aceman215 Loc: New Jersey

Hi. I’m looking for help. I’m new to photography. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading as much as I could on Exposure. I got a good camera but I’ve gone from all AUTO to Apiture priority mode. I understand how the ISO, apiture, and shutter speed all affect each other. Here’s my Problem. One video says not to shoot with iso over 1600. One says something like 3200. Then they say the shutter speed needs to be a certain speed to combat blur (and I do understand each part of the triangle) then someone else says don’t shoot with the apiture wide open, another says to shoot with it wide open. I’m so frickin lost. I’m going to London in a month and I’m trying to get my camera settings down before I go but I’m having a hard time. And yes I know there is no correct answer because every situation is different. I downloaded a “get out of auto” video course and I understand the concept but I’m still lost. Some of my questions are...how do I know where to set my apiture in low light? I get it that wide open will have a shallow depth of field but I’m shooting in churches and such. But in general how does one determine the correct setting? I’ve heard the sunny 16 rule and that’s great for sunny days but what about low light situations? Do I guess between 1.2 to 11 (if my glass opens that wide which I have one that does). And iso. I’m told to keep it low to avoid noise. Well last night I was taking pictures of my dog in low light and I had the apiture set at 35mm 1.2, shutter at 1/10 and iso was set to auto and it came in at 12,000(something) There was noise in the photo. Should I be letting the camera choose the iso or should I choose all three? I also know that I can look at the meter and adjust using one of the 3 to get it all in line but I have to say that it comes out close to what auto does! What am I doing wrong and where can I turn for good reliable help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and sorry for the long post. I just want you to understand that I know something (not a total newbie) but can’t seem to put it all in practice.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

You'll get a lot of replies recommending this book or that, etc. Here's a series that will help you without purchasing anything.
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-page?upnum=2855
--Bob

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Welcome to the forum.

You can start here: https://digital-photography-school.com/?s=understanding+exposure

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

As far as ISO goes, you should do tests at various ISOs and print them or examine them at 100% to see for yourself how much noise you will get and decide how high you can go before the noise is unacceptable to you. You can then decide how to set the ISO, or set the upper limit when using auto ISO. It's somewhat the same with what shutter speed you can shoot without motion blur. Generally is it 1/focal length (or effective focal length with a crop sensor camera). So for instance, 1/200 for a 200mm lens. But some people are better at holding the camera steady, so testing that is also good.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

First, don't ever listen to people who say "don't ever"
You need to use whatever ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture you need, to get the image to look how you want.
Aperture priority is a good place to start, but if you are going to use the "modes" you can't just stop there and put it in the mode and forget it. You need to learn about exposure compensation, or you'll be frustrated by images too light, too dark, or people going into silhouette.

that's why I contend that the modes can be helpful, but manual can sometimes be easier. If you get the settings right, your photos will all have the same exposure, no matter how the background color or brightness changes. The only time you need to change it, is if the clouds roll in, or if you move to a different lighting set up. The modes and exposure compensation are constantly changing, and make more work on the computer later.

People Poopooh the use of an inexpensive light meter, there are even free apps for phones now that you can point at the subject, and get a fairly decent reading. I prefer incident meters, that use a white dome, that you can hold by the subject and point towards the camera, and get a dead on exposure setting, but.... it's not for everyone. I grew up, and learned with film, so to me the meter isn't hard, it's actually idiot proof. (I'm proof that it's idiot proof)

Bob (above) is correct, you will get tons and tons of suggestions on reading materials. Some will be good, some will be bad. I would suggest before you buy one, see if the local library has it first, and borrow it, you may find that it isn't in a style that suits your learning style.

I'm definitely not saying that Manual is the only way, just that in some ways, it's easier and more consistent than the modes. If I'm somewhere that I know that lighting and locations will change quickly (like a wedding) I will use modes as well. I understand them, but I hate messing with all the varying exposures when I get home.

srt101fan

What camera do you have? At this stage, are you mostly concerned with photography during your London trip? Would that be mostly sightseeing, walking down a street, popping in and out of buildings, no tripod, etc?

