DSLR: How To
Shoot Manually
Many people buy descent DSLR cameras
only to shoot in automatic because they don't understand how to shoot manually.
When you shoot in automatic, the camera selects the settings. The shot may be underexposed
or overexposed. Usually the camera doesn't give a proper reading in automatic.
To correct this problem, you need to be able to take control over your photos.
This means shooting in manual. Shooting in manual mode isn't as complicated as
one would think. I am going to explain how to do this in a simple manner.
There are three aspects to shooting
manually; ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed.
ISO: Is the setting that sets the sensitivity of
your sensor to light and the amount of light needed to get a good exposure. The
lower the ISO the less sensitive the sensor is to light allowing more light to
hit the sensor. For instance on a bright sunny day you want a lower ISO. The
higher the ISO the more sensitive the sensor is allowing you to shoot in low
light conditions. Keep in mind that the higher the ISO the more noise will show
up in your photos. Noise is the grainy, pixilated red and blue dots you see in
the shadows of the photo. They ruin your shot.
On your camera your ISO scale would
look something similar to this.
50 100 200 400
800 1600 3200 6400
You will notice that as the number
increases or decreases, it doubles or "halves." The numbers are
called "stops." Increasing the ISO by one stop means that you have
doubled the sensitivity of the sensor as well as the amount of light the sensor
can capture. For example, let's say you make the jump from ISO 200 to ISO 400.
You have doubled the sensitivity of the sensor giving it double the amount of
light it can capture.
On the other hand, if you decrease
the ISO by one stop, the ISO is cut in half. You have decreased the amount of
light and desensitized your sensor by half the amount. So if you are at ISO 400
and have dropped down a stop to ISO 200, you have decreased the sensitivity of
your sensor and the amount of light in half. That being said, as you increase
or decrease the ISO, you will have to increase or decrease the aperture and shutter
speed by the same amount. I will explain more on this later on.
Shutter
Speed: Shutter speed is the speed is the
amount of time the shutter opens and closes to allow the light to hit the
sensor. The longer it stays open, the
more light is allowed to hit the sensor. The quicker it opens and shuts, the
less light is allowed to hit the sensor.
Shutter speed is not only a part of getting a good exposure or photo.
It's also a part of getting creative control over your photos. As you begin to
understand the element of shutter speed and how it relates to getting an
exposure, you can move from a simple snapshot into a creative photograph.
Shutter speeds are measured in both
fractions of a second and in full seconds. Depending on the kind of camera you
have, speeds can range from 1/8000 of a second to a full 30 second exposure.
The shutter speeds are-as follows. On your camera these numbers will be shown
as a single number. Instead of showing 1/250, it will just show 250.
1/8000, 1/4000,
1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4,
8, 16, 30
Just like your ISO, you will notice
that as you increase the speed of the shutter by one stop, the time is cut in
half. As you move one stop slower, the shutter speed doubles. For instance the
shutter speeds on the left are faster than the shutter speeds on the right.
Let's say you start with a shutter speed of 1/125 and you move the shutter
speed to 1/250, you have caused the shutter to move twice as fast. If you start
at 1/250 and you drop down to 1/125 the time will be twice as slow.
So how do you put this into
practice? For example, you are shooting your child's soccer game, or you are
shooting your two year old running around and having fun. You need to freeze
the action. You will have to choose a faster shutter speed on the left of the
scale. The faster the shutter speed the easier it is to freeze the action.
You are on vacation in Hawaii. You
come to a beautiful waterfall and you want one of those shots that have the
motion of the falling water blurred. You have to slow down your shutter speed
and keep everything in focus. Choose a
speed on the left of the scale. Keep in mind that anything slower than 1/60,
you need a tripod to get the shot.
Aperture: The final element in getting a good exposure
is your aperture. What is the aperture? Your aperture is also called your
"f-stop." It is the hole in your lens that determines how far your
shutter opens. The larger the aperture,
the more light is allowed to hit the sensor o your camera, and the smaller the
aperture, the less the light will hit the sensor.
Aperture is measured in
f-stops. Like in your ISO and your
shutter speed, increasing or making your aperture bigger by one stop doubles
the amount of light hitting the sensor. If you decrease the aperture by one
stop, you are cutting your current amount of light in half.
Putting it simply,
Larger the number = the
smaller the aperture = less light = decreased exposure
Smaller the number = the
larger the aperture = more light = increased exposure
Your aperture scale is as
follows.
f/1.4 … f/2 …
f/2.8 … f/4 … f/5.6 … f/8 …
f/11 … f/16 … f/22 … f/32
Another thing that comes with
selecting an aperture is depth of field. Ever see one of those photos where you
have your subject in focus and the background blown out? This is called a
shallow depth of field. The bigger the aperture (the numbers on the left of the
scale), the more of a shallow depth of field you will have. If you are shooting
a landscape or you are taking a shot where you want the background in focus you
want a deeper depth of field. To get this, select an f-stop on the right.
Putting It All
Together
So now you know about the ISO,
shutter speed, and aperture of your camera. How do you take all of this and
come out with a good photograph? Let's quickly review.
