Digital Wedding Photography For Dummies

Getting Yourself Up to Speed on Exposure and Camera Settings

After you’ve amassed your photography gear, the next step to getting yourself ready to shoot weddings is making sure you have the knowledge and skills needed to actually take good photos! In this section, I go over the basics of exposure and different camera settings you should know.

Exploring the basics of exposure

Exposure deals with the amount of light that is permitted to fall on your sensor. That light is regulated by three things in your camera: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

Examining aperture

Aperture refers to the size of the opening in your lens through which the light travels to the sensor. The larger the opening, the more light comes through. The smaller the opening, the less light that comes through. The sizes of the aperture are called f-stops and are expressed as f/number, such as f/1.2, f/2.8, f/4, f/16, f/22.

Here’s where the numbers can get a little confusing: A larger f-stop number, like f/22, means a smaller aperture, whereas a small f-stop number, like f/1.2, is a very large aperture (check out Figure 2-8 for an illustration). Try to remember, larger number = less light; smaller number = more light.

Illustration by Wiley, Composition Services Graphics

Figure 2-8: A larger f-stop number means a smaller ...