The reason I ask is that the better you define your shooting scenarios the better the answers you will get here.

canon Lee

HI and welcome to the hog... I think you have TECHNO overload.... Its not all that complicated if you rely on your histogram.. Read about it... When outdoors, shoot in Aperture priority!.... Set your Apeture to start with @ F8, Aperture Priority will set your shutter speed, then look at your "playback histogram" for results. Its then that you can "compensate" your aperture up or down using the exposure compensation dial, according to the histogram read out... Works all of the time.. Make sure the sun is over your shoulder.. Set your ISO to 100% outdoors, or on an overcast day 200%..( BTW overcast days are the most perfect time to shoot) ( indoors then Aperture wide open, ISO 8~1600%)! Now there is another technique you might want to look into... It is called "Bracketing", where you can set your camera ( AEB for canon = auto exposure bracketing> see manual), to Automatically adjust exposure for 1 step up and 1 step down on the aperture.. Ace, all you need is to get exposure close, via the histogram then when editing to tweak to perfection... Again read up on HISTOGRAMS.....
If you panic, then shoot in "P" (program), as this will set both Aperture & Shutter for you and you can still tweak the exposure compensation dial up or down.. Again use your histogram to guide you .....

aceman215 Loc: New Jersey

Thank you for everyone’s response. I so appreciate it. Srt101fan: I went all out and purchased the Canon 5D Mark Iv. (It was kind of a present). And yes, I would love to take the camera to London. I’m usually a quick learner so...I also figured that London would be a great place to use the camera. So having such an expensive camera I hope you understand why I want to get the full use out of it. Otherwise I would have gotten another point and shoot.

canon Lee

Make sure you protect your camera (excellent choice in a camera btw), from moisturehttps://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=camera+protector&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=153692927961&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=s&hvrand=4241653601696065279&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007313&hvtargid=kwd-409885758&ref=pd_sl_78r5c1b0iz_b.... Good luck ! PS you will glad to know your camera has extensive gaskets and weather proofing....

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Hi, welcome to the Tribe.

Look, the bottom line is, pixels are free with DSLRs. Just go out and shoot the shit out of everything, try all kinds of exposure settings and you will find something that works. At first, leave things in Program or Auto mode before you want to try anything else. Investigate the Sunny 16 rule for when you're ready to get into Manual mode:

https://www.slrlounge.com/photography-essentials-the-sunny-16-rule/

See what works for you, not what works for everybody else; but most importantly, don't over analyze things. Go have fun.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

As mentioned, anyone saying "never" in their advice is probably one not worth paying attention to. There are valid guidelines and considerations, but as DSLRs and lenses continue to advance, many of these best practices need to be adjusted to reflect advances in technology.

To some your 5DIV will be an excellent at performer to ISO-6400. Others will view the results as simply acceptable, others maybe will judge the results to be inferior. Should you strive to stay at lower ISOs? Yes, but that doesn't mean you "can't" go to ISO-6400 or even higher. You just have to understand the potential problems in the quality of images from higher ISOs and whether those weaknesses are acceptable (or not) for your own photography needs.

The same goes for wide open apertures. Will the typical lens be sharper stepped down? Yes, but it does depend on the specific lens where this 'guideline' is much less applicable to high-end, modern lenses. Again, do your own research, both by reading / watching reliable review sites and your own hands-on practice and evaluation.

Another golden nugget of photography knowledge is the 1/(focal length) as a guideline for shutterspeed at a given focal length. This was the rule of the land before IS-enabled lenses (and the other VR/VC letters for other brands). The first Image Stabilized lenses were good for 1-stop of assist. The 2018 models are advancing to 4+ stops. So, if 1/125 was the guideline for shooting a 100mm lens in the film days, today's IS should allow you to handhold at 1/30 to maybe even to 1/8 with 100mm lens. IS does not stop action where a moving subject may be just a blur because the subject moved in the 1/8 second shutter opening rather than the camera / lens moved in your hand.

Practice, analyze, research and repeat are an effective method to develop your skills. Have fun.

Another thought on help, there's plenty of people here both capability and willingness to help on various issues. The process tends to work best when you post a image and store the original along with your related questions. We can download the image and analyze the embedded details from the camera that describe everything the camera knew about your settings when that image was created. We can then point you to the specifics of the camera and the manual to tie together the recommended ideas and / or corrective actions.

srt101fan

I’m a Nikon guy so I’m not familiar with your camera. But if it’s a high end model you probably have a lot more buttons, menus and bells & whistles than you can learn in one month. So you need to identify the most important features and learn them well. Make sure you take your manual along.

