How to Set Your Camera Exposure Perfectly

Let’s start this article by going to the basics. What is exposure? Exposure is used when you want a certain amount of light to enter your camera. High exposure means that more light will enter the camera sensor and the picture will be brighter. Low exposure means that the resulted picture will be darker due to low light.

Light has a great impact on a photo. It can affect the quality of the photo as well. Even for professional photographers it can be hard to set camera exposure perfectly. So I have decided to help you in perfecting your exposure setting.

Exposure is a hurtle that even the most experienced photographers have a hard time jumping over. Even the most prominent photography courses omit it from the first lesson. Learning how to shoot goes much smoother if you learn how to set exposure perfectly. You can learn exposure settings easily and make up for missing it initially. So what influences exposure settings?

1.    ISO- ISO is very important when it comes to exposure. It is closely related to the nature of the sensor. ISO affects the way your camera produces photos. So higher the ISO, the brighter your photo. But you should remember that increasing ISO will also increase the noise in your photo. This will lower the quality of your photo. Setting your ISO highly depends on the setting in which you are shooting in.

2.    Aperture- Aperture is set to control how much light that enters the sensor. If we elaborate then aperture is the size of the opening that leads to the sensor. Aperture is measured by focal length. An f/11 aperture means that there is less light entering the sensor because the hole is small. You will get darker with high aperture. On the other hand f/1.2 setting lets more light through the opening towards the sensor.

3.    Shutter speed- Shutter speed is measured by fractions. The bigger the denominator the greater the shutter speed. Setting the exposure perfectly depends on which end of the spectrum your shutter speed is. For example- 1/200 means less light and 1/10 speed means more light.

How to set exposure?

The first step is to meter the camera. You want your image to be brighter? Decrease the aperture and shutter speed, but do increase the ISO.

You want your image to be darker? Then do the vice versa. Lowering the ISO and increasing the shutter speed and aperture should give u a darker picture.

You may have seen photography in full auto mode. That mode makes the camera take all the actions and your camera adjusts everything. We would advise you to use manual mode to learn.

If you half press the shoot button then you will hear a beep and the setting down. The camera will display the exact ISO, shutter and aperture that are set. A great indicator is ELI. To set your exposure perfectly you can use this exercise-

·       Pick a specific time of day, two-three times a week.

·       Select one outdoor and one indoor spot.

·       Interchange the settings and produce 100 photos per spot.

·       Have a notebook by your side, and record the settings

to know which exposure fits you best.

Problems People face when setting exposure

● if the light is decent, but not great, you should bump your ISO up. Therefore, you won't damage the shot and will retain the light you need.
● shooting moving people means that high shutter speed is mandatory. Setting it that way result in motion shots being devoid of blurs and remaining clear.
● when zooming, decrease the shutter speed and the ISO. Too much ISO means that the quality of the photo will be even worse.

To end on some final words pictures that are too bright require you to increase your shutter speed and aperture and reduce ISO. On the other hand increasing the ISO and decreasing the other two parameters will give you ideal exposure when pictures are too bright. Practice on manual mode and perfect your photography.