*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. Find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com
Struggling with setting your camera exposure? This tutorial might be exactly what you need! Pro photographer David Bergman from AdoramaTV will talk about adjusting settings to get the right exposure for your images.
Mr. Bergman states: “I’m a big proponent of shooting in manual mode, and my recommendation has always been to just start somewhere with your settings, and adjust until it looks how you want. There are three settings you can change, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and if you adjust two or three at once, it can get confusing, because you don’t know how each one is affecting your image. But which one of those do you change first?”
“There are usually one or two settings that are more important to the image you’re trying to make. So you want to lock those in first, and then adjust the other settings that have less of an impact. So for example, if we’re outdoors and want to make a picture with a shallow depth of field, then the most important setting is the aperture. I want to shoot wide open, so I’ll set this lens at f/4 and won’t change it.”
“Next, I want my ISO to be relatively low to give me the least amount of noise, I have a bit more leeway with this setting, because I really won’t see much of a difference if I’m shooting at 200, 400 or even it’s 640. I’ll go with 400 in this case, and lock it in.”
“Now all I have to worry about is my shutter speed, and that’s the one I’m going to move around. At this point unless I get into really slow shutter speeds, all it will affect is my exposure. Shooting at 250th of a second or 2000th of a second, will freeze my subject completely either way, so I can safely adjust that setting, until I get the exact right exposure.”
“Of course every situation is different, to make a panning shot, I need a slow shutter speed. So I would set that first, and then pick a low ISO for quality, that leaves me only with the aperture, which is less important to the image, because in a panning shot it won’t look too much different whether I’m at 5.6, or f/11.”
“At the end of the day, you want to keep things simple for yourself by locking in two of the three settings, and then adjust only the third until everything looks just how you want it.”
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Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV: