The Aperture | The Shutter |  The ISO (soon)

Welcome back for the second part of the beginners guide to your camera series. This part will focus on the shutter speed and how it effects photographs and your flash. If you have not read the first part in the series I recommend you do so. I go over some of the basics of selecting modes on your camera. I also explain the aperture mode and how to best use it.

The Shutter Speed

The shutter mode on your camera is most often represented by the letter “S” or “Tv”. When using this mode you tell the camera a specific shutter speed to use and the camera does the rest. Often the shutter speed is displayed as a large whole number. You can think of this number as itself over 1. So if your camera is displaying 250, in reality it is 1/250 or two hundred fiftieth of a second. Unless you are shooting in a low light environment without a flash your shutter speed should be less than one second.

What does this mean specifically? This number is telling you the amount of time the shutter will be open during the exposure. The larger the number the less time the shutter will be open (1/60 of a second vs 1/800 of a second). This has several effect on your final photograph. First if your shutter is open longer the more light it will let in. This can lead to brighter photographs in very dark environments. However we also know that the aperture has the same effect. If the aperture is open wider it lets more light in as well.

The shutter speed effects your photographs in one other way as well. It can allow you to better “stop time”. If you have a fast moving subject and you want the photograph to be sharp then you should use a fast shutter speed. With the shutter open for a shorter amount of time, your camera is exposed to less movement of your subject. A good example of this is to take two photographs of moving water (like a waterfall or from a hose) outside where you can get plenty of light. User shutter priority mode and take one photo with a slow shutter (around 1/30) and another one with a fast shutter (around 1/1000). Assuming it is a sunny day you should get two similarly exposed photos but with very different looks of the water.

The same idea of motion blur in your subjects can be translated into motion blur from camera shake. The same way a slow shutter speed can create blur in fast moving subjects, it can also create blur from you moving the camera while the shutter is open. Camera shake blur most often happens when you try and take a photo indoors without a flash. Normal room lighting is not adequate enough for your camera to use a fast enough shutter speed for hand holding. Some people have a steady hand and can hold the camera very still so the specific speed at which you start to see camera shake blur will be different from others.

The Flash

This leads to my final thought on shutter speed. You may have noticed when you connect a flash or use a flash with your camera you are limited to a maximum shutter speed. This is called your camera’s maximum flash sync speed. I am going to get a little technical for a second. The shutter on most digital cameras are created with two collapsible dividers, one on each side of the digital sensor. The shutter speed, up to your max flash sync speed, is created by the first divider opening and exposing the sensor for the correct amount of time and the second divider closing just before the time as elapsed. This allows the whole sensor to be exposed at one time. Speeds faster than the max sync speed are created by the first divider opening but before it finishes the second divider starts to close on it’s tail. This allows the sensor to be exposed for the correct amount of time however the whole sensor is never exposed at the same. Instead only the slit between the dividers exposes the sensor as it passes.

Why does this matter when using a flash? Well your flash bulb is only lit up for a very small amount of time. So this means that if you use a speed above your max flash sync the light from the flash will only be exposed on part of the sensor as the shutters move across (or not at all depending on if it fires to soon or late). This also means that when using a flash changing the shutter speed does not effect the brightness of the flash. If you use 1/60 or 1/200 the same amount of light will be put out from the flash. However you can use your aperture to effect the brightness of your flash, because the aperture constricts the opening of light to the sensor.

I could talk about flashes a whole lot more but that is for another article. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I hope this helped you with the basic understanding of shutter speed.

Years past after the break.

A few more after the break.

The Aperture | The Shutter |  The ISO (soon)

This guide is directed towards people who know very little about cameras. Maybe you own a small point and shoot but do not know what all the manual settings mean. Or you want to know what the numbers are that flash up right before you take a photograph. This is for you. I plan to talk a little about the aperture in this guide and will talk about the shutter speed and sensitivity in future guides. Expect this is be very basic and nothing ground breaking. I will try and keep everything in plain English and include a lot of pictures.

