amir 2000 photography | Photo Blog | The settings: Aperture, Shutter Speed and Focus

Aperture: Where the light passes on its way through the lens. The photographer controls the size of it. It is mark always with f/number, when the higher the number there is less light coming through.
Look out − small numbers mean big apertures, and big numbers mean small apertures!
(For example, f2.8 is bigger than f16.)

Shutter Speed: The duration of exposing the sensor (or film) to light from the lens. The photographer controls these. Also here − the higher the number there is less light coming through.
Shutter Speeds are given in seconds − typically in fractions of seconds.

Focus: The distance at which the lens makes the subject look sharp and clear. The photographer controls this distance.
Focusing nearer will sharpen the close leaf and blur the distant one, focusing further will do the contrary.
Try to use manual focusing and you will discover that you getting better results.
A switch on the lens or the camera body sets the camera to "autofocus " (it finds the focus point automatically) or to "manual focus " (you finding the focus point by yourself).

All buttons and dials on your camera are designed to control just these 3 things.
Modern cameras have automatic controls, which can be faster and easier than doing it all by yourself.
Nevertheless, no camera can tell how you want the photograph to look − studying how to work everything manually will allow you to be more creative and get the results that you want!

Aperture: Half of " Exposure "


(The image is from shortcourses.com)

Shutter Speed: The Other Half of "Exposure "


(The image is from shortcourses.com)

Exposure Time: Aperture and Shutter Speed Combined
As you take a photograph with your camera, two important things are happening:
The aperture snaps down to your chosen size, and the shutter clicks open for exactly as long as you told it to.
All in the blink of an eye!
The combination of the two is what is called an "exposure ":
exposing the digital sensor (or film) to just the right amount of light to make the photograph appear not too light and not too dark.
Remember the effects that different apertures and shutter speeds will create!

The ISO setting changes the sensor's sensitivity to light, and is typically set to 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 or 3200 and with newer DSLR even get 51200 and higher.
As usual, each higher ISO is one stop "faster " than the last, and requires half as much light to obtain as is exposure.
For instance, if your camera's light meter suggested "1/60s at f8 " for ISO 100, it might suggest "1/125s at f8 " or "1/60s at f11 " for ISO 200.


Please note: some of the material is based on article from:Short-Courses.com

Thank you,
Amir