If you are a photographer who believes that photography is not just about clicking with the camera, but more about being able to master it, then this article would help. Digital cameras have made it possible for everyone to click pictures anywhere, anytime, with ease. However, there are still some people like DavidPaul Doyle Naturwise who understand the art of creating good photographs, and they know all the settings that can make a picture better. The following article is an attempt to list out these settings for novice photographers:
- ISO:
ISO or film speed determines how sensitive your camera sensor is to light, and hence it’s used for setting the overall exposure of the image. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the sensor is to light and vice versa. But, this comes at a price; with an increase in sensitivity of, your camera shutter speed decreases which results in blurry pictures.
- Aperture:
Aperture is another setting that determines how much light enters into your camera sensor – shallow depth of field (shallow focus) or deep depth of field (more of the picture is sharp). It’s measured on an f-stop scale where smaller numbers represent larger openings that lets more light pass through, resulting in greater exposure, whereas the larger numbers mean smaller opening resulting in a lesser amount of light being captured by the sensor producing underexposed pictures.
- Shutter Speed:
Shutter speed is probably the most critical setting for a photographer because this setting determines whether a photo is going to be sharp or not. For any given scene, there exists an optimal shutter speed that will capture the brightest yet sharpest image. If you use longer exposure (slow shutter), then more of light enters into your camera sensor, and if you shorten it (by using a faster shutter), less amount of light enters, resulting in darker images.
- White Balance:
This helps you set up the color tone of your picture accurately. If shooting on a cloudy day sky appears white, while shooting on a sunny day, it appears bluish – correct white balance settings make sure colors appear natural. It’s measured on the Kelvin scale, which ranges from 2000K (more reddish) to 10000K (more bluish).
- Focus:
This setting helps you determine at what distance the camera needs to be focused for better picture. This is measured on a focal length scale where a smaller number means your subject doesn’t have to be too close while larger numbers mean your subject needs to be closer.
- Flash:
Flash not only helps illuminate dark areas of the scene but also controls the ambient light with respect to overall exposure, which gives pictures a professional look – this is particularly useful if shooting indoors without a tripod. It’s also used along with slow shutter speed when photographing candle-light or fireworks scenes in low light condition because if not used, they will appear blurred due to lack of sufficient light reaching your camera sensor resulting in underexposed images.
- Mode:
Your camera has several predefined shooting modes which help you capture a picture by adjusting one or more settings automatically to achieve the optimum result – you can explore them later after taking pictures to get a better understanding of what these shooting modes do. For example, if your mode is set on AUTO, then your camera will adjust everything from ISO, aperture to shutter speed itself, whereas in ‘sports’ mode, your camera will increase the shutter speed while decreasing other settings resulting in greater chances of capturing a sharp image without blur due to movement.
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