Camera Modes

There are three basic parts that are set or measured when you take a picture.

• The aperture or F-Stop
• The Shutter Speed
• The Sensitivity or ISO

Some or all of these settings can be determined for you. It all depends on which mode your camera is set in.

Full auto mode will help you pick out the best settings depending on the amount of light that is available. Aperture mode (depicted with an “A” or “Av”) lets you set the aperture size and then picks the best shutter speed. Shutter mode (depicted with an “S” or “Tv”) lets you set the shutter speed and then picks the best aperture. Your camera may also have a Priority Mode (depicted with a “P”). In this mode the camera will pick a combination of shutter speed and aperture size for you, however you are able to select other equal combinations depending on if you need more of one value.

The Aperture or F-Stop

Let’s break the different parts down by starting with the one that confuses the most people, the aperture. In a camera lens the aperture is the device that closes in order to block (or stop) the light from getting into the camera. The aperture does not block all of the light and in some cases does not block much light at all. Consider this when you are outside on a sunny day and there is a lot of light around. It may be too much light. Just like the pupils in your eyes get smaller when you are outside the aperture of the camera gets smaller to manage the amount of light. The aperture is the device or object inside the camera lens. The size of the hole left when the aperture is closed is called the F-Stop. F-Stops are funny things and just like with wire gauges the smaller the number, the larger the hole that is left when the aperture is closed (the more light that is let through) and vise-versa.

F-Stops can be expressed in several different ways: f/8, f-8, or 1:8. Also each step on the scale is equal to double or half the amount of light. Example, the opening of F/8 will let in double the amount of light than F/11 and F/4 will let in half the amount of light than F/2.8 (remembering that the smaller number means larger hole and more light). With this in mind you might hear someone saying that a specific camera is quicker or that a lens is quicker. What this normally means is that it has a lower minimum F-Stop value. Not all cameras can obtain every F-Stop value. Quicker just means that you can use a low F-Stop value and thus a higher Shutter Speed. (I will talk about this in the next guide)

You can imagine that if you are shooting photos in a setting with a small amount of light (indoors) you will require a smaller F-Stop number. When out side or while using a flash you will require a larger F-Stop number. The F-Stop can also have an effect on how much a camera or lens costs. It costs more to manufacture a lens that is efficient enough to carry the light clearly to the camera when the aperture is barely closed. This is especially true for zoom or telephoto lenses.

I want to talk quickly about lenses and how they relate to the F-Stop. Not all lenses in point and shoot cameras are equal even though they all fit into very small spaces. Most point and shoot cameras or cheaper removable lenses will have a variable F-Stop. This means that as you zoom the lens in and out the minimum F-Stop will change. As you zoom out the minimum F-stop will increase and as you zoom in the minimum F-Stop will decrease. You should be aware of this when in a setting that requires a low F-Stop number. Sometimes taking a few steps toward you subject can eliminate the need to zoom and giving you a lower F-Stop. Also when you are going to buy and camera you should take a look at the F-Stop. Typically getting a lens with a number around 2 or 2.8 is the best. This will allow you to take “faster” photographs in low light situations.

Please leave your questions or comments. There will be other guides to follow this one about the Shutter Speed and the Sensitivity.

Is this the next big thing to hit compact digital cameras or is Nikon just taking a shot in the dark? Is this how Nikon will differ themselves from other companies like Canon and Fuji? I wonder if other companies are hard at work right now coming up with their own version of the projector camera. Whether it is a big hit or not I do believe that this is a feature that not many people saw coming. I also think we will not know how people will use or react to having the projector until it is in the reviewers hands for a few weeks. Nikon is hedging its bets by not making the camera  just a one hit projector wonder. It has all the good stats of an excellent camera, 12.1 megapixels from a 1/2.3″ CCD, 5x image stabilizing zoom lens and 2.7″ LCD screen. Check out the video after the break.