Incomplete Photography Basics

ISO Comparisons

ISO number is the sensitivity of the sensor, so higher numbers mean the sensor will be more sensitive to light.

The following show the difference that ISO settings will have on your photos.

To keep the exposure the same, Each photo has had the exposure-time altered.

Photos were taken in a very dimly lit room, hence the long exposure times and settings are stated below (in order)

1.6 seconds, 100iso

0.4 seconds, 400iso

0.1 seconds, 1,600iso

1/40th second, 6,400iso

1/160th second, 25,600iso

All photos use mildly not-that-speedy aperture of f5

You can Click the image above for a full-size version (warning, quite big!)
ISO100
ISO400
ISO1600
ISO6400
ISO25600

Appature Comparisons

Appature is the most complicated part of the of photography to understand technicaly, as it effects your pictures in multiple ways.

Changing the appature effects:

The ammount of the image that is in focus (the length of scene which is more or less in focus than the rest of the scene)
Light that reaches through the lens in to the sensor
Enhances or reduces the sharpness of the image (most of the time, some lenses handle low and high appatures better than others)

The appature indicates the size of the hole created by the appature blades inside the lens. In phones, this number is fixed, however in compact and larger cameras, this number can be changed. The larger the number, the smaller the hole created by the appature blades, and the less light gets to the sensor. This means for low light and almost all in-door photography, you want this value as small as possible. For example, on my kit lens, at 18mm zoom, the lowest appature it is capable of is f3.5.

However, appature also effects the ammount of the image in focus (which will be shown below)

A lower appature number (oftenly refered to as "faster") will reduce the ammount of the image that is in focus. The best way to explain this is to see the images below.

The following show the difference that appature will have on your photos.

To keep the exposure the same, Each photo has had the exposure-time altered.

Settings are stated below (in order)

f3.5, 1/30th seconds, 160iso

f5.6, 1/20th seconds, 250iso

f8, 0.1 seconds, 250iso

f11, 0.2 seconds, 250iso

f16, 1/2 second, 200iso

f22, 1 second, 200iso

You can Click the image above for a full-size version (warning, quite big!)
f3.5
f5.6
f8
f11
f16
f22

Shutter Speed Comparisons

The Exposure usualy relates to the time the cameras sensor (or film if you're old school) is exposed to light. This means the longer the time value, the more light hits the sensor, so the brighter the image.

The following show the difference that changing the shutter speed will have on your photos.

To keep the exposure the same, Each photo has had the ISO value altered. The first photo is darker anyway because my camera can't handle ISO values above 128,000.

Photos were taken in an averagley lit room, settings are stated below (in order)

1/4000th seconds (0.25ms), 12,800iso

1/2000th seconds, (0.5ms), 12,800iso

1/1000th seconds, (1ms), 6,400iso

1/500th seconds, (2ms), 5,000iso

1/250th seconds, (4ms), 2,500iso

1/125th seconds, (8ms), 1,250iso

1/60th seconds, (16.67ms), 640iso

1/30th seconds, (33.33ms), 320iso

1/15th seconds, (66.67ms), 160iso

All photos use mildly a-little-bit-speedy aperture of f4

You can Click the image above for a full-size version (warning, quite big!)
1/4000
1/2000
1/1000 seconds
1/500 seconds
1/250 seconds
1/125 seconds
1/60 seconds
1/30 seconds
1/15 seconds