Understanding Your Camera's Exposure Settings

Breaking away from the automatic setting dependency does not need to be as daunting as it may initially appear. The key to developing an understanding how to take better photographs in the manual setting is to learn hoe to balance the exposure settings on your camera. Once you learn how the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings are interrelated, you will on your way to shooting full-time in manual mode.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed setting you your camera dictates the level of detail you are able to capture on a single frame. Shutter speed is usually measured from 30 seconds to fractions of a second all the way up to 1000th of a second. It is necessary to have a fast shutter speed when taking photographs of moving objects, such as race cars and airplanes. A shot taken at 1/2500th of a second can clearly capture a helicopter rotor in mid flight. However, capture the same helicopter at a slower speed, let's say about 1/250th of a second an all you will capture is a blur. Many SLR cameras have an additional setting known as "bulb," which is indicated by the letter "B" on the shutter speed selector. Bulb mode allows the photographer to maintain an open shutter as long as the shutter release button is depressed (unless the batteries die first). This mode allows the photographer to use a shutter release remote or cable to capture long exposures, such as star trails or streaks of light from passing cars.

The shutter speed not only dictates the level of clarity for a moving object, but it also has a direct influence on the exposure. As the shutter speed is increased, the amount of light that is allowed to enter the film, or sensor, is decreased. During periods of increased light, this usually poses very little trouble for the photographer. However, as the available light decreases, the time needed to properly expose the shot increases. Oftentimes, a flash can compensate by increasing the amount of available light while the strobe simulates a stop in the action. Of course, since we are shooting in manual mode, we have a few options available to us, such as adjusting the aperture and increasing the ISO setting.

Aperture

The aperture setting on an SLR camera dictates the amount of light that is allowed to enter the camera. Technically, the aperture settings on a film camera and the aperture settings on a digital camera function identically. However, there are some differences. The aperture settings on a film camera refers to a physical device that operates similar to the way an iris controls the amount of light that is allowed to enter an eye. As the aperture (or iris) is opened, more light is allowed to enter the back of the lens (pupil) and strike the film (optic nerve). However, digital cameras do not have a physical device that operates in this manner, rather the aperture settings are controlled by a combination of the lens characteristics and the camera's ability to process the light.

The aperture settings are indicated by a series of numbers that refer the quantity of light entering a camera; these numbers are known as "f-stops." Generally, the aperture range is dictated by the quality of the lens. For instance, when shopping for an SLR lens, you may see two lenses of equal focal length, but different f-stops. The lens with the lower f-stop will normally be more expensive due to the enhanced light sensitivity.

The aperture settings allow more light to enter the camera as the f-stop numbers are decreased. Inversely, the amount of light entering the camera is decreased as the f-stop numbers are increased. We can use the aperture to compensate for changes made to the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is set to a high speed, then we can increase the aperture settings to allow more light to enter the camera. Likewise, we can decrease the amount of light by closing the aperture and reducing the shutter speed.

ISO

Before the days of digital photography, the term "film speed" was used interchangeably with the ISO grade of the film. As the ISO grade was increased, so was the film's sensitivity to light. The ability to increased the film sensitivity allowed a photographer to take photographs in low-light situations without dependency on axillary lighting, such as flash. Of course, there is always a trade-off when compensating for a shortfall. This light sensitivity trade-off came at the expense of an effect known as film grain, commonly referred to as "noise" in the digital world. Film noise, or grain, can be easily identified by specs of light, or red and blue dots scattered throughout the print.

Since digital cameras do not use film, the ISO refers to the sensor's sensitivity grade. As we increase the amount of ISO, the digital camera requires less light, which translates to having the ability to offset the aperture and shutter speed. For instance, if you want to take an action shot on an overcast day without setting the aperture wide-open, you can increase the ISO setting while maintaining a fast shutter speed. Most digital SLR cameras have advanced technology that compensates for noise which was a problem with earlier models.

There is a fine line between the relationship between shutter speed, aperture settings, and ISO sensitivity. However, with practice and experience with your camera, you will learn how to best work with the available light to produce professional shots every time. Although no two cameras operate identically, understanding the principle relationships will bring you to shooting like a professional in no time.

