Exposures, ISOs, Apertures and Shutter Speeds, Oh My! v2.10.

docx Page 1

Exposures, ISOs, Apertures and
Shutter Speeds, Oh My!

An introduction to Exposure, the foundation
for the Art of Photography.
This is the very first in a series of articles on Photography Basics. Although this is not the final
article on Exposure, ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed, I would like readers to understand at least
the basic principles of exposure before getting into lengthy discussions on the Principles of the Art
and Science of Photography. I'll try to explain 'Exposure', and then you can use this information to
do further studying on your own.
I usually recommend to someone that asks basic questions on photography, to buy a book that
covers most topics youll need to understand. You can then use the book to guide you along. Even
a cheap used book works well because you can use the book as a reference and guide to do
more research on the Internet. Some people suggest just using the Internet as a free source, but
then you would not have a structured framework to learn with.
Exposure is defined as such, In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall
on the photographic medium (photographic film in a film camera or the image sensor in a digital
camera) during the process of taking a photograph.
1

What we are concerned about here is Exposure with your digital camera, which simply means
how bright or how dark, your final image will be.
The four factors that determine exposure are the following:
1 - Available light
This you have no control over in most settings. It is possible to add light or use a flash, which
would increase the available light, but for this discussion we will only refer to natural available
light. It may be a grey day or a sunny day or you may be in the shade... the lighting always varies.


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2 - ISO
This translates into the light sensitivity of your cameras sensor. In the good old days of film,
different chemicals and dyes were used to make the film. Some films were more sensitive to light
than others. The more sensitive the film, the less light was required to give you a proper
exposure. Today, with digital cameras it is basically the same. By using different sensor designs
they can make the sensor more or less sensitive to light based on the ISO setting used.
The sensitivity of a film was measured in ISO (or in DIN or ASA before ISO became a standard).
On a digital camera the ISO is a measurement of a digital camera's imaging sensor's sensitivity to
light based on the same ISO standards as film. This sensitivity can be adjusted using the ISO
setting.
(Diagram A)
Standard ISO Settings
Less Sensitive 50 100 200 400 800 1600 3200 More Sensitive


Numbering for ISO on a digital camera is usually ISO 100 to ISO 1600. ISO 100 is the least
sensitive but will give you the best quality results. The higher the sensitivity, the more noise or
stray pixels that will be visible into the final image. Generally ISOs of 100 to 400 are
recommended.
Note: In Diagram A, each ISO lets in half as much light as the next number (Left to Right).
Remember that.
3 - Aperture
For most beginner photographers, F-Stops or Apertures seems to be the most difficult concept to
get a handle on. The F-Stop is a number that is derived from a mathematical formula that
corresponds to the amount of light that is let in through the lens, based on the size of the hole or
opening in the lens. The hole is usually made up of several blades in a diaphragm that can
actually change from a tiny hole to a hole as big as the optics of the lens will allow.

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This 'hole is actually called the Aperture and it is measured in F-Stops. This is where it can get
confusing. The logic here is simple, the bigger the hole, the more light comes into the camera.
Simple. However, the F-Stop numbering system works backwards because of the formula. So,
f/1.4 is a big hole (more light) and f/22 is a small hole (less light).


f/1.4 f/2.0 f/2.8 f/4.0


f/5.6 f/8.0 f/11 f/16
Tip: If you think of the numbers as fractions, i.e. 1/1.4 versus 1/16, you will remember which
opening is larger or smaller.

APERTURE

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Here is a scale of Apertures (Diagram B) - Starting with the largest Aperture on the left, so the
most light to the least amount of light on the right.
(Diagram B)
Standard Full Apertures (F-Stops)
More Light f/1 f/1.4 f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/22 f/32 Less Light
(Faster Lens) (Slower Lens)

Lenses with large apertures (small F-Stops) are considered fast lenses because they allow more
light into the sensor which allows for the use of faster shutter speeds. Lens apertures are fixed in
numbers and so are limited. Typically, a lens will be f/2.8 to perhaps f/22 which would give you a
total of only six full usable F-Stops.
Note: Each F-Stop lets in twice (or half) as much light as the next full F-Stop. Remember that.
So, using the aperture or F-Stops you can control how much light comes into the camera. The F-
Stops also control what is called Depth-Of-Field. I will save discussing this Depth-Of-Field thing
which is not related to exposure until another day.
What adds to the confusion here is that when someone talks about aperture, are they talking
about the hole size (the aperture) or the aperture number (the F-Stop Number)?
One give away is the term lower and smaller. A lower aperture is a reference to the F-Stop
number. A smaller aperture is a reference to the aperture or size of the hole unless they specify a
smaller F-Stop. But, if they say bigger, you would not know what they were talking about. They
could be talking about a bigger hole or bigger F-Stop number? When discussing aperture it is very
important to state what parameter you are discussing. Photographers should always state the
parameter, a bigger opening, a bigger aperture or a smaller F-Stop, all three of which allow
more light into the camera.


