Silly Camera Numbers
web.mit.edu
web.mit.edu
For film cameras, holding exposure time times f-stop constant does not produce the same image density. Exposure time for film is not straight photon integration, like it is for a CCD array. You can only trigger each film grain once, but new photons can repeatedly add electrons to a single CCD pixel. So there's what's called "reciprocity failure".[1]
Then you get an analogue NOT operation when printing the negative on the enlarger. Two negative processes make a positive.
Film photography is very interesting as it combines art with optics and chemistry. Just pure magic seeing the image fade into the paper when developing.
Vision3 50D was recently(for film) introduced in 2011, and I had amazing results with it. Super smooth with very good latitude.
In the past, 1/focal length was perfect advice. You can adjust this down very quite far if you have a lens or body with image stabilization, typically down to as far as 1/30 or even lower.
Also bodies get higher resolution, the amount of blur you can see goes up as well as you start sampling higher frequency movements of the camera body. You probably need 1/2 x focal length above 24MP, unless you have stabilization.
There are also different types of shutters, for example a leaf shutter in the lens vs. a focal plane shutter. Focal plane shutters can inject some shutter shock at lower speeds, where as leaf shutters don't have this effect and can be handheld to much lower speeds, I have gotten very sharp shots as low as 1/8th.
Finally, if your camera has a mirror or not also effects this, as the mirror swing imparts vibration as well.
Knowing exactly how the camera reacts at different speeds will let you tweak this rule a lot!
For anyone wanting to learn this more in detail I highly recommend the book "Understanding Exposure" by: Bryan Peterson.
My personal approach to taking handheld photos in manual mode using natural light is as follows:
1. Look at the scene and determine what the most important factor is. For example: * Do I need to freeze motion? Then I need to set a short shutter speed. * Is the image being taken in low light? Then I probably want to open the aperture and set my shutter speed as long as is suitable for what I can hold. * Do I need a large depth of field or to maximize sharpness? Then I need to set the aperture to a suitable value to achieve that.
2. After I consider the most important factor and set either shutter speed or aperture to a starting value, set the second most important factor using the same thought process.
3. Adjust the ISO so the image is exposed properly. Knowing your camera, is the ISO going to result in an acceptable image? If not, then go back to the first step and adjust your shutter speed and aperture to bring the ISO down to an acceptable value.
4. Take the photo and review.
Of course, this doesn't apply to every scenario but it generally is a good approach for the types of photos where the exposure settings are critical. If I'm shooting a landscape outdoors, then I'm probably starting off by setting ISO to 100 first and then the aperture to the sharpest value for the particular lens I'm using as I'm sure that the shutter speed will be acceptable regardless of what it ends up having to be or will be what drives me to use a smaller aperture.
N = f/A
A = f/N
Why those weird numbers in particular? As in the article, a 'stop' is a doubling or halving of the brightness (technically, 'illuminance') of the image produced by the lens. Since the amount of light that passes through an aperture is proportional to its area, which is in turn proportional to the square of its diameter, one stop corresponds to a sqrt(2) ~ 1.4 ratio between two aperture diameters. Hence, the standard scale of full f-stops is the powers of two and their geometric means:
f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, f/45, f/64
f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4/0, f/5.6, f/8.0, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, f/64
I wouldn't want this comment to be interpreted as "shooting in manual is superior", in fact I would suggest against it in almost all cases - the deeper understanding will help you use nearly any camera in existence.
Then you leave ISO on auto if it makes sense for the lighting conditions, or manually set it if needed.
Fun thing with modern cameras is that "iso" doesn't actually matter much at all. Typically you can just use one or two fixed iso settings for everything and adjust the exposure in post as needed. Keyword for reading more about this is "iso invariance".
I initially had a paragraph half written out in the comment you replied to detailing how my dad's new cameras perform extremely well at absurd (12800???) ISOs, which "iso invariance" would definitely explain.
My camera is an older Canon 5D MK1 which shoots mostly fine at 200 ISO and lower, and gets grainy quite fast at 400 ISO and above. If and when the photography bug bites me harder I'll probably upgrade to a slightly newer body aha.
In a tricky exposure situation, dial exposure compensation way down (-3 to -5 EV) and take the shot. You probably want a low-ish ISO selected too. Then in lightroom/whatever just crank the exposure slider up and fiddle with the levels & curves - easy way to not blow out your highlights.
