What I learned about camera exposure and camera modes.

One thing I learned is that I don’t collect to little or too much of pictures. Another thing is aperture controls the area over which light can enter your camera. Also shutter speed controls the duration of the exposure. Another is that ISO speed controls the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor to a given amount of light. Aperture affects depth of field, and shutter speed affects motion blur and ISO speed affects image noise. “Shutter speed” and “exposure time” refer to the same concept, where a faster shutter speed means a shorter exposure time. A camera’s aperture setting controls the area over which light can pass through your camera lens.  It is specified in terms of an f-stop value, which can at times be counterintuitive, because the area of the opening increases as the f-stop decreases. When someone says they are “stopping down” or “opening up” their lens, they are referring to increasing and decreasing the f-stop value, respectively. photographers just memorize the f-stop numbers that correspond to each doubling/halving of light.  A camera’s aperture setting is what determines a photo’s depth of field (the range of distance over which objects appear in sharp focus). The ISO speed determines how sensitive the camera is to incoming light.  ISO speed is usually only increased from its minimum value if the desired aperture and shutter speed aren’t otherwise obtainable. Some of the above modes may also control camera settings which are unrelated to exposure, although this varies from camera to camera. The range of values may also vary from camera to camera (or lens to lens). With waterfalls and other creative shots, motion blur is sometimes desirable, but for most other shots this is avoided. Shutter speed is a powerful tool for freezing or exaggerating the appearance of motion. In photography, the exposure settings of aperture, shutter speed and ISO speed are analogous to the width, time and quantity discussed above. Furthermore, just as the rate of rainfall was beyond your control above, so too is natural light for a photographer. Shutter speed values are not always possible in increments of exactly double or half another shutter speed, but they’re always close enough that the difference is negligible.

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