How to Take Properly Exposed Photographs

I’ve been taking photographs since 2016. As of 2020, I’ve made it a point to take at least one photo every day. Naturally, I’ve been able to develop a system for ensuring that I get properly exposed photos consistently.

I decided that an article like this would have saved the younger version of myself a lot of time and headache. This article was written with a blend of field experience and information given to me by other great photographers.

I’ll start by explaining the three settings you need to worry about when switching your camera to “manual” mode:

• Shutter Speed

• Aperture

• ISO

Rule of Thumb: Adjust these settings in this exact order!

Shutter Speed

It’s the setting that has a fraction in between two numbers (1/250 or 1/50 for example).

Before tweaking this setting, ask yourself: “Is my subject still?”

If your subject is moving (flying, walking, driving by, etc..) then you’re going to want to use a high shutter speed which forces the camera’s shutter to open and close very quickly, which will eliminate motion blur. For moving subjects, I like to use a shutter speed of 1/125 - 1/250.

Examples of a high shutter speed (1/500) “freezing” a subject in motion:

Now, if you were to try and photograph a moving subject with a low shutter speed (1/50 for example), motion blur will be noticeable. Here are some examples of moving subjects photographed with a low shutter speed (1/30 for example), where motion blur will be noticeable:

Lower shutter speeds are great to use on still subjects because you don't have to worry about motion blur showing up in your photograph. 

Rule of thumb: Don't shoot lower than 1/50 when shooting handheld. If you must, consider using a tripod, or else risk camera shake (blur).

Remember that lower shutter speeds (1/50 for ex.) also mean that more light is being let into the camera. You'll notice that higher shutter speeds (1/500 for ex.) darken the image naturally because the camera's shutter is open for a shorter period of time, which means less light is being absorbed by the camera!

Aperture (F-Stop)

Aperture is the setting that has an “f” before a number (f2.8, f11, f16, for example). Aperture controls the depth of field of your camera.

Before tweaking this setting, ask yourself: How large is my focus area?

If you wanted to photograph a landscape for instance, you would most likely want the entire environment to be in focus. So using a smaller/narrower aperture (f16) would be ideal to capture everything in focus.

Look at these photos for reference:

If you wanted to photograph a person for example and disregard the focus of the background, you could shoot with a larger aperture (f2.8) and your subject will be the only object in focus.

Here are some examples of a large aperture isolating a subject:

Shooting with a larger aperture means more light is being let into the camera - utilize this in dark environments like night time.

Aperture is a complex topic and there are many different rules you can learn about online such as the “Sunny 16 rule” that I suggest learning about, however, I will not be going any more in-depth about aperture in this article.

ISO

It's the setting with numbers that generally range from 80-6400 on most DSLR and mirrorless cameras. ISO is your camera's sensitivity to light pertaining to your camera's film or digital sensor. In basic terms, it will brighten and darken your photo. The higher the ISO, the brighter your image. However, the higher the ISO, the more noise (grain) that will be introduced in your photo - it's not aesthetic grain either!

To keep your photos clean, follow this Rule of Thumb: Keep your ISO as low as possible, while still ensuring your photo your subject is adequately bright.

Always adjust ISO last, after you've tweaked Shutter Speed and Aperture!

TLDR

1. Shutter Speed - Is my subject moving? If so, use a high shutter speed to freeze the motion (1/250 for ex)

2. Aperture - Do I want a shallow or wide depth of field?

3. ISO - Keep it as low as possible while maintaining correct exposure.

Thanks for reading! If you’re curious to see more examples of these rules in practice, check out my photography page here. I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, subscribe to my newsletter to ensure you don’t miss the next one!