The technical aspect of photography can be a challenging field to navigate.
Before you get your knickers in a twist, here’s a simple and straightforward visual to help ease your understanding of three fundamental elements–aperture, shutter speed and ISO–that affect image quality.
The first row focuses on aperture. This regulates the amount of light reaching your camera lens. It is measured by f-stops. The larger the f-stop is, the smaller the aperture. For example, if you want to capture an image in a very bright environment, opt for a smaller aperture to manage photo brightness.
Aperture is also used to achieve the bokeh effect–a soft out-of-focus background. An image captured with a larger aperture, for example a small f-stop such as f/1.4, will result in a more out-of focus background as compared to one taken with a smaller aperture, for example f/32.
The second row relates to shutter speed. This controls the amount of time the camera shutter remains open. A fast shutter speed, for example 1/1000, freezes motion and allows less light to reach the camera sensor. Slow shutter speeds are more suitable for night photography or in low-light environments.
Last but not least is ISO, which dictates the camera’s sensitivity to light. In low-light environments, a higher ISO will be more suitable. The downside, however, is that the image will appear more grainy.
You can read more about these three components here.
[via Lifehack and New Mobile Life]