ISO:
Your sensor's sensitivity to light.
Shutter
Speed: How quick your shutter opens and closes to allow more light or less
light.
Aperture:
The maximum size of the opening in the lens.
These three elements of exposure are
not separate. To maintain the same exposure in a photograph, any change in one
of the elements (ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture,) must be met or compensated for
in an opposite change in any one of the two other elements. For example, let's
say you are shooting a subject outdoors. You have a correct exposure that has
your ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, in sync. You decide to move the shoot
indoors. Your ISO is going to change as well as the Shutter Speed and possibly
the Aperture. Here are six points to remember when shooting manually.
1.
With each full stop increase in the ISO (Doubles the amount of light) Increase
the shutter speed by one full stop or decrease the aperture one full stop.
2.
With a decrease in ISO for a full stop (Halves the amount of light) Decrease
the shutter speed a full stop or increase the Aperture one full stop.
3. With a full stop increase in shutter speed,
increase the aperture one full stop or increase the ISO one full stop.
4. With a full stop decrease in shutter speed,
decrease the aperture one full stop or decrease the ISO one full stop.
5.
With a full stop increase in aperture, increase the shutter speed or the ISO
one full stop.
6.
With a full stop decrease in aperture, decrease the shutter speed or the ISO
one full stop.
Okay I'm going to show you a
different way of seeing this. Keep in mind that as the numbers in on the ISO
scale go to the right, the more sensitive the sensor is allowing less light.
When they go to the left of the ISO scale the sensor is less sensitive. When we
look at the shutter speed, the numbers to the left are the faster speeds and
the numbers on the right, the slower ones. As for the apertures, the numbers on
the left are the bigger apertures and the smaller ones are to the right.
ISO Scale
50 100 200 400
800 1600 3200 6400
Shutter Speed
1/8000, 1/4000,
1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4,
8, 16,
Aperture Scale
f/1.4
… f/2 … f/2.8 … f/4 …
f/5.6 … f/8 … f/11 … f/16 …
f/22 … f/32
Let's say we have an ISO of 200 with
a shutter speed of 1/125 and an f-stop of f/5.6. (ISO 200, 1/125 @ f/5.6) and
you want to isolate the background. So you decide to drop your f-stop to 2.8,
which would be a two stop increase in the size of your aperture. Since you are
not moving your ISO, you will move your shutter speed two stops faster. So you
are starting at 1/125. You will move your shutter speed to 1/500.
Now let's go a different setting of
ISO 400, 1/250@ f/4. You want a deeper depth of field showing more detail in
the background. In this case you will
decrease your f-stop. So, we are going to move from f/4 to f/11. That is a
three stop difference. Your shutter speed will change too. Move the shutter
speed down to 1/30.
The point is no matter how many
stops you move your shutter speed; you have to move your f-stop the same amount
to compensate for the shutter speed. The faster the shutter speed, the bigger
the aperture needs to be to get a clean shot. The opposite is the same. The
smaller the aperture, the slower the shutter speed needs to be.
As far as ISO is concerned here are
some general guidelines. When shooting on a bright sunny day, you want your ISO
between 100-400. If you are shooting indoors you want to have the ISO at 800.
In low light conditions shoot between 1600-3200. One way to make sure you have
the right ISO is to do some bracketing. What you do is take a few shots going
above your current ISO and then take a few shots going below it. Then review
the shots to see which one is the best. Only shoot 2-3 stops above or below
your current ISO.
One last way to make manual shooting
easier is your light meter in your viewfinder. Every DSLR has a light meter in
the viewfinder. It looks something similar to this.
-2..1..0..1..+2
The numbers on the left part of the
0 is underexposure. The right part of the 0 is overexposure. Let's say you have
a good exposure at ISO 100, 1/60 @f/8.
100 1/60 f/8
-2..1..0..1..+2
Now we are in a darker area and ISO
100 is not going to work so we up our ISO to 400. Now that we are capturing
more light, the light meter has changed and we are now overexposed by two
stops.
400 160 f/8
-2..1..0..1..+2
To compensate for this, we need to
increase the shutter speed. So we move the shutter speed to 1/250.
400 250 f/8
-2..1..0..1..+2
BAM!! There it is. We have a correct
exposure for the shot at hand. The light is registering in the middle right on
the 0. But wait. We want a deeper depth of field and bring in the back ground.
So what we do is we take the f/8 and move it to f/16. This underexposes our
shot.
400 250 f/16
-2..1..0..1..+2
The aperture and shutter speed are
good. The speed is enough to allow enough light in and the aperture gives the
detail we want in the image. The problem is the ISO. So what we do is we bump
up the ISO two stops since it is underexposed by that amount. The new ISO is
now 1600.
1600 250 f/16
-2..1..0..1..+2
There she is, a beautiful exposure
shooting manually. So now you know how to shoot manually and how to take
creative control over your photographs.
You see how the ISO, shutter speed, and the aperture work together to
give you the best photo possible. You wanted to be a photographer, so you spent
your money on getting a DSLR. Make the most out of every shot you take! GOOD
LUCK!!!
