The Basics - Controlling Light - Exposure

The Basics - Controlling Light - Exposure

Photography is a triangle of settings for ISO (sensitivity), Shutter Speed, and Aperture. Each of them affects a different element of the triangle. Change one and it effects the others.

ISO controls how sensitive your camera is.
Shutter controls how long you expose the sensor to light.
Aperture controls how much of the available light comes to the shutter from outside the camera.

Establish simple systems to help you

Establish simple systems to help you

Following routines with simple systems means you're always ready to react the right way. That can be complex things like programming the custom buttons on your camera or it can mean really simple things like knowing at a glance if your battery is charged or not. This battery has a conveniently placed arrow which is visible through a window in it's case. If this arrow is visible I know the battery is charged, any other way I know it's not. How do i know? Because I put it in this way as a system of working when I take it off the charger.

How to photograph the sunset (or sunrise)

How to photograph the sunset (or sunrise)

How often do you see sunsets and sunrises on social media. All the time, nearly every day is the answer in my stream. In my opinion the splash of colour is nice, but its not enough, a sunset by itself is like having whiskey on the rocks with no whiskey. I always try to include some foreground interest to give the eye something to settle on and usually expose so that is a silhouette. At the same time I reduce the exposure of the sky by a stop or two with exposure compensation. Why? Because it makes the sky just that much more colourful and dramatic without any distracting bright patches and blowouts. Like any landscape I focus about 1/3 of the way into the scene and use a reasonable but not deep depth of field like f/6.3.

As always comments and discussion welcome.