The Art of Seeing

The human eye is the perfect camera, it can adapt to instant shifts in light and can focus near and far almost instantly. It can even see in the dark as long as it gets the time to adjust, and can grab minute gradients in color.

The camera is nowhere near that, even the most expensive and advanced ones. It does have the camera body as the brain, where all the processing takes place, and the lens which serves as its eyes to the world. But even with all its processing power, it is still the human brain who will have to teach it how to see. The camera makes decisions based on levels of light. It does not know that you are shooting a sunset, but it knows that there is a light source in there with gradients of light mixed in.

So let's teach the camera how to see then, by understanding exposure, as it is the main building block of photography. I will not get into too much detail on it, because there are hundreds of articles written on them and books as well. Just Look at it as a guide that you can study in more detail later on.

Tip: A lot of people would ask me what camera to buy. my answer is I would rather invest in a decent cheap body and put the money towards a nice lens that you can afford. Because no matter how intelligent the brain is, if the eyes vision is blurred then it will only record a blurred image. A good lens is sharp, has great color and contrast and focuses fast.

The building blocks of correct exposure

Aperture:

Think of aperture as the pupil of your eye. It grows bigger or smaller depending on the light that it gets. That is why doctors shine a light on our eye to see if it reacts to light. So in the camera this applies to the opening of the lens. If you want more light to get to your film or sensor then you want it to grow bigger, a larger aperture and if you want less light to shine through then use a smaller aperture. Notice that when you look at the sun directly you squint because the light is too bright.

Aperture can be confusing because of the numbering system that they use. For example if you want a larger opening or aperture you generally set it to a smaller number like say F1.8 - f2.8. If you want to squint and need a smaller aperture, the number becomes bigger say f11 - f-22.

Tip: This can be confusing at first, so grab your camera set it to manual mode, pick a shutter speed of say 1/100 of a sec and take a picture of an object with different apertures. Observe how it affects your photo. Make sure that the flash is off when you are testing this out.

Aperture has a unique effect on the photo also not just control of light; it also creates Depth of Field .


Shutter Speed:

Shutter speed to put it simply controls the amount of time the shutter closes for the sensor to absorb light or it could also stop motion. For example if you want to control motion, you could slow a waterfall to a nice silky veil using a slow shutter speed or stop a racing car in a fraction of a second say 1/2000th. You could use a slow shutter speed too, to get beautiful night shots using lights from buildings, lampposts or even candlelight because a slower shutter speed will let the sensor absorb more light.

Tip: To practice set your camera to manual mode, select an aperture say f4 and adjust the shutter speed and take a photo. Observe how it affects the light on the image. Practice this on a moving object too and observe the results. Make sure that the flash is off when you are testing this out.

Exposure:

Exposure is the combination of both the aperture and the shutter speed. This is where you almost have total control of the light. Mix and match aperture and shutter speed and observe the results. Again exposure is an extensive topic, read more on it and practice, practice, practice.

Here is a good article on exposure if you want to get deep into it.
Exposure Basics