Exposure tips for beginner photographers

Image source: newatlas.com

When learning photography, a lot of people seem to have a hard time handling exposure. Exposure can be very tricky to master because it deals with three important camera settings, which are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Sticking to recommended settings or staying on auto won’t help you improve, according to avid photographer Vijaya Prakash Boggala. To help you tackle exposure, here are some easy to follow beginner photographer tips.

Unfortunately, there’s no other way than to tackle the three elements of exposure head on. So let’s start with Aperture. Aperture is the size of the lens opening used when you are taking a photo. This basically means the bigger your photo, like a landscape picture, the more light you will need.

Settings-wise, F22 is very small while F1.4 is very wide open. This also affects your depth of field.
Next, ISO is your camera sensor’s sensitivity to available light. The brighter the available light, the more you can lower your ISO. However, as available light gets less and less, increasing the ISO allows more light to come in. Do keep in mind that the higher ISO you use, the greater the noise or fuzz there will be in the picture.

Image source: practisingsimplicity.com

Lastly, there’s shutter speed. Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open. The length of time that the shutter is open determines how much motion it can capture. High shutter speeds allow you to capture fast movements while low shutter speeds take in more light, making the photo blurry.

According to Vijaya Prakash Boggala, the best way of thinking about exposure is pretending the camera lens is your eye. Aperture is your eyelids, ISO is how your eyes react to light, and Shutter speed is your focus on an object.

In his spare time, Vijaya Prakash Boggala hones his photography skills by practicing action photography, slow shutter speed photography, and landscape photography. For more reads on photography, visit this page.