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The Basics of Manual Image Exposure in Eight Minutes

Chris Gampat
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01/02/2015
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Last Updated on 01/02/2015 by Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony A7 Mk II first impressions (25 of 29)ISO 4001-50 sec at f - 2.2

EVery photographer has to start somewhere; and when it comes to shooting photos every instructor will tell you to shoot in manual mode. The reason for this is because it gives you the most creative control. When combining this control with your creative ideas, you’ll be able to actually get the photo idea from your head into pixels from the camera.

The problem: learning manual controls can be difficult. But this video from CamCrunch should be able to help you get the basics down in eight minutes. The host talks about aperture, shutter speed and ISO control that provide the absolute basics.

As many of the more advanced shooters will tell you:

– Apertures (f-stop) controls your depth of field and how much light hits the sensor at its most basic. When a flash is included, it also controls how much light from the flash hits the sensor.

– Shutter speeds control how long the light hits the sensor, and therefore motion.

– ISO controls how sensitive all the other parameters are.

To supplement these basics presented in the video, we’ve included images after the jump that help to illustrate the basics of Manual Image Exposure.

Aperture

ISO 100, 1/80th at f1.4 At f1.4, the aperture is very shallow and therefore very little will be in focus. ISO 100 was used to get the most detail since the lower the ISO is, the more details you will get and 1/80th was used to ensure stability when hand holding the lens in the cold.
ISO 100, 1/80th at f1.4 At f1.4, the aperture is very shallow and therefore very little will be in focus. ISO 100 was used to get the most detail since the lower the ISO is, the more details you will get and 1/80th was used to ensure stability when hand holding the lens in the cold.
At f/16, almost the complete frame from fore- to background is sharp. But more importantly, since less light travels through the lens, I could expose the image longer (1/20 sec. at ISO 100) and capture the flow of the water.
At f/16, almost the complete frame from fore- to background is sharp. But more importantly, since less light travels through the lens, I could expose the image longer (1/20 sec. at ISO 100) and capture the flow of the water.

Shutter Speed

F8, 1/6th of a second and ISO 250. F8 was used to ensure that when Jordana was moving about that I'd get that area in focus. 1/6th was used to capture the motion of the hula hoops.
F8, 1/6th of a second and ISO 250. F8 was used to ensure that when Jordana was moving about that I’d get that area in focus. 1/6th was used to capture the motion of the hula hoops.
1/1250th of a second, f2.8 iso 400. The shutter speed is so fast because the depth of field is so shallow. So to ensure that the right amount of light hit the sensor, I needed to shoot at a faster shutter speed.
1/1250th of a second, f2.8 iso 400. The shutter speed is so fast because the depth of field is so shallow. So to ensure that the right amount of light hit the sensor, I needed to shoot at a faster shutter speed.

ISO

f1.4, 1/500th of a second at IO 6400. Notice how at a higher ISO setting that there is much more grain to the image.
f1.4, 1/500th of a second at IO 6400. Notice how at a higher ISO setting that there is much more grain to the image. We needed to shoot at this ISO setting because of the low light in the bookstore.
ISO 100, 1/2000h, f2.5 ISO 100 gave us the least amount of light sensitivity, which we needed when shooting during the daytime because there is so much light available to begin with.
ISO 100, 1/2000h, f2.5 ISO 100 gave us the least amount of light sensitivity, which we needed when shooting during the daytime because there is so much light available to begin with.
aperture Basics camcrunch f-stop iso Manual Image Exposure Shutter Speed video
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.