Photography ISO Chart

ISO Chart If you’re looking to learn more about ISO and how it effects your exposure, or the look of your image, please check out our detailed article: Understanding ISO as part of our Photography 101 series. You Might Also Like F-Stop Chart Shutter Speed Chart Note that, unlike f-stop and shutter speed, ISO values are never provided in half-stop increments. Your camera will either allow you to choose ISO in one-stop, or third-stop increments. Also note that towards the bottom of the chart, some of the third-stop options are listed as n/a. Currently, there are no cameras on the market that allow the …

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Photogrpahy Shutter Speed Chart

Shutter Speed Chart If you’re looking to learn more about shutter speed, please check out our detailed article: Understanding Shutter Speed as part of our Photography 101 series. You Might Also Like Shutter Speeds Guidelines Remember: Use this table as a starting point, but by no means is anything set in stone. Don’t let it hold back creativity! Think You Know It All? This short downloadable quiz has been designed to help you learn more about the basics of exposure, and the three pillars of the exposure triangle. Are you ready for manual mode on your camera? Take the test!

F-Stop Chart

F-Stop Chart If you’re looking to learn more about F-Stops and how it effects your exposure and the look of your image, please check out our detailed article: Understanding F-Stop as part of our Photography 101 series. You Might Also Like Shutter Speed Chart ISO Chart Think You Know It All? This short downloadable quiz has been designed to help you learn more about the basics of exposure, and the three pillars of the exposure triangle. Are you ready for manual mode on your camera? Take the test!

Understanding Aperture

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Bathing grizzly bear @ f/5.6

What Is Aperture?

An aperture is simply defined as an opening, hole or gap.  In photographic terms, we use it to describe the hole in the middle of the lens that allows light to pass from the front of the lens, through the lens barrel and onto the camera’s sensor.  Varying the size of this aperture has a dramatic effect on the look of your photo and along with shutter speed and ISO, it’s also part of our exposure triangle.  Not only does the aperture affect the brightness of our photos, but it also controls how blurry our background is.

Aperture Size – F-Stop

Aperture settings are referred to as f-numbers and individual settings are f-stops (eg. f/8).  The larger the f-number, the smaller the aperture is.  For example, an f-stop of f/32 would be considered a very small aperture, whereas an f-stop of f/1.4 would be considered a very large aperture (see diagram below).  Different lenses have different maximum and minimum f-stops.  Most of the time, people do not care what the minimum aperture of a lens is, but they almost always care what the maximum aperture is.  We’ll get into the reason for this as we progress through the article.

f-stop range

Just like the retina of a human eye, the aperture of a lens is controlling how much light passes through it.

When talking about camera settings, it’s common for people to use both aperture and f-stop. For example, you might hear someone ask: “What f-stop are you using?” or “What is your aperture setting?” Both of these mean exactly the same thing and both of those questions would be answered with an f-number. eg. “f/2.8”

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