grab a battery, stick that in your camera. And you'll also need an SD card for taking those photos. So let's get this all set up and we'll start our class. On this camera. Our SD card goes right here in our battery, is right here on the bottom. And then our lens here. Get this all set up. If you haven't already. Be sure to go check out my first class on camera basics where we go over the parts of the camera, getting familiar with it, the functions and modes of the camera. So you can get more efficient with it in your photography. All right, We're going to just switch our camera on and then we want to change it from auto mode to manual mode. That way we can get to the settings right here. We're going to cover the basics of manual mode, that is shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Each of these functions compliment the other. So they all work together to take a great photo. Let's get right into it.
2. How Shutter Speed Works: We're going to start with our shutter speed. Shutter speed is the speed your shutters taking a photo, or how fast the shutter opens and that's light into the camera sensor. This affects the crispness or the blur of the photo, and it also affects the brightness of that image by letting more light to the sensor in the time that the photo was taken. Here's some examples of how shutter speed works. But the shutter speed at a higher number, such as 250 or 500, or a faster speed, the image is sharp and crisp. We're taking a photo at 150th of a second. If we take that shutter speed down to 160th of a second or a lower number. You'll notice that there is some image, but the cameras taking a slower picture, which is allowing more movement in the frame while you're taking the picture. The shutters being held open for a longer amount of time using water. For another example, Here's a higher shutter speed, and here's one with a lower shutter speed. You can see how fast the shutter opens and closes is how fast we're capturing the picture. So to summarise, a slower shutter speed will give you more blur and is often used in night photography or for capturing motion blur or light trails. A faster shutter speed is capturing the image cooker, given you a crisper image, it's freezing that motion, capturing the action. Now if you're in manual mode, you'll notice that it's also making the image brighter because of how long this shutter is letting lighting. If you haven't set to a higher speed, it will be darker. So you need to adjust the aperture or ISO to account for the brightness, which we'll get to in a minute. Here's some ways you can use shutter speed and your photography. So switch to manual mode to set this or to the TV mode on your camera. If you want to adjust just the shutter speed. Using a slower shutter speed, you can capture flowing water to make it look smooth. This is blurred motion. It's also great for taking night photography, capturing light trios or star trails. On the other end, faster shutter speed. You can capture action such as sports photography, cars and running subjects.
3. Understanding Aperture: In this section we'll be covering the aperture. Now, aperture also affects two areas in photography. This allows you to let more light into your photos, but it also adjusts the focus of your shot. This is called the depth of field. How much of the photo is in focus. So aperture, adjust the focus of the overall image, as well as how much light you're getting in your shot when you're shooting a close-up detail shot of a flower or a portrait, you want that nice blurry background, then you will want to opt for a lower aperture like F4 or 2.8. The lower the number, the more background layer yoga in your photo if you're shooting landscape photography and you want the whole shot to be in focus, so you can see all the details. And you'll want your aperture to be set at F8 or F11 or something even higher. Here's some examples of aperture. Here's a picture taken with a high aperture, f 11. The whole image is nicely in focus. And F2, 0.8, the subject is in focus. And you will have that nice smooth background or bokeh effect. So if you're taking landscape photos and you went the whole photo to be in focus. So you can see all the details. Then you'll want a higher aperture number. Then when you want to isolate your subject and make them stand out from the background, you'll want your aperture wider at a lower number, such as F 3.5 or 2.8. Here are ways that you can use the aperture in your photos. You can change this with your cameras set to manual mode. Or setting the camera to AV just changes the aperture setting on the camera. A higher aperture number will get more of the photo and focus, but it will also make the image darker. So you need to adjust the shutter speed slower to compensate for it. A lower aperture number is going to focus on one area and the photo, isolating the subject, but it will also make the photo brighter. So you'll have to adjust the shutter speed to capture the photo faster or just the ISO. And that brings us to ISO.
4. What is ISO?: Now ISO is the sensitivity of light to the image sensor and affects the brightness of the photo. Simplest way to explain it is ISO is fake light. Now when you're taking photos and you have your shutter speed set, your aperture is wide open, but you still need a little bit more light. You can add that with the ISO. And when you add more and more ISO to your photo, it will also make more noise in the photo as well, or it will get grainy the higher you go with your ISO. Here are some examples of ISO. Here we have a dark image. Our shutter speed is taking a fast image and our aperture is high to get everything in focus, but it's a very dark photo. So we can add more ISO to Britain. That image up. Here we have the ISO too high and our image is grainy and super bright. So I need to crank that ISO down so our exposure is more even. So the less ISO, the darker the image is and the cleaner crisper it will be. And the higher the ISO, the brighter and more noise will be in that image. Nowadays, cameras have better technology so they can go up to a higher ISO before getting that noise in the photo down at one to 200 is good for sunny bright photos. And the middle at four to 800 is what you'll use on a cloudy day indoors and dim light, then you can go up higher for low light and night photography at 16 that 3200, and even up at 4 thousand and higher.
5. Putting it All Together: All right, We've gone over all three things which gives you more control over your photography. The shutter speed captures the speed at which the photo is taken. The aperture affects the focus or the depth of field at which the photo was taken, and the ISO affects the light in the photo. Now that you know the functions of manual mode, let's put them all together. First, you will set the shutter speed for the speed at which you want to capture the photo, depending on if you're photographing action sports or you want a crisp photo like sparks from a fire, you will set the shutter speed faster. If you want to capture some blur like a light trail or smooth water, you will set that shutter speed slower. Next, the aperture for the focus of the photo. If you're shooting landscapes or buildings, and you want to be able to get all the details. But that aperture at a higher f-stop. If you wanna get a nice blurry background or have a subject stand out, then adjust to a lower F-stop. Lastly, adjust the ISO to even out the brightness of the photo higher or lower, depending on the situation.
6. Go Practice in Manual Mode!: Great. Now you know the basics of manual photography. Now we know if you want to get better at anything, you need to go out and practice it. So get to know these functions and learn them while so you can look at a photo you took and know if you need to have a faster shutter speed or your aperture needs to be slower. Or if you needed more light, needed to bump the ISO up. Here's some photo ideas that you can practice practicing your shutter speed. Number one is to capture some action, capture something that is moving. Number two is to capture some blurred, capture a passing car, a wonderful falling pages in a book, or try experimenting with light trails, practicing with aperture number 3, capture landscape photo and take a photo with the whole scene in focus. Number four is to isolate a subject. Practice getting your subject in focus with the background blurred so it stands out. Practice using ISO with the light of your photo. Number 5 is light and dark photos. Find out how the ISO affects your photos. Now that you've learned the basics of manual photography, it's time to get out there and practice. Take each of these photos is up to you and your creativity and I'm excited to see what you guys create. Be sure to share your pictures from the project in the discussion below. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys in the next class.
John Anderson, Filmmaker - Creator
