Camera settings

Hi guys

In todays post, I'll share with you some camera settings and tips. I just got myself a new camera, since my DSRL from 9 years ago, fell on the floor and broke down. I got a mirrorless one. It's the new generation of high end photocamera's. Since the system works completely different, I'm currently updating my photograpy skills and learning a lot. I thought it'd be fun to share with you the basics as well. I did know quite well how my previous camera worked and how I needed to adjust my settings but with this new one, it's still a challenge. So here are the basics you need to know on how to adjust your camera settings.

First of all, you need to know that there are 3 main settings to use on your camera. These are called the "shutter speed" the "aperture" and the "ISO value". It's all a bit technical and may seem like a lesson in physics but studying this will be worth it!

1) Shutter speed.

The shutter speed is marked on your camera with "stops". Like: stop 1/…

With the shutter speed you set how long the light falls on the camera sensor. The longer the time, the brighter the photo. It can be usefull to shoot in nature, like for waterfalls. It can also give cool effects to shot motion. You know the shots of the sea, where the sea seems a bit blurry and mystical? Well, these shots are done with a longer time to create the shot. The only problem can be that with longer shots, you get more motion blur. FOr longer shots, you'll need to be able to hold the camera very still. These shots in nature therefor are always done with a tripod. We don't want to have shots that are blurry, right?

If you want to shot super detailed waves from the sea, or shoot mud from a running horse, then go for super harp shots. This is done with shutter speed stop 1/1000. If you want longer motion shots, like the mystical waterfalls, you'll need a shutter speed of about 1/2. It's the best to do thse shots when the weather is not too bright. It' pretty impossible to do these shots with a lot of sunlight.

If you want your camera to focus on shutter speed, use the S mode.

Image source: Karl Taylor Education.

2) Aperture.

With the aperture setting, you create an opening in the camera lens that allows you to control how much light enters the camera sensor. The aperture setting on your camera is marked as an "f/" number. The F comes from "Depth of Field".

A large aperture (but a low F-number) gives a small depth of field and therefore a blurred background. You can use apeture to create a focus on your model only or even in macro photograpy. You can make the background totally blurry and the flower or other small object that you want to focus on, more detailed.

For a detailed shot, you can first set your camera on A (Aperture priority) and then use the lowest F- stop possible for your lense. This will be somewhere around f/2.8 or f/3.6.

If you want to shoot landscapes, you'll want everything to be visible in the shot, so you'll need a higher F number, like f/8.

Image source: Karl Taylor Education.

3) ISO value.

You can set the sensitivity of the camera sensor with the ISO value. The higher the ISO value, the less light you'll need to create shots. You can adjust high ISO settings, to shoot when it's dark outside. There is also one problem about high ISO values... Using high ISO's will also increase the chance of unsharpness like "grains".

I usually use ISO 100 to 300 to shoot when I'm outside. When it's dark outside and you want to shoot dark skies or dark city skylines, you can use ISO values higher than 1600. Always try to use a tripod or put your camera on some place that won't move like a wall. I never bring my tripods when I'm on vacation, it's just not easy to put all of this camera gear away while traveling. Especially on the beach or while hiking. So I use mostly a wall or just a super mini tripod that I can put on a wall or table.

Image source: Karl Taylor Education.

So for the shots that I make the most I use the following settings: My photo's are often "braidfies". I take shots of my hairstyles, in front of gorgeous backgrounds. I do like to shoot in the sun, since I want to have good weather on vacation, obviously. I don't want my background too blurry, since I want to show the view as well.

Shutter speed: fast shots, so no blurriness: 1/250sec.

Aperture: not much vague backgrounds: f/5.

ISO in the sun: 100.

Was this a bit helpful?

X Steph