Manual Exposure Tips for Photography

PART 3 of 3: Are you curious how I get my manual exposure? Here are the three (an optional fourth) steps to getting my manual exposure. 1️⃣ set your aperture first. Your f-stop settingIs the main thing that determines how your picture looks. Do you wanna blurry background in a shallow depth of field? Then go for a wide open aperture, or a smaller number F stop. Do you need more things in focus on your photographing a group picture perhaps? Then go for a smaller Aperture or a higher number on your f-stop setting. 2️⃣ secondly set the shutter speed according to how fast your subject may be moving. I know that many cameras have in body stabilization but that only helps limit the movement of the camera, not the movement of your subject. If you’re photographing children or perhaps a bride and groom walking back down the aisle, you’re going to want to have your shutter speed set to at least 250th of a second, if not more. If you don’t have to worry about that then great, set your shutter speed as low as you can given any camera shake scenarios and depending on what lens you have on. The longer lens you have on the higher you’ll want your shutter set since you notice camera shake more with the longer lens. 3️⃣ Lastly set your ISO so that the exposure is what you want it to be and not too dark or not too light. Typically you do want your ISO as low as possible to avoid any grain, but with cameras being able to handle noise so well these days, plus noise reduction software, I tend to set my ISO last. 4️⃣ if you want to go for extra credit, dial in your Kelvin temperature manually to get the exact warmness or coolness you want in the tone of your image. I used to set my camera manually all the time, but since the Canon R5 came out I’ve been using auto white balance with white tone priority because it’s just so darn good, and it’s one less thing to think about if I’m shooting fast. TELL ME below if you set your exposure differently - would love to hear how others use their cameras!