A few thoughts:

When hand-holding your camera, you need to have a feel for how low you can go with shutter speed before “camera shake” blurs your picture. This will vary depending on the lens you are using. Someone gave you a rule of thumb based on lens focal length. That’s a good starting point. For me it gives shutter speeds that are too low for my ability to hold the camera steady. You need to experiment. You mentioned shooting a picture at 1/10th of a second – that’s way too low for handholding for most people.

The other issue with shutter speed is, of course, subject motion. But if you’re not going to be shooting humming birds, racing cars, sports, etc., this may not be an issue for you on this trip.

If either camera motion or subject motion are an issue, you may want to set the shutter speed yourself and not let the camera do it. For that you could use the Shutter Priority mode or the Manual mode and set the shutter appropriately high.

If you want to control the depth of field (e.g., blur the background), or you want to use the lens at its best aperture (I think they call it the “sweet spot”?), you may want to consider taking the aperture setting job away from your camera and set it yourself by using either the Aperture Priority mode or the Manual mode.

I think most people here would agree that, for image quality, the ISO should be set as low as possible. But don’t be afraid of shooting at higher values; just learn what your camera will do if you push ISO up. I generally feel that it’s well worth going to high ISOs if the choice is no picture or picture with noise! But here it depends on what kind of image you’re shooting – for some noise is a problem for some it isn’t, just like grain wasn’t always a problem in the film days.

Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority are still auto modes because the camera will set one of the exposure variables. And it may get the exposure wrong, as it could in backlit subjects. So I suggest that “exposure compensation” is something you should learn early on.

For my own general photography I have learned to like using the Manual mode with Auto ISO. This is because in most situations I want to set the shutter speed and aperture but am willing to let the camera set the exposure by adjusting ISO. There are limits to this approach, of course, and it is not appropriate for all situations. One thing to watch is when you have set your shutter speed and aperture for a low light level interior and then you go out into bright sunlight! The ISO will peg at its lowest setting and you’ll get overexposure. If that happens you can just kick up the shutter speed and/or close down the aperture.

As others have suggested, you might also explore the P mode.

Maybe most importantly, go have fun and enjoy your camera and trip!

PS – If you’re interested, also take a look at these UHH topics: Camera Settings for Tour Travel Photography and Observations from the lower rungs of the digital photography learning ladder…

Edit: Sorry, here are the links:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-480983-1.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-510011-1.html

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

I think you have some of it down but after watching a lot of videos you are getting opinions and thus the confusion. How to determine correct settings, be it inside or outside comes from practice. Many of these discussions depends on you camera sensor/lens combination. As you would suspect, the higher end cameras can handle higher ISO. The cheaper, not so good. You need to understand the limits of you camera.

Take the dog shot for example. Assume its sleeping and movement is not an issue. Use tripod, aperture priority, ISO 100 and let the camera choose the shutter. As long as it is not so dark that the shutter tries to exceed 30 secs(the built in limit for most SLRs before needing bulb mode) you will get a noiseless photo. Depending on the amount of light, the shutter may stay open for many seconds. Think about it, who cares how long the shutter is open, it makes no difference. As long as you stay under 30 seconds, you could stop the lens down to say 5.6 to increase DOF. The same technique can be used to shoot a noiseless sunrise or even pre-sunrise.

If potential movement then a different issue and bit more comes into play.


Rather than watching for videos for now, get to the book store, or amazon, library and get Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" It's great read with tons of photos to go with the dialog. This will quickly answer your questions.

kmocabee

People get hung up on the ISO and are afraid of going higher because the quality will degrade. True, but what is worse, a little more grain and noise, or a shaky, blurry image? I frequently go to 6400 or higher indoors for casual shots and can shoot in very low light with no camera shake. That shot was at ISO 5000 and it was in near darkness watching a slideshow.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Continuing the idea of high ISOs, this example demonstrates the intersection of technique, camera technology and processing. There's several more posts in the Photo Gallery of different animals at different zoos, most in lower light and higher ISOs. Clicking the image will reveal the image details, including the exposure settings: f/4.5, 1/50, ISO-5000 at 135mm. I had the lens hood pressed against the glass for stability. Camera - EOS 5DIII.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-522412-1.html

Green tree python by Paul Sager, on Flickr