I encourage new people to photography to try to be disciplined about learning how their camera changes as different settings. Get out of the tyranny of "auto" mode and try all the things. You may find it quite fun.
But for the kind of picture my phone can take, it frequently does a better job. I can tell going through my collection when I used the mirrorless immediately, because the result is subjectively different, but we're comparing quality equipment with good defaults with very small (nonetheless excellent) equipment with metric boatloads of machine learning applied.
Getting past this involves an immediate and very steep learning curve which I've only intellectually engaged with; the practice of adjusting the basic parameters consistently gives me worse results, and I haven't put in the time to get past that.
... for practice, learning, or stationary, long-lasting subjects.
Of course you want to get a good feel for the aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity so that when you see a beautiful bird about to take off for flight, or a butterfly touch down ever so momentarily, you aren't fumbling with settings, and you've already got a good sense of what settings will work.
Definitely agree though - many cameras have "priority" modes where you're really only changing the shutter speed or aperture, and it's still doing the rest automatically for you, so you can focus on whatever that one setting does, while also seeing what the smart camera tells you the other settings should be in those situations.
Early on, digital did have a problem with shutter lag--Sony even had a series of ads touting the fact that their camera was faster than others--but it's not a problem now especially with better cameras.
Except the time to sort through 300 photos after just an afternoon with your kids at the beach…
Depth of field is one of the more obvious things you control with the aperture. But another thing it impacts is sharpness. Depending on your lens, it likely is a little fuzzier wide open than it is stopped down a little. Basically, you are covering part of the lens and controlling the way it distorts the light a little. Wide open it diffuses the light a bit. And it will do so differently in different parts of the photo. Knowing how your lens performs under different conditions is something you need to explore through trial and error. Another thing it impacts is color and contract. Just how, depends on the lens. Some lenses have a clear optimum, others are better across a wider range of apertures. People spend a lot of money on glass to get these effects.
In the same way, the shutter speed is not just about controlling the amount of light it is also about motion and motion blur that can both mess up your photo or be something you use creatively. The best tip you can give a beginning photographer to not too slow. Your camera might be able to handle it and you might have steady hands. But stuff still moves in your scene and it will introduce blur.
Some types of photography you want to have fast shutter speeds to capture really crisp moving subjects (e.g. sports photography, moving kids). Even on a bright day you might want to shoot at higher ISOs just so you can shoot a little faster. A zoom lens stopped down focused on a fast moving subject will do a lot better if you can shoot at 1/2000s of a second rather than getting a blurry thing at 1/30th. But sometimes that kind of effect is what you want when shooting e.g. a static subject against a waterfall.
The ISO dial basically allows you to compensate for loss of light by pretty much multiplying the signal. This is something you can easily do in post as well if you are shooting raw. It just gives you more wiggle room with aperture and exposure. Of course the issue is that you end up boosting the noise along with that as well. More sensitive sensors can be pushed a little further for this. But mostly, lower is better in terms of noise. Basically, you pick the aperture and exposure that produce the effect you want and the iso control allows you to get away with it when that is pushing the limits a bit too far. With some cheaper cameras, you end up trading off noise against creative control. Easier to shoot at night with the lens wide open at a low shutter speed that still works hand held. But less chance of blurry photos if you shoot a bit faster at a higher iso.
Then there are different focal lengths that not only "zoom" in the subject but also change the perspective. Using a very wide or zoomed in perspective and compensating with your feet can produce very different photos even if your subject ends up being roughly the same in the picture.
If you have a mirrorless camera, you can use the viewfiender to review.
I tend to leave the rear screen on my camera turned off. It just wastes battery life, it's not usually useful for anything.
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p1000
For silly apertures, you want the Pinhole Pro Max.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/hands-on-thingyfys-pinhole-pro-ma...
https://www.telescope.com/Astrophotography/Astrophotography-...
Telescopes do tend to prefer specifying girth rather than length, though.
I see what you did here.
More on that subject https://photographylife.com/equivalence-also-includes-apertu...
I'd love to have a search engine that just searches writing like this.
The biggest mistake most people make is not filling the frame, because they are focused on the center. Checking the borders of the picture is a simple habit that can dramatically improve composition.
For a beginner I agree learning the intricacies of exposure may not be one of the most pressing concerns, or particularly relevant in many cases, but if someone wants to get more into the hobby for whatever reason (artistic or otherwise) it isn't a bad idea to start experimenting with exposure settings even if the results aren't initially good.