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4 - Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is measured in seconds and it controls how long the cameras sensor is exposed to
light. Shutter speed is also a very simple concept. Unlike the inverse results of the F-Stop number
vs. the size of the aperture, shutter speeds are easy to understand. 1 second, 2 seconds and so
on, these would be considered long exposures. On the shorter side you would have 1/60
th
of a
second, 1/125
th
of a second and so on.
Here is a shutter speed scale in seconds starting with the slowest shutter speed (allows the
most amount of light into the camera) to the fastest shutter speed (left to right).
(Diagram D)
Standard Full Shutter Speeds (In Seconds)
More Light 1 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 Less Light

Note: Each shutter speed allows twice as much light as the next number. Remember that also!
In the end, this also controls how much light goes into the camera just like an aperture, but in this
case it is based on time. This time setting or shutter speed can determine if a photo is blurry or
not. If you used a 5 second exposure, could you sit perfectly still for 5 full seconds?? This blur
caused by you moving the camera is called camera shake. Your shutter speed also controls
"motion blur" or rather blur caused by moving objects.
Earlier I mentioned that there are about six usable full F-Stops. The usable shutter speeds for
hand held photography ranges from about 1/30
th
of a second to about 1/1000 of a second which
also yields about six settings. This can be increased with the use of a tripod with extended shutter
speeds of 1/15
th
of a second, 1/8
th
of a second and so on to exposures as long as 15 minutes or
more.


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Back to Exposure
So given a specific scene, say a house sparrow on a branch. Based on
1) the available light and
2) the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO 200 for this example)
your camera would automatically calculate the correct exposure settings (the aperture and shutter
speed to use to get a properly exposed photo).

To calculate this exposure, your camera doesn't know it's looking at a bird on a branch, but rather
thinks it is looking at a whole scene that is perfectly 18% gray
1
. Why 18% gray? Why not 20%
gray...or 15% gray? Because it has been determined that if the light in an average scene is
averaged out, it will produce an 18% gray tone. So film - color and B/W - is formulated to produce
proper exposure when it is exposed to produce an 18% gray tone.
So, for this example lets say the camera suggests using an F-Stop of f/8 and a shutter speed of
1/125
th
of a second. Those are the settings you would need to use to get a correct exposure or a
properly exposed photograph. Not too light and not too dark.
This leaves you two controls. You could leave the shutter speed at 1/125
th
second and change the
aperture. Changing the aperture to f/4, a bigger hole would let in more light and would lighten your
photo. An aperture of f/11 or f/16 would make the hole smaller and would let in less light making
your photo darker.

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Conversely, leaving the aperture at f/8 and changing the shutter speed, you could darken the
picture by using a faster shutter speed (less light) or brighten it by using a slower shutter speed
(more light).
Total Control
This is where the fun comes in and where you as the photographer and artist can control what is
going on. Remember I suggested that the aperture controls the Depth-Of-Field and that the
shutter speed can control "motion blur"? Well, the camera lets you change aperture and shutter
speed settings while ALWAYS making things perfectly exposed by compensating the exposure
with equivalent changes in apertures, shutter speeds or ISOs.
Back to our example. If f/8 at 1/125th of a second is a correct exposure, then we could keep the
exposure (the total amount of light going into the camera) the same by changing the shutter speed
higher or lower, and then adjusting the Aperture to make sure we have the same amount of light in
the end.
Note: What is nice is that full F-Stops and full shutter speeds each allow half as much (or twice as
much) light as previous or next numbers. (You remembered this right?) Because every exposure
setting, aperture, shutter speed and ISO work in factors of 1/2 or 2, it makes it very easy to make
changes to one setting and then to compensate the exposure with another setting.
This Table below shows a correct exposure of f/8 and 1/125
th
of a second in gray. Using any
combination from any column would result in the same exposure.
(Diagram E)

Aperture 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22
Shutter Speed 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15
So with our example of f/8 at 1/125
th
of a second, we could change the settings to f/5.6 (twice as
much light) and to 1/250
th
of a second (half as much light) and still have a perfectly exposed scene
(or bird in this case). By making aperture changes and then appropriate corresponding shutter
speed changes to keep the exposure correct you can control the apertures and shutter speeds
you want so you have full creative control of photographic elements such as focus, blur, Depth-Of-
Field, bokeh, panning, lighting levels and so on.

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To further control the light you could also change your ISO settings higher or lower. ISO settings
are also in Full Stops and so an ISO of 200 allows twice as much light as ISO 100. Again though
remember that higher ISOs create more noise and can adversely affect the quality of your
images.
This then lays the foundation for the Art of Photography.
Technical Foot Notes:
1
Exposure is measured in Lux Seconds and can be computed from Exposure Value (EV) and Scene Luminance.
2
Modern day digital camera sensors and light meters are factory calibrated using ANSI luminance standards that are roughly equivalent to the
reflectance of 12% gray. This is roughly half a stop off of 18%.
2009 Francois Cleroux
[Link]

(Version 2.10 - J uly 2009)



































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