You'll learn even more with Proud Photography - one of the best online photography schools available today at http://www.proudphotography.com/

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Scanning Photos? The Best Scanner Settings

Everyone has a photo scanner these days. Most of us will slap an old photo or document on the glass from time to time - and then kind of just hope for the best. Finally, here are the settings - simply explained - for getting what you need from your scanner.

So, you've fired up the machine, you have laid down your image on the scanner glass - what now?

Umm, can you back up just a sec? The glass. I don't know about you, but the glass on my scanner gets all kinds of dust and smears on it. So best to give it a bit of a wipe with a cloth and maybe Windex. If you have a can of air - blow the dust off the glass too. Check the photo for dust too while you are at it (but don't spray it with anything whatever you do!)

OK. The photo is back on the glass and you're thinking that this is a bigger job than you imagined. Calm down - it will all be over in a jiffy. Because, there is really only one setting that you need to worry about and that's resolution - or dots per inch (or "dpi"). This is important because dpi (or ppi - "pixels per inch") sets both the quality and size of your image (I am going to use "dpi, but read "dpi or ppi").

Scanner resolution: 96 dpi or 300 dpi
Your scanner should have a setting for "resolution" and it should give you some choices either in dpi ("dots per inch") or ppi ("pixels per inch') - for all practical purposes they are the same thing. Your choice - depending on your scanner - will be something between 50 and 10,000 dpi. That narrows it down eh?

The choice you make will depend on whether you intend to use your pictures on computer screens and monitors; or if you will want to print them. Your average PC has a default resolution of 96 dpi, and print requires 300 dpi. So use these settings for those uses. If you are going to email or post the images, scan at 96 dpi. If you will want to print, scan at 300 dpi.

(Why 96 dpi for screens but 300 dpi for print? Because of the way computer screens are back-lit and normal viewing distances for computer work, you can get away with less dots. In short, the greater the viewing distance, the less dots you need. Normal viewing distance for reading is pretty close and there is no back light; so you need 300 dpi for print.)

Picture size: moving off 96 and 300
Scanning at 96 or 300 works great for most situations. But not all.

For example, what if your picture is really small? Let's say you have an old passport photo - sized 1" x 1.5". And let's say you want to email it to a cousin, but you may want to print it later. You scan at 300 just like the article said. You will have plenty of resolution to print it. But will be the same size as the original - really small.

If you want to boost the size of your image, increase the dpi setting on your scanner. Just do some simple math to work out what the setting should be. If you would like that old passport photo to be 4" x 6" when printed, then scan at 1200 dpi.

(Get it? Multiply every inch of your original photo by the scanner resolution to get the final size.)

Scanning images for video
A lot of TV and video media use 72 dpi. But I would ignore that fact when scanning photos for a video project. If you are editing photos into a video editing timeline (as I often do in my life story videos) then the program will take care of any necessary resolution adjustments. Just make sure that you keep in mind that the standard definition video picture frame is 720 pixels wide, and that HD video is 1920 pixels wide. Any image you use for standard definition video or HD should at least be as wide as the picture frame - and wider if you plan to zoom in.

Resolution for scanning negatives
Calculate your scanner resolution settings in the same way you would a photograph. If it is a 35mm negative (around 1" x 1.5") then you will want to scan at a minimum 1200 (makes a print 4" x 6") - and 2400 is better (and 4000 is even better - but your file size is getting pretty big at this point). The larger the negative, the lower you can go - just ask yourself will it be used on the computer or printed - then do the math.

All those other settings

Your scanner will probably have all kinds of other widgets and what-nots. If you have an editing program, then you are probably better off leaving them all unchecked and doing your fixing in your editing program.

If you are not going to edit in a photo program, then there is little harm in checking the "unsharp" box (it actually makes the photo sharper - go figure).

A word about old photos
Most old photos have a lot more information than you can see. In a lot of cases, the old photo was printed in a sandwich with the original negative. There is often a ton of information in them and they will repay a scan at a high resolution.

If you involved in a genealogy or a family history project then you will be handling a lot of old photos. And you will probably notice that many of the older images - those that were taken and processed before the color revolution - are really pretty good. I do a lot of photo restoration associated with family history and life story video projects and am constantly surprised by how early - and how well - the black and white photo technology was perfected. And I am often shocked - when the image is carefully scanned and restored - how much fresh detail is revealed. Sometimes you discover new people in the shot! So really crank up the resolution on those old images and see who you can discover in the detail.

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