The Basics

The most basic, and also the most important, part of photography is manual control. I’m sure a lot of you have tried using a big-kid camera (called an SLR for Single Lens Reflex, I’ll explain more about this later). They can seem overwhelming the first time you try to shoot with them, what with all the buttons, dials, and switches. Really though, they’re not all that complicated once you know what you’re doing.

There are three main things you need to know to operate a manual camera: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture (also known as f-stop)

ISO:

ISO is the sensitivity of the film or sensor, depending on whether you’re shooting film or digital. With film, ISO is related to the size of each individual grain of silver halide (the chemical that makes film photography possible); the bigger the grain, the more sensitive to light it is. This means that Films with a high ISO will react to light more quickly, allowing you to shoot in good light very quickly. It’s especially handy for stopping motion in a picture. High ISO also means that you can shoot at normal speed in very dark conditions, since the film will react to the light more quickly than one of a lower ISO. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of having a larger film grain is that your final images will come out, well…grainy. Sometimes this can be a nice photographic effect, but personally, I  find it to be a nuisance most of the time.

In digital cameras, ISO is how sensitive the sensor is to light. The rules are pretty much the same for digital as they are for film. The nice thing about digital, however, is that instead of having a whole roll of film that all has to be shot at the same ISO, you have the ability to change the ISO with each shot. This means that digital is a much more versatile medium when it comes to something like going from a sunny day in the park to a dimly lit concert indoors, since you don’t have to change film. It should be noted, also, that while digital cameras do experience graininess at higher ISOs, this problem can be effectively eliminated by purchasing a camera with a larger sensor. The larger the sensor, the less grain you will get in your photographs.

ISO values can range from around 6 to 6400, depending on the camera.

Shutter Speed:

This one is fairly self explanatory. Shutter speed is the amount of time that the film/sensor is exposed to light. The longer the shutter is open, the more light you let in. While this makes the picture brighter, you run the risk of getting motion blur from very long exposures. Essentially, if you have the shutter open for two seconds, and the subject of the picture moves after one second, the film/sensor will record all the light information for where the person was the first second, as well as the second, creating a blurred double image that, quite frankly, looks like crap. Of course, like anything else in photography, this effect can be utilized to create very interesting images (I’ll talk about this later, when I deal with issues like light drawing).

Shutter speeds can range from 1/6400 of a second down to, well, as long as you want. Many cameras have a “B” setting, for bulb. This allows you to hold the shutter open as long as you want.

and finally…

Aperture:

Aperture, or f-stop, is the width of the physical opening in the camera lens. This is controlled by an iris that lets in more or less light, depending on how you set it. The tricky part of aperture, however, is that as the numbers go up, the size of the opening goes down. More light (a lower f-stop) will obviously make the picture brighter, but it also has a secondary effect: depth of field. Depth of field is the term used to refer to what is in focus in the picture. A shallow depth of field will produce a plane that is as small as a few inches (say, everything from 10 feet away to ten feet and two inches), whereas a deep depth of field can put everything into focus. This is especially nice for portrait and macro photography, when you only want a person’s face, or a single flower in focus.

So there you have it ladies and gents. These three essentials are the fundamental principles of manual photography. If you can master these, you’ll spend a lot less time trying to figure out why all your shots are so dark that your grandmother looks like a blurry lizard beast, and more time enjoying the sweet art of photography.

Peace Out